Chinese-language Digital/Social Media in Australia: An Overview

Date and venue:

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26th November, 2020 (Thursday) at 14:00-15:30 (JST) / Online (Zoom)

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Speaker:

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Associate Professor Haiqing Yu is an ARC Future Fellow and Vice-Chancellor’s Principal Research Fellow with the Technology, Communication, and Policy Lab at the Digital Ethnography Research Centre, RMIT University. She is also an Associate Investigator of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society. Haiqing is a critical media studies scholar with expertise on Chinese digital media, communication and culture and their sociopolitical and cultural impact in China, Australia and the Asia Pacific. She has published in the areas of digital media and internet studies, social studies of technology and digital economy, journalism, gender, sexuality, disability, youth culture, health communication, diaspora studies, and Chinese studies. She is currently working on projects related to China’s digital expansion and influence in Australasia, Chinese-language digital/social media in Australia, the social implications of China's social credit system, and social studies of digital technologies in the Chinese context.

Abstract:

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This lecture explores the developments, challenges, and opportunities of Australia’s Chinese-language media—particularly the digital/social sector—against the backdrops of new waves of Chinese migration to Australia, China’s rise and its soft power agenda, and geopolitics in the triangular relations of China, Australia, and the United States. Drawing on two large scale surveys and a series of interviews with Chinese Australians involved in the Chinese-language digital mediasphere, it discusses news production and consumption on WeChat, self-media on and beyond “Chinese” social media platforms, Chinese-Australian new opinion leaders and citizen activism, and their digital entrepreneurial activities such as daigiou. The lecture ends with a discussion on the controversies around Chinese social media platforms (WeChat and TikTok) in the West, Chinese Australians’ responses, and the implication for multicultural citizenship in Australia.