#IAMCR2025 Day 3 & 4 – International Association of Media and Communication Research

tropical garden in singapore

CPT – Users in focus: Weighing behaviour and attitudes in media governance and platform policies

I know how it works: Exploring the impact of algorithmic media content awareness on the privacy calculus of self-disclosure
» Dr. Zhang Hao Goh (Singapore)1, Prof. Gerard Goggin (Australia)2, Dr. Kym Campbell (Singapore)1 (1. Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technological University, 2. Western Sydney University)

  • More data = more insights within mobile AI applications
  • Layman vs. Expert – what does a model of knowing look like?
  • Hierarchical structure of Awareness: Experiential (knowledge and experieince); systematic (how algorithms work); Normative (values and norms/ethics)

Are All AI Applications Created Equal? Unpacking Public Attitudes Toward AI Policies in Taiwan
» Dr. Tsung-Jen Shih (Taiwan)1, Ms. WEI-SHAN ZHENG (Taiwan)2 (1. College of Communication, National Chengchi University, Taiwan, R.O.C., 2. Telecom Technology Center (TTC), Taiwan, R.O.C.)

  • General public in Taiwan and how they understand AI policies
  • Deference and scientific authority (Lee & Scheufele, 2006) – we trust scientist more and we believe, if we do not believe we question legitimacy of science
  • Findings indicate that both deference and moral considerations benefit perceptions

Behaviorism Takes Command: A Study on A/B Testing and Experimental Culture in Big Internet Tech Companies
» Ms. Xia Yunxuan (China)1 (1. Peking University School of New Media)

  • Engineers vs. designers through A/B testing (testing as a decision making process)
  • How has A/B testing evolved from a testign tool to a mechanism of digital governacne?
  • A/B testing as a form of experimental culture – this emerges from within the tech industry as a constant process that is underway
  • The backbone of design inhibits how the experimentation of the testing process – expanding the gaps between techn workers and users

Characteristics and Regulations of Digital Identity Theft in the AI Era: A Grounded Theory Study of Rednote Micro-Influencers
» Ms. Yichuan Wang (China)1, Mr. Hanze Zhao (China)2 (1. School of Journalism and Communication, Tsinghua University, 2. Beijing Foreign Studies University)

  • It makes me think of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOuGH9Gpeos
  • Method (coding): Open coding, axial coding then

Day 4

CPT – Generative AI Governance: Institutions, Imaginaries, Innovations

Innovation vs Imagination in GenAI: A Comparative Patent Analysis of China, Europe, and the United States
» Dr. Yuner ZHU (Hong Kong)1, Dr. Xinzhi Zhang (Hong Kong)2, Prof. Bu Zhong (Hong Kong)1 (1. Hong Kong Baptist University, 2. City University of Hong Kong)

  • Systematic review of AI policy in Europe (Value Oriented), US (Market-driven) and China (State-led)
  • Examining the relationship between Innovation and Imagination
  • Patent filings: THomson Reuters Derwent World Patents Index
  • Patent claims – 6.7% China, 86% Europe, 34.8% US – really clever way to identify where the innovation is and where the rest follow (I suspect it is highest in China with much interest emerging from Europe)
  • Q: Expand on the clash between the three policy spaces?

Strikes and unrest in Hollywood media industry: bringing workers into the debate over GAI regulation and governance
» Mr. ANDRE ROCHA (Brazil)1 (1. DigiLabour research lab)

  • digitallabour.com.br (double check this link) Brazillian colleagues doing work on the WGA
  • Hollywood strikes
  • Power resources mobilization: Institutional “Hollywood is ‘union town'”; Economic (structural): disruption of media markets; Societal (discursive): public opinion that AI is not art/threat to workers/reflects dominant views
  • This moment spilled over into the gaming industry and other labour movements

Preemptive Dispositif: Data Annotation, Security, and the Territorialisation of Generative AI in China
» Dr. PENGFEI FU (China)1, Dr. Jian Lin (Hong Kong)2 (1. Shanghai Jiao Tong Univeristy, 2. Chinese University of Hong Kong)

  • China internet governance has existed in a ‘post-moderation’ mode since its inception
  • Concerns have moved from not what is made but how AI systems are designed, trained, developed, etc.
  • ‘upstream interventions’ – data annotation such as screening, cleaning, classifying, rating, marking and quality verification that can be used to train LLMs. Not just technical but also normative and social.
  • This is done as a ‘national workforce’. Ummmmm….
  • This sits within a global workforce labour model towards data annotation
  • Shift towards a pre-production regulation (this thinking aligns with our sandboxing approach), with focus on how training is done
  • Q: yes! But how to do this practically?

Assembling Generative Artificial Intelligence: Mapping Policy Evolution and Governance
» Dr. Chao Su (United States)1 (1. Boston University)

  • Wayback machine to snapshot TikTok’s Community Guidelines from 2018
  • Published article here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/1369118X.2025.2513672

CPT – What drives digital adoption and regulation? Between moral panics and digital identity

Do Sleeping Sovereigns Dream of Digital Identities?: Identity, Sovereignty, Citizenship
» Mr. James Rosenberg (United States)1 (1. University of Wisconsin–Madison)

  • The introduction of the EU digital wallet
  • Self Sovereign Identity: the internet identity layer as a solution to public trust across the internet – a menas of proving identity on the internt
  • TCP/IP provides an address not an identity
  • 3 solutions: centralised model (id cards etc.); federated model (insert identity provider i.e. Google credentials); decentralized model (SSI – relationship between you and IP provider)
  • Self-Sovereign Identity: Decentralized digital identity and verifiable credentials
  • The sovereign individual – anyone can be rich, citizenship is dead, nation-state is dead, live elsewhere from your money in a tax haven

The Anxiety of Age: Moral Media Panics over Children’s Social Media Use as a Tool to Regulate
» Dr. Catherine Page Jeffery (Australia)1, Dr. Justine Humphry (Australia)2, Prof. Jonathon Hutchinson (Australia)1 (1. University of Sydney, 2. The University of Sydney)

  • This is our work, questiosn as follows: Is this private and public media? What is the reach of those orgs that are presented in the data? I don’t know if reach is the thing to measure here, I think it’s impact. Haidt > Wippa > 36 months etc. then the link with policy agenda.
  • What about individual ‘media’, as opposed to ‘the media’
  • Presented excellently by Cat and Justine

One World, Different Priorities: AI Technology Policies and the Global South
» Prof. chika Anyanwu (Australia)1 (1. University of New South Wales)

  • AI policies and tis translation around the world, especially the Global South
  • GenAI in Africe, a colonial lens,
  • “Technology transfer”: colonial term that the West will allow knowledge to come into Africa
  • Socially constructed technology spaces (GenAI) and how this transfers across the glove(the question of power and influence)
  • Superiority lens (McDonalds food is cheaper than good food as an example), Interesting read on this topic here
  • Homi K. Bhabha’s Third Space Theory and Cultural Identity Today: A Critical Review
  • Noble and algorithms of oppression
  • Fascinating analysis of Africa from early ‘cheap labour’, then to material wealth
  • What about now (space for GenAI)?
  • Africa AI Policy Framework
  • Congo as a stronghold of minerals for tech, becoming ‘the bride of the US’ as a result of the tensions between US and China

Understanding Digital Cryptocurrency Communities: Digital Participation, Infrastructure, and Social Networks in the Global South
» Dr. Jonalou Labor (Denmark)1 (1. Aarhus University)

  • This is important work to bridge the scholarship between crypto worlds (bitcoin etc.) and platform studies
  • Multi-layers as a way to understand crypto (create their own platform layers), embedding this work in platform studies – think: Discord as a way to communicate about Bitcoin
  • Digital Bayanihan is the connection between collective action and cryptocurrencies – adaption of new frameworks in digital activism
  • Great work that provides clear evidence for the inclusion of alternative regioanl models (i.e Philippines) in platform studies.

Media’ s Embrace of Technology: How Media Portrays the Use of Autonomous Taxis and Its Impact on Individuals’ Adoption Intentions
» Prof. Christine Yi-Hui HUANG (Hong Kong)1, Ms. Ruoheng LIU (China)
1, Ms. Shuang GAO (China)1, Ms. Bo CHANG (China)1 (1. City University
of Hong Kong)

CPT – The Digital Transactions Turn: Making Policy and Governance Fit-For-Purpose

Digital Transaction Platforms in Asia
» Prof. Adrian Athique (Australia)1 (1. The University of Queensland)

  • Digital transactions are acts of: code, exchange, communication, solidarity and power
  • Xanadu Project was already doing this
  • Cascading transactions – automated and layered nature of platforms to think beyond economies
  • Strategic design
  • Transaction platforms: payment, banking, exchange, escrow, social media, social credit
  • Currencies: Airtime, social, crypto, legible reserves

TikTok Refugees and the Cross-Cultural Public Sphere: Social Transactions and International Communication Policy
» Prof. Haiqing Yu (Australia)1 (1. RMIT University)

  • TikTok refugees went to Insta reels, YouTube shorts but India won: Chingari, Roposo, Moj, Josh. Plus Rednote in China
  • Red note users: “What?!? Why do I now see all these blue eyes?”
  • Total cultural explosion between US and Chinese users – Cross cultural social translations
  • Exchange of English, Chinese, Chinglish is more informative than then a Chinese State or New York Times explanation
  • Impacts on policy – book idea: “policy intermediaries”

Platform Labor and Transaction Chains
» Prof. Cheryll Ruth Soriano (Philippines)1 (1. De La Salle University Manila)

  • Next Wave Cities – support for Philippines labour industries – digital jobs and labour
  • Upwork is the platform that results – think: Airtasker but better
  • This platform and service prompts a new kind of transaction platform – GCash
  • [This includes Vietnam]
  • The oversupply of labour has created new industries on how to be successful on UpWork
  • It’s very similar to the YouTube world – creators, MCNs, training, ‘universities/feeder schools’

E-commerce logistics in Southeast Asia: the cases of Shopee and Lazada
» Dr. Emma Baulch (Malaysia)1 (1. Monash University Malaysia)

  • Lots of talk of ‘intermediaries’ here – I think there is a thread that unexplored in all the work in this panel
  • Fascinating work that explores the tensions of delivery drivers especially in Malaysia
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#IAMCR2025 Day 1 – International Association of Media and Communication Research Conference Continues…

view of illuminated buildings at night

CPT – Governing content and user behaviour on platforms: regulation, policy and practices

“Weapons of the Weak”: Daily Resistance and Collusion of Platform Content Moderators
» Prof. Enqiang Guo (China)1, Dr. Jiebing Liang (China)2 (1. East China University of Political Science and Law, 2. School of Media and Communication, Shanghai Jiao Tong University)

  • Content moderators utilising the form of adaption in the application of moderation
  • Data from Bilibili, Dounyin, Weibo, also used digital ethnography of moderators, users and creators
  • Timing is important, compliance risks due to overwhelming or working overtime
  • China is positioned between complex workgin conditions and platform content moderation. The moderators develop strategic and flexible practices to address stringent assmenet metrics imposed by platforms
  • Q: how does this compare with Western moderation practices?

Connecting Policies and Algorithms: A New Governance Framework for Cyberbullying
» Prof. Wei Li (China)1, Ms. Qingxuan Cheng (China)1, Prof. Hao Xu (China)1 (1. School of New Media, Peking University)

  • Cyberbullying: abusive, insulting, slanderous, invasive information (what does the literature say/could this be extended further?)
  • AI engaging in cyberbullying: “ChatGPT/4Chan is the worst model on the internet”
  • What are the new trends? What are the governing frameworks? develop new governance models;
  • New trends: rise of intelligent user networks. intellignet nodes become the centre of the network becoming the most significant ‘users’ in the network (how do we know this?)
  • Existing governance frameworks: Policy docs from Meta, WeChat, TikTok, YouTube, WhatsApp. Categories include Supportive Tools, Coercive Measures with minimal guidance, Weak connection to law enforcement in accountability
  • Dilemmas: High cost, Imbalance between control and guidance, Difficulty in pursuing and obtaining evidence
  • New dilemmas: AI can ‘crack the keyword audit system’ quickly
  • Integrating LoveGPT (?) (chat with victims), GPT-4Chan (speed of fake content)
  • By allowing bad content, this can help to train models (wow, contentious)
  • Looking for collaborators
  • Q: What about civic dissent/deviant practices (legitimate)?

Negotiating state-led governance policies: how self-regulation operates on Weibo
» Mr. Wenhao Zhou (China)1 (1. School of Journalism and Communication, Wuhan University)

  • Instructuralization on platfomrs – Weibo has 587m users, state-led regulatory model
  • RQ: How has China state-led platfrom governance policies evolved? RQ2: How can Weibo interact with state-led policies of regulation
  • “Negotiative Governance”
  • Platform governance, policy debates in platform governance, platform self regulation – the integration of these approaches is the background for negotiative governance
  • Doc analysis (regulatory papers), case study of Weibo, Platform biography
  • Evolution of regulation in China – content governance (health), market governance (fair), data governance (user rights)
  • The role of intermediary – can you unpack this further? Is this the role of Weibo?
  • The user participation and global collaboration (ordinary users and global platforms) Digital sovereignty (Shi & Yu, 2023)

Communicating the Climate Crisis: Translating Science into Policy and Practice

Audrey Tan (Assistant News Editor (Environment), The Straits Times, Singapore Press Holdings Kong)

  • Straits Times – National newspaper covering national events, has a Singapore focus,
  • Keen interest in environmental reporting, weather reports have lots of engagement, people can see the relevance
  • Raising awareness, serving as a bridge, galvanising action, spotlight on SEA

Man Jing (Co-founder, Science and Environment, Channel “Just Keep Thinking”)

Adam Douglas Switzer (Director, CIFAL @ NTU, Asian School of the Environment, Professor, Asian School of the Environment, Assistant Dean (Development), College of Science, Director of CIFAL@NTU, Asian School of the Environment, Nanyang Technological University)

  • $57Million funded project that brings science and humanities together – science project that brings communicaiton in at the foundation level
  • “Climate Change and Misinformation in the Media”
  • How do we do communication when the science is real and effects are visible
  • Leaders and their misinformation (i.e. Trump and Abbott)

Janil Puthucheary (Senior Minister of State, Ministry of Digital Development and Information, Singapore)

  • How does the lessons from Singapore inform the world and vice-versa?

CPT – Digital geopolitics, sovereignty and technological interdependence

The European Third Way: the EU’s strategic narrative of a valuebased digital order and its global impact
» Dr. Julia Pohle (Germany)1, Mr. Leo Thüer (Germany)1, Mr. Milan Schröder (Germany)1, Prof. Christian Rauh (Germany)1 (1. WZB Berlin Social Science Center)

  • European values are framed as a way of European governance – promote as an alternative to the Chinese restrictive and the US liberal model

Towards a “federated sovereignty”? Mobilizations of decentralized platforms for (European) digital autonomy
» Dr. Ksenia Ermoshina (France)1, Prof. Francesca Musiani (France)2 (1. Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), Centre Internet et Société, 2. Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS), France)

  • The Fediverse is the central focus of this research, requires a high level of technical knowledge
  • Federation sits between digital sovereignty and federation networks – less technical knowledge is required
  • This is relevant in a post Twitter world where users are lookign for new forms of communication (i.e. Mastodon, Matrix, Delta Chat)
  • RQ: How are ‘alternative projects’ adopted by European public institutions
  • Federation and sovereignty – encourages interoperability between services beyond proprietary silos
  • 4 Cs of Federation: Compatibility, Community, Customization, Care
  • Moving from platform sovereignty towards protocol sovereignty
  • Q: how has PSM as a particular kind of European public institution adopted (or not) federation sovereignty?

Politics, Privacy or Soft Power: TikTok Ban in the U.S. at the State Level
» Dr. wenhong chen (United States)1 (1. University of Texas at Austin)

  • US Federal policy tools that can be used to implement a TikTok ban: Legislative, Executive, Judiciary
  • CFIUS – the Committee for Foreign Trade in the US – these talks have been going on for several years and it has shifted from Federal to State level politics

Informational Ethos and Digital Sovereignty: Technologies, Neoliberalism, and Coloniality
» Dr. José Cláudio Castanheira (Brazil)1 (1. Fluminense Federal University (UFF))

  • Brazilian Liberal (Right Wing) Conference – hoihgly attended by Googel, Meta and CapCut who presented practical tutorials on how to produce automated videos and content.
  • Zuckerberg et al. was supporting the activities of this party
  • There is an environment of ‘congress is the enemy of the people’
  • AI politics in Brazil – They do not meet the needs of Brazilians (Barros; Vaz 2023)

CPT – Emerging Digital Technologies Policies and Laws in South Asia Beyond Geopolitical Approach

Policy Rhetoric to Practice: The Case of Streaming Services in India
» Ms. Shubhangi Heda (Australia)1 (1. Queensland University of Technology)

  • Viewing experience as a regulatory variable is ignored
  • State intervention is inevetiable

Dynamics of Elite Capture on Media Regulation: Policies and Practices in Pakistan
» Dr. Mahnoor Farooq (Pakistan)1, Dr. Shabana Naveed (Pakistan)2 (1. University of Haripur, 2. Lahore Garrison University)

Secretive Digital State: Hidden Policy Documents and the Issues of Transparency and Accountability of the National Identification System in Nepal
» Dr. Harsha Man Maharjan (Qatar)1 (1. Northwestern University in
Qatar)

Communication Policies of a Digital Authoritarian Regime in Bangladesh
» Dr. Anis Rahman (United States)1 (1. University of Washington)

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International Association of Media and Communication Research (IAMCR) preconference – The 50th Anniversary of Communication Policy & Technology #IAMCR2025

IAMCR 2025 CPT precon

I was honoured to be invited to participate as a panel discussant at the 50th Anniversary of Communication Policy & Technology preconference. I was invited to talk at the first panel, The Asia-Pacific Perspective to
Communication Policy Research, alongside Prof Yu Hong, Zhejiang University, China; Prof Ang Peng Hwa, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore; and Prof Yu-li Liu, Shanghai University, China.

My panel followed an excellent opening remarks from the Dean of the Faculty, Professor Lionel Wee, and Prof Jeremy Shtern, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada (Secretary General, IAMCR), and Prof Gerard Goggin, Western Sydney University, Australia (Co-Chair, Global Media Policy Working Group, IAMCR). Within this session, I took two key items away:

  • Policy implications are pertinent and remain the same – allocation of resources, global north and south, voice those who have none, etc. (Jeremy Shtern);
  • Inter-generational research has really helped the Section grow (inclusion of ECRs and HDRs), how might this shift over new technologies and their introduction (Gerard Goggin)

This was followed by the Keynote Roundtable, which had five generations of Presidents of the CPT Section. THe following key points were made by the following colleagues:

  • Emeritus Prof Robin Mansell, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK
  • Emeritus Prof Cees Hamelink, University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
  • Dr Rohan Samarajiva, LIRNEAsia, Sri Lanka
  • Prof Hopeton Dunn, University of Botswana, Botswana
  • Prof Francesca Musiani, French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), France

Emeritus Prof Cees Hamelink

  • The process of UN and IAMCR focusing on techniology and human rights, but nothing actually happening beyond broad and general agreement.
  • Bypass governemtns, engage with individuals

Emeritus Prof Robin Mansell

  • CPT – infrastructures and political economy, but also the uses of technology
  • The issues haven’t changed but the technologies have, the ‘thigns’ we research are changing (platforms, datafication, AI, social meida, etc.) but the underlying issues remain and continue to need attention

Dr Rohan Samarajiva, LIRNEAsia, Sri Lanka

  • Wihtin the global context, the state is the issue – Sri Lankan state government is a huge hump in the road for communication and power
  • Regulator work is important

Prof Hopeton Dunn, University of Botswana, Botswana

  • Real growth came when the secion started working with the ECR network – this tells me that is is the crossover of policy research needs novel approaches
  • Shcolarship that ceoms form htose marginalised voices is important to encourage emerging scholars (and students) to understand their place within the world. It connot be just one voice and one way of scholarship
  • AI versus IA (internet access) – while some parts are forging ahead with AI work, some parts of the world are still coming to grips with getting online

After lunch, we moved to Panel 2: AI governance

  • Tarja Turtia, Senior Programme Specialist, UNESCO Communication and Information Sector
  • Dr Jingbo Wang, United Nations University Institute in Macau, Macau
  • Prof Jungpil Hahn, National University of Singapore, Singapore
  • Dr Chew Han Ei, Institute of Policy Studies, Singapore
  • Moderator: Dr Jun Yu, National University of Singapore, Singapore (Local Organising Committee Co-Convenor)

Prof Jungpil Hahn, National University of Singapore, Singapore

  • Working on AI projects that are human focused
  • Has funding for projects

Dr Jingbo Wang, United Nations University Institute in Macau, Macau

  • Research community is needed to bring the issues to policymakers, and then to be involved with more hands-on work in terms of how the results go post-policy implementation
  • What will be the jobs in 10 years that we need to be focussed on within AI
  • Check this out: https://www.un.org/en/summit-of-the-future

Tarja Turtia, Senior Programme Specialist, UNESCO Communication and Information Sector

  • UNESCO is there to protect humans
  • Guidelines for Governance of Digital Platforms
  • Ethics of Artificial Intelligence
  • It’s difficult to undertake ‘fairness, equality, etc.’ as these principles are somewhat objective, burt UNESCO is ther to push pressure on policymakers
  • Working in AI and public media
  • The traditional media and the broader ecosystem also contributes to this AI discussion space

Dr Chew Han Ei, Institute of Policy Studies, Singapore

  • Policy studies and has a research project out that examine show chat bots respond to taboo subject: I’d Blush If I Could

PANEL 3: Policy beyond Communication Tech
Prof Catherine Middleton – Professor, Ted Rogers School of Management, Toronto Metropolitan University, Canada
Dr Bohyeong Kim – Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Studies, Vanderbilt University, USA From Chat App to Fintech Giant: Kakao’s Journey Through South Korea’s Policy Landscape

Dr Renyi Hong – Associate Professor, Department of Communications and Media, National University of Singapore,
Singapore
Dr Wijayanto – Associate Professor, Department of Politics and Government, Universitas Diponegoro, Indonesia Governing the Digital Space: Regulation, Institutional Fragmentation, and Governance Gaps in the 2024 Indonesian
Election

Moderator: Prof Shaojing Sun, Fudan University, China

Prof Catherine Middleton – An Investigation of how Current Policy Debates about 6 GHz Spectrum and Wi-Fi 7 Will Impact Digital Inclusion in the Next Decade

  • License spectrum – set in a way that commercial operators pay fees to governments to use them, users pay to providers for access. Citizens are paying for a public resource (Mobile network operators)
  • Wireless networks are different in that we are not paying for them – permissionless innovation
  • US govt. is looking at charging for wifi spectrum – they would sell it to a provider and then we pay to use it.
  • Wifi 7 example given, required for faster broadband speeds to our home to avoid a bottleneck
  • Work by Ofcom: https://www.ofcom.org.uk/spectrum/innovative-use-of-spectrum/ofcom-pioneers-sharing-of-upper-6-ghz-spectrum-between-mobile-and-wi-fi-services
  • Work by ACMA: https://www.acma.gov.au/consultations/2024-05/planning-options-upper-6-ghz-band

Dr Bohyeong Kim: From Chat App to Fintech Giant: Kakao’s Journey Through South Korea’s Policy Landscape

  • Kakao Talk – 43 million users, South Korea population is 51 million
  • Ride Hailing, information, food, etc. (super app)
  • Kako has 218 affiliates and 175 subsidiaries in 2023
  • 26 million users are on Kakoa Bank, it’s fintech subsidairy
  • Published article: South Korea’s Megacorp and super app: Kakao’s paths to market dominance – this is how the Chaembol are not able to own financial services industry
  • Sandbox finacial regulatoriy space(2019) – test services without regulation that might inhibit innovation – Q: how has this worked and could this approach be used in broader context of digital technologies? Could we reframe policy as a helpful tool and not a roadblock?
  • Kakao pay now also uses social media activity ‘points’ to understand financial information

Dr Wijayanto – Governing the Digital Space: Regulation, Institutional Fragmentation, and Governance Gaps in the 2024 Indonesian Election

  • Indonesia’s political battleground is on TikTok – positive disinformation and whitewashing were key tactics used
  • There are no laws against AI so it cannot be controlled – stance of govt.
  • Officials can have 10 accounts, and rely on platform governance to make sure all content is OK

Dr Renyi Hong – Platform Workers Bill: The Politics of Regulating Workers’ Injury in Singapore

  • Singaporeans are covered under a pension act, and a Platform Workers Bill (compensation)
  • Platform workers are now one fo the most dangerous workplaces (compared with construction, scarily)
  • Insurance is covered by platform providers for ‘free’ but it is actually included in the charge to consumers, but this de-associates the platform provider from the worker and their potential claims
  • Grab has Audio-protect – https://help.grab.com/passenger/en-sg/360035134272

PANEL 4: Regionalising Communication Policy
Dr Wafa Khalfan – Independent Scholar, United Arab Emirates
Dr Yongliang Gao – Associate Professor, State Key Laboratory of Media Convergence and Communication, Communication
University of China
Dr Tianchan Mao – Postdoctoral Fellow, Fudan University, China
Dr Lydia Ouma Radoli – Associate Dean, School of Communication, Daystar University, Kenya

Dr Lydia Ouma Radoli – Searching for a Middle Ground: Analyzing Artificial Intelligence Policies for Journalistic Practice in the Global South

  • Ethical issues versus opportunities for machine jouralism
  • Shifting the practice of journalism to include more technological dynamics, significant politics and audience sentiment
  • Bias mitigation, transparency and accountability – all areas that are pertinent for AI in journalism
  • Trust again appears as a significant issue (I interpret this as trust and institution)

Dr Wafa Khalfan – Regionalizing Communication Policy & Technology: Situating the Gulf Region in Global Media and AI Policy Discourse.

Dr Yongliang Gao – From the Regulation of Content Production, Technological Application, Market Operation, and International Communication to Social Governance

Dr Tianchan Mao – Governance in the Shadows: Why the Co-Governance Model Undermines the Effectiveness of Platform Governance in the Facebook Oversight Board?

  • Two sides of platform governance – what the platforms claim, and the impact of their actions
  • What is the efficiency of the Facebook Oversight Board? (I thought it was a kind of puppet mechanism, even thought I have some amazing colleagues sitting on the Board – I’d be keen to hear their thoughts)
  • Thematic analysis which was then run through topic modelling process – violence became a key issue to unpack
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ICA25 – International Communication Association Day 2

Scholarship continues into day 2… Took a chance on a random room and it was amazing. I learnt quite a bit about Bangladesh media, its regime, and the role news and media plays in this space.

Full notes from sessions below:

PARTNER PANEL: South Asia Communication Association (SACA)
Chairs(s): Zahedur Arman (Framingham State University) and Shafiqur Rahman (South Carolina U)
Discussant(s): MD Tareq Hossain (National University of Singapore), Zahedur Arman (Framingham State University), Uma Shankar Pandey (Surendranath College), Dilshad Hossain Dudul (Independent U of Bangladesh), Mohammad Ala-Uddin (Saint May’s College), Waqas Mahmood (GIFT University, Gujranwala), ANIRUDDHA JENA (INDIAN INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT KASHIPUR), Didarul Islam (Central New Mexico Community College), Aakash Shaw (U of Calcutta), Janifar Kamal Nova (Southern Illinois U ), Abu Ahmed, Sherin Farhana Moni, Khairul Islam (State University of New York at Oswego), Khadimul Islam (Chadron State College) and Nur E Makbul (U of Alabama)
9:00 AM – 10:15 AM; Quartz (Regency 3)

  • Life without Twitter in India – Snowball sampling, 18-34, n=1200
  • Users are mainly Facebook and Twitter
  • Key issues: cyber bullying and wellbeing

Creating the Bubble: Newsmedia role in checking the Global South

  • Bangladesh: examine selected text from selected press conferences. How do news media outlets exercise their journalistic freedom under the former regime?
  • Challenges the norms of journalism, asking questions that are journalistic oriented, they would first praise the leader without criticism of major policies, then shifting to challenging questions.

In search of Habamasian Ideals – Abu Ahmed, Sherin Farhana Moni, Khairul Islam (State University of New York at Oswego)

  • Broad (very) overview of public sphere, natioanl debate, inclusivity, all members of public

International Law in Kashmir and India and the spread of misinformation

  • No studies on how governments shut down internet to stop misinformation
  • RQ: how do governments limit the spread of misinformation in India
  • Frame: political economy
  • Misonfomraiotn happening for a long time makes the people more pessimistic
  • Laws adopt to reflect this. make power more visible
  • Public trust is declining (like most global areas) wht are the factors that are impoacting thisn in Bagledash
  • There is s media reform underway in this country

10:30 AM-11:45 AM, Colorado B (Grand 2), HIGH-DENSITY: Digital Escapes: Problematic Media Use and Family Dynamics, High-Density Paper Session, Children, Adolescents and Media, Chairs: Allyson Snyder, U of California – Davis

Family Under the Screen: Problematic Mobile Media Use as a Family Issue and Its Relation to Children’s Self-Esteem, Parental Self- Efficacy and the Parent-Child Relationship Nele Janssens; K. Beullens

  • Affordances vs. problematic mobile media use (PMMU)
  • Research adopts a ‘family systems approach’ research understood as part of the family system
  • Assumes PMMU leads to lower self esteem
  • Smartphone Addiction Proneness Scale (SAPs) check this here; https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0097920
  • Many of these scholars are part of the Media Psychology Lab: https://soc.kuleuven.be/smc

Parent Problematic Media Use, Child Emotional Reactivity, and Household Income Relate to Parent Reliance on Media Emotion Regulation Strategies J. Shawcroft; A.L. Snyder; D.P. Cingel; J.B. Ruiz

  • Emotional regulation – using media to calm or soothe children, not necessarily bad, and can be used in conjunction with other approaches to stressful situations
  • This research focuses on resources: internal: screens etc. , external: family, housing etc.
  • Published paper here

Smartphones as Surrogate Attachment: Examining Digital Dependency and Emotional Bonds Among Left-Behind Children in China F. Yu; K. Wang

  • Nomophobia – no mobile phone phobia
  • Phones as surrogate attachment – reasons for using smartphones: connections, relaxation, environment knowledge, reduced anxiety and discomfort
  • Something about insert numbers and that equals children need phones when parents aren’t around

The Growth of Maternal Technoference Across Early Childhood and Associations With Child Problematic Media Use S. Ashby; S. Coyne; J. Shawcroft; M. Van Alfen; P. James; H. Holmgren; T. Austin

  • Technoference (phubbing) – the disruptions from technology between children and parents
  • Linked to higher stress and behaviour problems
  • 7 year longitudinal study, 0.5- 6.5 year olds

Understanding Problematic Video Game and Mobile Phone Use in Chilean Children: The Role of Family Support and Parental Mediation P. Cabello; Matias Dodel; N. Delgado; M. Claro; P. Véliz

The Impact of Emotional Neglect on Internet Addiction Among Left-Behind Adolescents in Rural China: A Moderated Mediation Model H. Jiang; L. ZHONG; V. Huaxng; R. Zhong

  • 15 million ‘left behind’ adolescents in China, parents move to urban area to make more money, but cannot bring their children, resulting in lack of education, and experiencing emotional neglect
  • Internet addiction is 18.3% higher in this group of young people
  • Published paper available here

12:00 PM-1:15 PM, Mineral A (Regency 3), Youth and Popular Culture, Standard Paper Session, Popular Media & Culture, Chairs: Miriam Rahali, The London School of Economics & Political Science

The Promises and Perils of Being a Popular Youth Online Content Creator Rebecca Ortiz; S. Condemi; K. Leahy; V. Hidalgo Garcia; S. Ramasubramanian

  • Trans parasocial relation framework
  • I hour interview with content creators, 10-17 years old, at least 3000 followers
  • Let participants identify themselves (ethnicity, pronouns, neurodiversity, etc.)
  • Tensions between online/offline – more like relationships that are not online
  • Enacted online personas – once popularity emerges, they started thinking more about fame by changing and shifting their persona. “authenticity and the real content creator”
  • Implications: constructing and affirming their personas, balancing authenticity against impression management, performative labour, navigating layers of risk
  • Engages Communication Theory of Identity

1:30 PM-2:45 PM, Grays Peak B (Grand Conv Center 2), The Yuck Factor: Digital Disgust, Rhetorics of Repulsion, and Cultural Critiques in Food Media, Panel Session, Popular Media & Culture, Participant: S. Marek Muller , Texas State U; Participant: Banu Akdenizli, Northwestern U – Qatar; Participant: Sun Young Park, Florida State U; Participant: Diana Willis, U at Albany – SUNY; Participant: Antara Dey, York U


From Culinary Bridges to Cultural Barriers: The ‘Yuk Factor’ in Food Media and its Impact on Gastrodiplomacy B. Akdenizli

  • Try not to gag reactions – disgust as communication/entertainment
  • Binary between west and other food types
  • “This can’t be real”, “WTF” – normalising cultural translations
  • Gastro-diplomacy and state-led narratives
  • How about this: https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9780429465543-25/guide-gastrodiplomacy-paul-rockower


Disgust as a Communicative Tool in Food Media Sunny Park

  • Food is popular (TikTok) but gross-out content is rising, or gaining attention
  • Broad overview of ‘disgust’ and its psychological mechanisms (cognitive, emotional, behavioural, gagging etc.)
  • Boundary setting: contamination, cultural, purity
  • Framing theory (Goffman, 1974) and purity and danger (Douglas, 1966)
  • Inductive coding from 150 TikTok videos – results to come

Nostalgia, Disgust, and Demon Quiche: B. Dylan Hollis’ Playful Critique of Mid-Century Cuisine Diana Willis

  • Communication through Mid-Century America: clothes, language, references, recipes
  • Disgust through language and vision
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International Communication Association Conference – Day 1

Monkey Bar Denver

After a wonderful plenary last night that provoked us to think about who we are and how we respond, individually and as an association, to the current political environment, Day 1 for me has been a great experience. Much quality scholarship emerging from the Popular Media and Culture, and Children and Media streams.

Here’s the following notes from the sessions I attended:

9:00 AM-10:15 AM, Capitol 6 (Regency 4), Subcultures, Subgroups, and Sublayers, Standard Paper Session, Popular Media & Culture, Chairs: Chengbao Jin, Shanghai University

Rita Genser – Engineering Adaptive Conspiracies: Cults and the Case of QAnon

  • Framework, cultish language Subculture Evolution model (establishment, implosion
  • Users look for the movement, had a mysterious connection with the figure Q
  • Emergence of specialised jargon ‘Anons’
  • Working together on a common goal – the connection of Q with Trump
  • The ‘Covfefe’ method (Trump Tweet)

Jiahui Xing – Regulating the Past: The Role and Unexpected Empowerment of Hanfu Experts in Chinese Costume Drama Production

  • Hanfu and costume drama
  • Drama trends are declining, the NRTA introduced new policy (? I missed the name)
  • Genre trend: ancient drama – they believe it has a bad impact on society and these were banned
  • RQ: does theatre strategies work anymore?
  • Cultural intermediaries (Hanfu Experts) – transfer the knowledge of the Hanfu to the society (contemporary China)
  • Four layer legitimation Mechanism – regulation, industrialisation, institutionalisation, populisation
  • Vietnamese drama are produced in China, using the costume from China (Hanfu), causing cultural tension between the two
  • Intermediation has not restricted but empowered, Hanfu became cultural intermediation

10:30 AM-11:45 AM, Grays Peak A (Grand Conv Center 2), Artificial Intelligence, Algorithms, and Digital Interactive Entertainment, Standard Paper Session, Popular Media & Culture, Chairs: Hilde Van den Bulck, Drexel U; Chairs: Hui Lin, Kings College London

[Chaos finding the right room/building]

Museum Interestingness and Aesthetic Interaction: The Evolution From Intuitive to Embodied Cognition X. Chen; J. Jiang; J. Li

  • Cognitive processing mechanisms for exhibition understanding
  • Integration of design elements with visitor cognitive characteristics

Hui Lin – Challenging the Algorithms: Users’ Resistant Strategies on Douyin

  • PhD candidate – early finding and thesis overview
  • Framework – EchoChamber and filter bubbles, Algorithmic Surveillance, stereotyped categorisation and identity construction (Cheney et al.)
  • RQ: why use Doutin when algorithims have negative impact?
  • Folk theories (Eslama et al. 2016), Influencing user behaviour
  • Algorithmic resistance
  • Walk Through method (Ben et al.)
  • 31 young urban users (18-35), week-long video recordings and interview
  • 6 month recruitment (q: Is this population representative?)
  • Users resist when the algorithm is used in various ways – even resistance (commercial exploitation)
  • Check out the Social Media + Society article
  • https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/20563051251313610

12:00 PM-1:15 PM, Capitol 4 (Regency 4), HIGH-DENSITY: Growing Up Online: Social Media and Adolescent Mental Health, High-Density Paper Session, Children, Adolescents and Media, Chairs: Sarah Ashby, Brigham Young University

Social Media Use and Loneliness: A Longitudinal Study of Adolescents in South Korea S. Vigil; J. Shawcroft; D.P. Cingel; H. Lee

  • High density of users/increased loneliness – is there a connection?
  • 958 users aged 14-18, Differential Susceptibility to media effects model, social media use
  • Results – no causal relationship, peer belonging acts as a protective factor, FOMO but social media doesn’t make this worse, use remained stable over time

The Swiss Cheese Model of Social Cues: A Theoretical Perspective on the Role of Social Context in Shaping Social Media’s Effect on Adolescent Well-Being J. Trekels; E.H. Telzer

  • Youth feel connected with their friends but feel pressure to be the best version of themselves
  • Media effects: selective, transactional, conditional, however these theories miss the physical, cognitive and social changes young people go through
  • Friends are key to development, more nuanced to social cues, access through social media
  • Swiss cheese model – social cues on platforms, social cues in the surroundings, in the individual (neuro) context
  • Published here: https://academic.oup.com/joc/advance-article/doi/10.1093/joc/jqaf001/8029825?searchresult=1

The Influence of Adolescent Depression on Social Media Experiences: Evidence From a Daily Diary Study L. Janssen; P.M. Valkenburg; L. Keijsers; I. Beyens

  • Do adolescents experience social media differnet to those who do not have depressive perspectives:
  • 479 Dutch, 14-17, 100 day diary study
  • Baseline survey Reynolds Adolescent Depression Scale (Reynolds, 2005) – 17% depressed
  • Some results:Those who were depressed are more preoccupied with feedback from their peers
  • Self reinforcing feedback loop, e.g. someone who feels rejected may have those feelings reinforced
  • AWeSome is the space of research – https://www.project-awesome.nl/for-researchers

Experiences: Evidence From a Daily Diary Study L. Janssen; P.M.

Daily Links Between Adolescents’ Perceived Digital Well-Being, State Self-Esteem, and Affective Well-Being J. Rosič; R. Vanherle; L. Vandenbosch

  • Perceive well-being is when users are more happy than not (?), cognitive domain,
  • 14 day diary study
  • Results when users perceived higher digital well being they also recorded higher perceived self esteem – all fairly typical outcomes for this kind of research within this field of research. It is supportive of existing research.

[Sideline thoughts – the gender of the researchers is significantly skewed towards female (like, 1 male/non-binary), no tlak of platforms, but instead ‘social media’, nothing seems to challenge the status quo. Perhaps this is psychology?)

Appnome Analysis Reveals Small or No Associations Between Social Media App-Specific Usage and Adolescent Well-Being Y. Liu; L. Marciano

  • Trying to understand the relationship between social media use and well being
  • Outlines the existing methods, but introducing user-donated screenshots – usage times from phone, provides app overviews
  • Relationships between apps and well-being? used HappyB Study Being, (?)
  • Results: no causality between social media use and negative well-being
  • Nod to what is the correct time to measure this kind of research (avoiding cherry picking insights) – good persepctive here

Diverse Platforms, Diverse Effects: A 100-Day Diary Study on Social Media and Adolescent Mental Health A. van der Wal; I. Beyens; L. Janssen; P.M. Valkenburg

  • Gap – how effects vary within individuals across multiple dimensions
  • Frame- within-person unity, within-person duality
  • Method, diary: 44,211 daily diary entries (questionnaire sent each night at 7:30pm)
  • Dynamic structural equation modelling (DSEM)
  • Found there is a negative effect on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram; positive or neutral effect on WhatsApp and Snapchat

Performance and Toxicity: The Relationship Between Toxic Communication During Adolescent Videogame Play and Performance -Contingent Self-Esteem E.J. Noon; L. Carbone; L. Vandenbosch

  • Reciprocal Mediation Model: in gaming they come across toxic activity, primarily against women

4:30 PM-5:45 PM, Mt. Oxford (Grand 3), Critical Perspectives on Gender, Race and Ethnicity, and Sexuality, Standard Paper Session, Popular Media & Culture, Chairs: Radhika Parameswaran, Indiana U Bloomington

“Sexy Side of Queerness”: Provocative LGBTQ+ Artists’ Music Videos and Commentary About Sexual Content Clay Williams

  • Sam Smith & Troy Sivan – 2023 provocative video
  • Content discourse across six music videos
  • Self esteem – larger people demonstrated higher levels of esteem with videos of a “larger body condition” as per Williams
  • Exposure to thinner music videos decreased self esteem, this has also been found in the heterosexual men category
  • First study on GBTQ+ provocative entertainment and effects

A Critical (Rhetorical) Fabulation of Indigenous Trans Women in the United States Andy A. Acosta

  • Hip Hop elements (authenticity measures); styles drill, bounce, etc. traumacore: sexual assault therapy
  • Case study: Bobby Sanchez
  • Theory: Critical Fabulation; Artifacts: four albums
  • Indigenous Hip Hop: deliberative rhetoric – digging into the lyrics that cross sexual orientation
  • Critical rhetorical fabulation – Indigenous hip hop that demonstrates the connection between music and politics

Fashioning Identities: How Chinese Youth Reconstruct Hanfu and Social Identities on Social Media Y. Dai

  • Definition – Fashion as per the Han people: fashion, non-Western fashion, nationalism in Hanfu Studies
  • RQs: What are the instutions shaping Hanfu culture? Gen Z representing? Digital practices shaping aesthetics?
  • Self-Orientalism: a pushed form of reappropriating Hanfu for China’s national image (that are 56 cultural groups)

“Them’s a Rat”: Queerness and Inclusive Communities in World of Warcraft Andrew Restieri

  • WoW celebrated its 20th year last year – I feel old
  • RQs: How LGBTG+ find community, what support is there, what do they tell us about online inclusivity?
  • 17 semi structured interviews, snowballing sampling from a guild on Discord. Interesting how participants were reluctant when Zoom was introduced as the preferred platform
  • Results: most time toxic and not inclusive, many use voice changers, users were terrified of being mis-gendered
  • Meaningful connections: some were extra connection activities, but many expressed there is nothing beyond the online experience
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2022 Policy & Internet Conference

Womens College

We have just completed the 2022 Policy & Internet Conference, which we held at the University of Sydney at the picturesque Women’s College.

This is the first time the conference has been held outside of the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) and was an opportunity to bring scholars and policy advocates together to discuss the current state of affairs for internet and policy now. It was also a chance to focus the direction of the journal for the next 12 months and direct the scholarship, too.

Day One

Day one was opened by our own Professor John Hartley who laid out a clear argument for why global internet policy is not a thing and that we should be looking towards younger, local audiences to see better forms of regulation. It was wonderful to have such a provocation that went through the remainder of the conference and was a welcomed touch point to refer to with each of the following sessions.

We then heard from Matthew Nguyen, Damar Juniarto and Jay Daniel Thompson to explain some of the critical concerns of internet policy from their respective regions. The key issues emerging were the increasing takedown/censorship issues from Southeast Asian country governments that work with big tech platform providers, alongside the lack of co-design and consultation for regulatory design.

Our second keynote speaker was Associate Professor Crystal Abidin who took us through her three years of DECRA research data that has explored the Southeast Asian region specifically looking at the social media influencers cultures. Through this talk, it became obvious there is a lack of regulatory oversight for the influencer industry from young people, agencies and general practices for most stakeholders in the field.

This observation was cemented with the final panel for the day that was a result of the special issue (15, 4) from Policy & Internet that specifically looked at the influencers in the Asia Pacific Region. We heard from four of the authors who presented work on YouTubers, livestreamers and TikTokers.

Day Two

Day two was opened by Associate Professor Tanya Lokot who expertly explained how the Ukraine environment is under a networked authoritarian regime. One of the most inspiring take-aways from Tanya’s presentation was how new forms of resilience were emerging, including through collaborative measures with satellite providers (yes, Elon Musk) and through state initiatives that have been established to improve and secure user data.

Following Associate Professor Lokot was the first panel of the day which was chaired by Professor Terry Flew and included Dr Joanne Gray, Associate Professor Diana Bossio, Professor Kim Weatherall and Professor Julian Thomas. It was excellent to hear these well versed, experienced and critical scholars outline the issues with platform governance and regulation right now. The two takeaways for me were the lack of coordination for everyone who is doing work on regulation for platforms at the moment (many individuals are overworked) , and the need for policymakers to be up-skilled on contemporary practices.

Panel three was chaired by Professor Gerard Goggin and featured the work of Associate Professor Paul Harpur and Dr Natasha Layton. The focus was disability and internet policy and it seems we can learn much from your the histories in this space in terms of accessibility (or lack of) and assistive technologies. The cross over between infrastructures, technologies, governance and regulation seems full of insights for policymakers and advocates.

And finally, we heard from Professor Rohan Samarajiva, who expertly laid out the issues for internet policy in the Sri Lankan case. Through his years of experience of working both as an academic and advocate, it was obvious the lack of consultation has resulted in inappropriate and non-useful policy outcomes.

Special Issue – Policy & Internet 15(2)

There is no doubt there is a clear thread for the next moment of internet policy, and as a result we have designed the call for papers for the next special issue (15, 2) for Policy & Internet. Overall, the conference was a success and while we learnt a great deal to put hybrid conferences on in this era, we are looking forward to the 2023 iteration.

Photo by Sincerely Media on Unsplash

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Distinguished Research Fellowship – Day 2

snow light dawn landscape

I have arrived at the University of Canberra to undertake my first of three visits as the Distinguished Faculty of Arts and Design Research Fellow. While Day 1 was a wonderful day of catching with friends and colleagues and eating some great food from around the way, the real work started on Tuesday, Day 2.

My day was split into two key sessions: a workshop in the morning that explored embedded industry research, and the second half of the day which was for HDR mentoring. I’m here to bring my research, meet people and think through potential collaborative research projects with colleagues. I’d like to thank all the wonderful people at the News and Media Research Centre for hosting me over the five days.

Embedded Industry Research

First off, I forgot how much I love travelling and talking with people in a face-to-face mode! I haven’t presented research anywhere in person for about two years, so I was very excited to talk with people in a room that didn’t rhyme with Zoom.

This first session was designed as a two and a half hour workshop for HDRs and beyond to explore the contexts and nuances of embedded research within industry. Drawing on my last ten years of embedded research at various industry partners from around the world, it was refreshing to re-visit how to do this sort of really important work. From how to approach industry with an offer, to co-designing research questions, and then how to integrate the appropriate methods, particularly in a post-lock down world, was refreshing for me.

What was more exciting was the discussion that emerged after the presentation. We had about an even split of colleagues who had done industry research (and this includes Linkage projects, consultancy work, commissioned research, and longer form research), and those that hadn’t. As we broke into smaller groups (not break out rooms), the conversation was focussed on the lived experience of researching with industry partners. It was excellent.

Some of the key topics that emerged included:

  • Often there are different languages and perspectives at play between academics and industry – intermediaries are always useful, to broker between the different stakeholders
  • We (academics) can become annoying? How do we ensure we remain relevant to the project from the industry perspective, too?
  • Often the experience was disappointing – a great word to use here, where some of the finding shave been ignored or not acted upon
  • There can be an anti-intellectual/academic culture – is it common with media organisations/journalists or more broadly than this?
  • Is there something about the authority of academics that might not gel with industry folk?
  • How could we know about their world/environment?
  • What is your character that you take in with you? I’m a journalist. I’m a content creator. ‘Interloper’ was used.
  • Suspicion seems to be the reaction from those being researched – why are they here?
  • ‘It’s all about trust’
  • The complications of trust
  • Pandemic and the loss of hanging out with our industry folk
  • Reflexivity – all data is skewed, “situation of data gathering’

If you are interested, you can access the slides from the day here:

The slides for the Embedded Industry Research workshop

The second half of the day was spent listening to HDRs talk about their projects and trying to guide them where I could. I very much look forward to connecting many of these amazing people with some fo the amazing humans from MECO – there are many cross over points that can be strengthened with a more national network of HDRs.

I

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Cross-border Media Flows, Infrastructures and Imaginaries in a changing Asia-Pacific – USyd and HKU Symposium

Hong_Kong_2019

We performed our academic FIFO (Fly In Fly Out – thanks for the insights here Jolynna) duties recently at the first University of Sydney and Hong Kong University symposium, expertly crafted by Professor Heather Horst and Dr Tom McDonald.

During the one day symposium, all researchers were asked to respond to the somewhat broad theme around the concepts of cross border media flows and social imaginaries – in thinking through these two areas, it is a lovely way to bring sociology and media studies (communication if you will) together:

Media of various forms, and the infrastructures and communities that are associated with them, have often been strongly determined by national boundaries. This is particularly the case in different countries dispersed across the Asia-Pacific region, where media organisations are often owned by government entities and/or large companies. Such media organisations also frequently have political or commercial roles that, arguably, make them less susceptible to the kinds of disruption that have been witnessed by their European and American counterparts in recent years. At the same time, the movement of people, goods, capital, information and ideas are undergoing shifts and intensifications, owing to broader geopolitical changes, state-led infrastructure projects and the aspirations of individuals and communities shaped by such regional transformations.
 
Against this context, media flows are being created, worked and reworked, facilitated by new infrastructures, imaginaries and understandings. These flows frequently cross, circumvent or come up against borders, both domestic and international. For instance, countries such as China and the US increasingly compete to export infrastructures across the region through the promotion of platforms, technologies and services. Online shopping, logistics, blockchain and fin-tech are fostering new cross-border flows of goods and money. Media content is increasingly consumed internationally, posing new opportunities and challenges for media companies, regulators and governments. Users and consumers of the media are also witnessing the reworking of their media environments because of these changes, and are adopting inventive responses to and adaptations of the media in return.
 
This symposium, and the planned journal special issue that will result from it, explores these changing circuits of media in the Asia Pacific region. We ask contributors to consider: How are media flows redefining understandings of borders? What kinds of novel communities are being created by cross-border media flows? What forms of social imaginaries accompany the emergence of new infrastructures from “outside”? How are boundaries and borders being made, unmade or remade within and across the Asia-Pacific region?

Personally, it was a unique opportunity to apply my recent thinking around digital intermediation to the concept of social imaginaries to understand how geopolitical borders are constructed, de-constructed and enforced and reimagined – there is no better place in the world than Hong Kong to get that sort of thinking on.

If you are interested in the research I have started in this space, you can access my presentation here:

But enough about me, the better work was all around! Here are some notes and reflections from the research presented:

Sylvia Martin – Imagin(eer)ing peace: Simulations and the state

  • Holograms and military uses of them
  • USC and Shoah Foundation
  • Hologram shown in front of young students and they ask him questions
  • Filmed in a multi-camera environment
  • Statistical classifier to find the best answer to the questions
  • “The Girl and the Picture”
  • IBM Watson to do the classifier for the woman filmed in The Girl in the Picture
  • What enables the production of survivors who have crossed the borders?
  • There is a close connection between the state and industry – building larger goals into the process
  • There are a number of agencies involved in this process
  • Leads to the ‘Imagineering’ of content – this is the link to the hologram
  • The industry in Hollywood has shifted to military content –
  • The emergence of the Silicon Beach – the increase of tech etc in Venice Beach
  • Institute of Creative Technology (ICT) – military, academia and entertainment

Joyce Nip – Friends and foes: China’s connections and disconnections in the Twitter sphere

  • While much of the social media is blocked, “foreign hostile networks taking over the regions”
  • @XHNews – one of these ‘blocked’ Chinese Twitter accounts
  • CGTN, SCMP, Xianhwa News
  • Looking at #SouthChinaSea
  • Interestingly @XHNews have set the frames around “Aircraft Carrier”
  • There may be not artificial warfare, but other computational forces at work
  • Hub account – I think this means the sorts of large betweenness centrality
  • @9DashLine and @AsiaMTI758 are the most retweeted accounts
  • What is the correlation to the US based news services then picking up the ‘new’ framing of the events?
  • Hub accounts are super important
  • So are Russians more interested in global news than other countries?

 Heather Horst – From Kai Viti to Kai Chica: Debating Chinese influence in Fiji

  • Chinese aid has been welcomed in Fiji, in anticipation of APEC 2018
  • Cable net offer from Oz around the islands, to ward off Chinese influence
  • Strong connection with the last coups between China and Fiji
  • Fiji states it is a relationship, not influence
  • The 28 WG Friendship Plaza building has difficult Chinese/Fiji relations
  • First instance of fake news in Fiji – China will take the island of Kadavu to recover the $500m debt
  • Fiji has an informal censorship process in its media system
  • The Wikipedia page has been adjusted to say a ‘Province of China’ but was changed back ‘quickly’
  • Oz support is participatory government (aid cultures), Chinese has been infrastructure support
  • Often
  • A common thread between all papers of influence through infrastructures and countries?
  • What is the broader impact of social media on the Chinese influence?

Discussion

‘Great Power Rivalry’ – some nation states are more important than others. This promotes the idea of what are we missing? What if you don’t have a ‘state’ formed around you? Jewish context and the Chinese massacres contexts. Non-state actors (not ISIS, but the anarchist forms).

China is not one – There are a number of Chinese (Mainland, New Territories, Hong Kong)

 Bunty Avieson – Minority language Wikipedias for cultural resilience

  • Privilege has moved online, through connected communication
  • Cognitive justice – beyond tolerance is something that we need
  • Localised knowledge practices contribute to cultural production – this is a form of resilience
  • Pharmacon – a cure and a killer
  • Wikipedia paints one aspect of the unity of users, knowledge,
  • Wikipedia is drawing information from Wikipedia
  • Anyone can edit is a myth – Wikipedians are white global north, Christian, under 30, technical competent
  • Oral cultures – only 7% have been written down
  • Positional superiority (Said), long tail of colonialism

Tom McDonald – One Country, two payment systems: Cross-border digital money transactions between Hong Kong and Mainland China

  • WeChat Advertising campaign that rolled out across Hong Kong during the time of protest
  • Immigration has increased significantly during this period
  • One country/two systems – the border remains constant
  • There is a focus to engage communication technologies to secure the future
  • 2016 the Money Authority gave the right to five operators to launch digital wallets (Alipay, WeChat, Octopus, OlePay, TapnGo)
  • Users are using WeChat and/or Alipay to transfer funds and then purchase things for cheaper (better rates) in Hong Kong
  • WeChat groups are emerging for money transfer

Discussion

  • Culture is always changing, cultural dynamism is a better term
  • More explanation of microplatformization, and digital intermediation
  • Can oral Wikipedia help solve the Bhutan problem?

Jolynna Sinanan – Mobile media and mobile livelihoods in Queensland’s coal mining industry

  • What access do miners have when away from home?
  • Three areas of contestation: they are not allowed to have mobiles while working, They are often in remote areas with low coverage, connection to home is no one’s responsibility
  • mobilities and families – digital media characterized by mobilities
  • Literature says: Digital media is how families do everything together, this is how users make sense of each other and their context while they are apart from each other
  • Social transformations are under-developed
  • Jhow mobilities make sense. through ‘work’ and ‘home’
  • Drops ‘cashed-up bogan’ as a term to describe the impact of the stress on the workers
  • FIFO Life as a producer of memes
  • How is this different to pilots? They fly in and out, have similar digital media tools, but are vastly different in how they react with their family?

Tian Xiaoli – No escape: WeChat and reinforcing power hierarchy in Chinese workplaces

  • WeChat users often think about superiority online – who is senior? Who is younger? This is reflective of offline lives
  • Hierarchy and behaviour studies as a background for the workplace

Jack Linchuan Qiu (Chung Minglun & Pun Ngai) – The effects of digital media upon labor knowledge and attitudes: A study of Chinese vocational-school students

  • School students from poorer backgrounds – being trained for vocational jobs (blue collar)
  • Effects study on the rights
  • The border between social classes
  • A study on human capital (Becker, 1964) – the internet economy, the knowledge economy,
  • How is the schooling process outdating, or distracting, or are they adding to the education process?
  • Passive use of internet versus active use (net potato (Kaye, 1998))
  • A process that leads to individualistic usage (Ito), hyper-individualistic
  •  Village well (Arora, 2019)
  • Increased consumerist activity does not necessarily relate to decreased labour subjectivity
  • Media literacy encourages reflective thinking
  • Is consumerist worry an elitist position?
  • What is the labour subjectivity if the user is Reflective/individualistic? for example

Tommy Tse – Dream, dream, dream: The interwoven national, orgnaisational, and individual goals of workers in China’s technology sector

  • Sociology pays more attention to the practice beyond the theoretical
  • Cultural practices and how they play out in labour practices
  • Chinese dream versus Alibaba Dream versus individual dream
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Data Intermediation: Towards transparent public automated media

Jonathon_Hutchinson_Transparent_Infrastructures

I have just completed a world-wind European tour, giving lectures at some of the best media institutes this side of the planet. Thanks to all the folk who made this possible, and took the time to promote my work. I’d like to reflect on that work and the discussions I’ve had with many great people within this post as I prepare this thinking for my next book – namely who should be facilitating and innovating transparent automated media systems? I argue public Service Media (PSM).

The thrust of this latest research was to problematise the concept of the ‘black-box’ as has been argued by so many scholars as something that we have no control over and are almost helpless to its control.

I think some of the most important work in this space was undertaken by Frank Pasquale and his Black Box Society book, which highlights the role algorithms play in society from a finance, legal and economic’s perspective. His argument of how algorithms control not only finance, but our digital lives, is a call for increased transparency and accountability on those who facilitate these technologies.

I also appreciate the work of many scholars who contribute and develop this arena of scholarship. Safiya Noble has done amazing work here and here book Algorithms of Oppression is a landmark piece of scholarship that brings to bear the real world implications of how algorithms are not only bias, but racist and oppressive.

Noble’s book leads well into Tania Bucher’s also groundbreaking book If…Then, that further develops the politics of algorithms and automated systems, to offer media academics a framework to help think through some of the implications of these socio-technical constructs.

I also find Christian Sandvig’s work incredibly inspiring here. While Sandvig’s work on algorithms and discrimination is super interesting, this particular piece on Auditing Algorithms sparked a particular interest in me on how to research algorithms.

But what I have found through most of this literature are two things, and this is perhaps where my ‘application brain’ is most curious. Firstly, most scholars tend to ignore user agency in these relationships, as if we are helplessly at the mercy of mathematical equations that are determining our society. Most (some) people are aware of the algorithm, and how to work alongside it these days, if our interface with platforms like Netflix, Spotify, YouTube etc. is anything to go by. Secondly, no-one talks of who should be responsible for facilitating a better system. Should we simply make more policy that tries to calm the overlord digital tech companies of now, or should we be thinking five to ten years ahead on how that technology can be used for society’s benefit (and not in a Chineses Social Credit System sense, either)?

So that is what I have been talking about in the last few weeks, and I think it is really important to include in the automated media conversation. I have been developing a digital intermediation framework that incorporates a number of these actors, and trying to understand how the intermediation process occurs. Check this out:

Digital intermediation actors, as part of the intermediation process

This is a first parse at what will become an important tool for a facilitating organisation who should be leading and innovating in this space: public service media.

Work has already commenced in this space, and we can draw on the thoughts of Bodó et al. (2018):

Public service media have charters that oblige them to educate, inform, and sustain social cohesion, and an ongoing challenge for public service media is interpreting their mission in the light of the contemporary societal and technological context. The performance metrics by which these organizations measure the success of their algorithmic recommendations will reflect these particular goals, namely profitability, loyalty, trust, or social cohesion.

Bodó, B., Helberger, N., Eskens, S., & Möller, J. (2019). Interested in Diversity. Digital Journalism, 7(2), 206–229.

So then, how does PSM do this? One way is to embed it in editorial policies to ensure PSM employees are operating as such. Another is to undertake PSM innovation remit and start teaching its users on how to work with algorithms effectively.

I don’t think ‘cracking open the black-box’ is all that useful to operationalise. They are often complex algorithmic formulas that require specialist expertise to design and interpret. But affording a control mechanism that enables users to ‘tweak’ how the algorithm performs may be not only possible, but crucial.

This is my focus for my last few weeks while I am working as a Research Fellow here in Hamburg.

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2019 Internet Research Overview

Jonathon_Hutchinson_Internet_Research

I’m lucky enough to be the Program Chair for the 2019 Association of Internet Researchers Conference, to be held in Brisbane in October. During the last week, I have engaged in the next task as Program Chair and gone through each individual submissions as I assign them to reviewers. This process involves reviewing the title, the abstract and then matching those papers to most suitable experts within the Association.

For those non-academic folk reading this, the conference process usually involves responding to a conference theme as designed by the conference and organisation committees, where potential delegates submit a proposal of anywhere between 500 and 1200 words addressing that theme. This proposal is then sent to a number of reviewers who conduct a blind review (blind meaning they do not know who the author(s) is/are), and then the paper is returned to the program chair with a review and overall score. The papers that receive a suitable score are invited to submit their paper to the conference, while the others are rejected.

We are just about to send the papers out to the reviewers after they have been assigned, which has provided me with some unique insights into the state of the field of internet research. Granted, the proposals are responding to the theme of Trust in the System, which will skew the submissions slightly, but typically academics will usually make their research align with any given conference theme as one’s field usually moves towards a common trajectory. The research that has been submitted can be read as a very strong overview and indicator of where the field is currently, and where it is heading.

Of course the items below are seen through my eyes, which is the first parse of the content coming through the submission portal – the final version of papers that will be accepted and presented will no doubt differ slightly from these initial observations.

What are the hot internet research topics?

As you would expect there is a growing number of research papers in the area of algorithms and platforms. The concept of automation and recommender systems has spread beyond Netflix and permeates in the areas of news and journalism, smart cities, politics, and healthcare.

Platform research continues to be incredibly important with work critically looking at YouTube, Instagram and Facebook as the most popular areas. It is interesting to see the rise of focus on emerging Chinese social media platforms – while I didn’t notice any on TikTok, there was a focus on WeChat and Weibo.

Other very popular areas of research interest include governance and regulation of internet and social media, news and journalism related to the internet, social media and politics, methodologies, labour and things/bots. There is also a group of researchers interested in Blockchain.

Who are internet researchers?

One of the core roles of the review assignment was aligning the papers that were submitted with relative experts in the field. To assist in this process, members of the Association nominate the topics and methodologies of which they are experts. This information provides a unique insight into how we see ourselves as internet researchers.

I have not crunched hard data on this, and would not publish any sensitive data from the Association, so this is a broad observation of my aggregated insights. That is, these are the methods fields that kept popping up when I was assigning papers to reviewers.

One of the most popular internet researcher categories that was available from the pool was ethnographers for social media – participant observation across social media practices. I directly fit into this category and needless to say much of the work undertaken by these researchers could easily align with my own research endeavours.

An emerging category that aligns with the growing field is social media algorithm analysts. As humanities and social scientists become increasingly involved in data science alongside media and communication, the rise of algorithmic analysis has become not only popular, but essential to understand our field.

News and journalism experts are often coupled with social media experts, and the other interesting (and popular) couplings included discourse analysis with social media, and social media and textual analysis/content analysis.

There is a significant gap however, in those researching identities and activism – from what I can see across most of the communication infrastructure formats. A number of researchers are presenting work in this area, yet we still don’t see ourselves as a large cohort of experts in identity research – which seems odd. Perhaps this is just how the methodological categories appear in the conference system, or perhaps this is true of how we (don’t) identify as researchers?

So what does all this mean?

Well, these insights certainly won’t change the field’s direction but it does offer some insights into the gaps of internet research. I think we have platform research covered, while social media and ethnography is very strong. Social media and politics also has a very strong presence.

But there are areas that lack representation in internet research, that would be useful for researchers to pick up on in the next 12 months.

These include:

  • Ethics – in both use of internet and how to research the internet;
  • Algorithm analysis – the growing field here requires more people to apply data science to their existing work on platforms, social media etc.;
  • Geography and geolocation – I didn’t notice any human geographers (I might have missed this) conducting work in internet research in this sample. There is a small group of researchers undertaking geolocation specific work, but there is room for more;
  • Internet histories;
  • Labour;
  • Public sphere;
  • Surveillance;
  • Apps;
  • Conflict; and
  • Commerce.

For me, a light bulb just went on with how to personally align my research after attending conferences. I guess I always thought of conferences as a chance to present my current work alongside the field. But after having undertaken this Program Chair role, I find it is better to also analyse the gaps in the field to position your work for the next 12 months.

Perhaps scholars have always worked like this and I am just catching up with the game, but having these insights has been incredibly useful to shape my thinking. Hopefully they are useful to others in some capacity.

Original photo by 85Fifteen on Unsplash.

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