Jenna M. Drenten

Dr. Jenna Drenten is professor of marketing in the Quinlan School of Business where she studies digital consumer culture: the sociocultural role of social media platforms in everyday consumer life. Her research explains how digital culture—from social media algorithms to the influencer attention economy—structures social and cultural consumption ideologies and how consumers’ lived experiences are mediated, translated, and commodified through digital culture. This includes multiple facets of digital consumer culture—from individual consumer behavior to systemic macro-level structures—across a range of social media platforms. Jenna is an expert in the field of marketing on qualitative social media research methods.

Jenna’s work has been published in leading academic journals such as Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Advertising, and New Media & Society, and her expertise has been featured extensively in media outlets including The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and The Washington Post. For more information, go to www.jennadrenten.com.

Jenna serves as an associate editor for the Journal of Advertising Research, as the communications chair for GENMAC: Gender, Markets, and Consumers, and as an associate board member for the Chicago Public Library Foundation. In the Quinlan School of Business, she teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in marketing, integrated marketing communications, social media marketing, and brand storytelling.

Before pursuing her Ph.D., Jenna worked in corporate communications at BMW Manufacturing Co. in Greer, SC and worked in special events and marketing at Minyanville Media, Inc., an Emmy-Award winning online financial publishing company in New York City.