Researcher ORCID Identifier
0009-0006-8954-9498
Graduation Year
2025
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Media Studies
Second Department
Politics and International Relations
Reader 1
Elizabeth Affuso
Reader 2
Carlin Wing
Reader 3
Mar Golub
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
2025 Cassidy M Bensko
Abstract
The convergence of corporate technology and subversive political expression is not new. Canva, like Xerox, is but another made-for-the-office technological innovation employed to political ends. Its ease-of-use has made it a staple tool for students, office workers, event planners, and political organizers alike. However, it is easy to use because it eliminates the need for creative decision-making, empowering users to quickly and easily produce designs that all look the same. This paper asks: Is the homogenization of D.I.Y. political posters, a medium that has historically been characterized by design elements that are as subversive as the politics they represent, indicative of our over-reliance on corporate technology as the mediator of subcultural political life? Drawing upon “social movement culture” objects from Xerox to the Web 2.0 era (the period of the internet characterized by networks and user-generated content), I explore how and where political expression and corporate technologies have coiled and crashed, producing not only new media objects but also new questions about how we mediate politics in physical and digital publics and where we might go from here.
Recommended Citation
Bensko, Cassidy, "FINDING FUTURES: REFUSING CANVA AND THE HOMOGENIZATION OF THE D.I.Y. POLITICAL POST(ER)" (2025). Scripps Senior Theses. 2664.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/2664
