Name
Victoria (Tori) Marchiony

Pronouns
she/her

RPI Email
marchv@rpi.edu

Hometown, State, and/or Country
Lower Merion, PA

 

Undergraduate and/or Additional Advanced Degrees

Undergraduate Institution
Temple University

Undergraduate Major
Journalism

 

RPI Degree Program Information

Current Degree Program
Communication and Rhetoric, Ph.D.

Faculty Advisor
Corrine Jones

 

Biography and Research

Area of Research/Interest:
digital media studies; platform studies; internet culture and online communities; media criticism

Biography
Tori is a PhD student whose research examines how knowledge and culture circulate online, and how platform affordances shape our collective understanding of what's true or meaningful. Her current project explores how AI-driven search overviews surface and reinforce vernacular knowledge. Previous work analyzed how toxic fan communities on Reddit discursively construct a shared narrative about their targets.

Before entering academia, Tori spent more than a decade as a professional media maker, contributing as a writer and executive producer on projects including the Emmy award-winning arts series Articulate with Jim Cotter, The Philadelphia Orchestra's HEARTogether Podcast, and Why America? with Leeja Miller. She graduated summa cum laude from Temple University's journalism program, where she earned the department's inaugural Media Criticism and Analysis award for her honors thesis examining the role of colorblindness in the "hipster" cultural identity.

Long term, Tori aims to bridge scholarly and public audiences through collaborative multimedia projects with interdisciplinary scholars.

Outside her research, she likes to unwind with yoga, time in nature, and comfort television.