University of Central Florida STARS Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 2017 Digital Dissonance: Horror Cultures in the Age of Convergent Technologies Daniel Powell University of Central Florida Part of the Other Film and Media Studies Commons Find similar works at: https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd University of Central Florida Libraries http://library.ucf.edu This Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access) is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019 by an authorized administrator of STARS. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. STARS Citation Powell, Daniel, "Digital Dissonance: Horror Cultures in the Age of Convergent Technologies" (2017). Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2004-2019. 5482. https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/5482 DIGITAL DISSONANCE: HORROR CULTURES IN THE AGE OF CONVERGENT TECHNOLOGIES by DANIEL POWELL M.A. Portland State University, 2002 B.S. Linfield College, 1999 A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Texts & Technology in the College of Arts and Humanities at the University of Central Florida Orlando, Florida Spring Term 2017 Major Professor: Rudy McDaniel © 2017 Daniel Powell ii ABSTRACT The first two decades of the new millennium have witnessed an abundance of change in the areas of textual production, digital communication, and our collective engagement with the Internet. This study explores these changes, which have yielded both positive and negative cultural and developmental outcomes, as products of digital dissonance. Dissonance is characterized by the disruptive consequences inherent in technology’s incursion into the print publication cultures of the twentieth century, the explosion in social-media interaction that is changing the complexion of human contact, and our expanding reliance on the World Wide Web for negotiating commerce, culture, and communication.