[Air-L] Symposium on Digital Research into Media and Politics

[kwfu]

Symposium on Digital Research into Media and Politics: International & Hong Kong Studies

Co-organized by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre<https://jmsc.hku.hk/> and Society for Hong Kong Studies<https://www.hkstudies.org/>

Time: 9:30am - 6:30pm
Date: Friday, 24 August 2018
Venue: CPD 3.28, 3/F, The Jockey Club Tower, Centennial Campus, The University of Hong Kong

Free admission. Details and registration here<https://jmsc.hku.hk/digitalresearch/>.

Introduction
Digital media platforms are increasingly the places where people engage in politics and with the news. How people talk about public affairs online and act on political matters can potentially shed light on issues of political behaviour, dynamics of public opinion formation, the rise of collective and connective actions, etc. Meanwhile, the study of actions and talks in cyberspace present a range of new methodological opportunities as well as challenges. This symposium brings together researchers who have been engaging in the study of digital media and politics in Hong Kong, China, and the East Asian region to introduce their research projects and/or share their research findings. The aim is to showcase how a variety of available methodological approaches – ranging from conventional surveys to various “digital methods” – can be employed to address issues of theoretical and empirical significance. The symposium shall also provide a platform for interested academics and graduate students to discuss the potential and possible caveats in the study of digital media and politics.

09:30—09:45  Opening Remarks
09:45—11:00  Panel 1 — Research into Media and Politics: From Traditional Survey to Digital Methods
Identity, ideology, and social media (King-wa Fu, The University of Hong Kong, Cassius Chow, The University of Hong Kong
Y. L. Ng, The University of Hong Kong)

Divide et Impera: How cyberbalkanized social media tear apart our society
Chung-hong Chan, University of Mannheim

A comparative analysis of social media news engagement in Asia (Michael C.M. Chan, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Hsuan-ting Chen, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Francis L.F. Lee, The Chinese University of Hong Kong)

11:00—11:30  Coffee Break
11:30—12:45  Panel 2 — Digital Politics in China and Beyond
How repression affects mobilisation, moralisation and social identification on Chinese social media
Christian Göbel, University of Vienna

The connective logic of discourse building in networked activism: Computational text analysis of Facebook comments during candlelight movement in South Korea
Shin-Haeng Lee, Sejong University

Using smog-related data of Chinese Sina Weibo to explore correlation between health issues and relevant regions
Nicolas Turenne, Université Paris-Est Marne-la-Vallée

12:45—14:10  Lunch
14:10—14:15  Remarks on the Afternoon Session
14:15—15:45  Panel 3 — Digital Research on Contentious Politics
In between collective and connective actions: Issue framing in a social media age (King-wa Fu, The University of Hong Kong
Edmund Cheng, Hong Kong Baptist University, Samson Yuen, Lingnan University)

Facebooking nationalism: The construction of Hong Kong nationalism on Facebook
Justin Ho, The University of Edinburgh

The strategies and efficacy of protest movements in Hong Kong in the digital age
Marko Skoric, City University of Hong Kong

The causal impact of the Hong Kong’s Umbrella Movement on online swearing
Hai Liang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong
Gary K.Y. Tang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

15:45—16:15  Coffee Break
16:15—17:45  Panel 4 — Digital Research on Public Opinion and Media Discourses
An evolutionary model of opinion diversity: A neural network approach
Junior Zhu, The University of Hong Kong

Tracking censorship of WeChat public accounts in China: A computational social science approach
Yun Tai, The University of Hong Kong

The impact of social media campaign on electoral performance: A study of the 2016 Hong Kong Legislative Council election
Gary K.Y. Tang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

News sentiment and public engagement: An analysis of political news posts and Facebook comments in political events (Yunya Song, Hong Kong Baptist University, Nick Zhang, Hong Kong Baptist University)

17:45—18:30  Round Table
For enquiries, please contact Benjamin Lam at the Society of Hong Kong Studies, benjaminlamht at hkstudies.org.