What is Fact? What is Fiction? Media Critic Virginia Heffernan Reframes the Digital Argument

No one sees the truth and the Internet like Virginia Heffernan. Online since she was a child in the ‘70s, Heffernan is a Harvard Ph.D. whose book examining digital culture, “Magic and Loss: The Internet As Art ” was called “An illuminating guide to the internet” by the Wall Street Journal.

Heffernan’s a contributing editor for Wired, frequently writes for The LA Times, The Atlantic, and the NY Times, and hosts the podcast This is Critical which fans call “my drug of choice” and “a joy to listen to.” This week she joins Media Roundtable to talk about her career, the state of culture, and how the internet has changed life as we know it. 

For Heffernan, advertising thrives on the blurring of lines between fact and fiction (that’s why ads try so hard to sound like the unpaid content that surrounds them). Brands can drive action by hypnotizing the audience because they don’t know what is true. But Heffernen argues, your brand will do better by meeting your audience in a playful space with ads that are clearly meant to entertain and engage a “willing suspension of disbelief.

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