Co-organized by the Journalism and Media Studies Centre and Society of Hong Kong Studies

 

Date:     Friday, 24 August 2018
Venue:  Room CPD 3.28, 3/F, The Jockey Club Tower, Centennial Campus, The University of Hong Kong
Free admission. Registration required. Seats available on a first come, served basis. Please register here.

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

Celine Song Yunya, Hong Kong Baptist University
Nick Zhang, Hong Kong Baptist University


17:45—18:30  Round Table


 

Co-organized by
Journalism and Media Studies Centre, The University of Hong Kong
Founded in 1999, the Journalism and Media Studies Centre (JMSC) of The University of Hong Kong offers professional journalism education at Asia’s premier university with classroom instruction by a faculty of experienced journalists and media scholars and internship opportunities at many of the world’s leading media companies.

Society for Hong Kong Studies
The Society for Hong Kong Studies (SHKS) is a non-profit, non-political, independent professional association based in Hong Kong. Formed in 2017 by more than 230 academics in 21 countries, the SHKS serves as a global platform for the multi-disciplinary and inter-institutional study of Hong Kong. Hong Kong’s relevance to many academic fields goes far beyond its minuscule geographical presence. SHKS is committed to enhancing the international visibility of Hong Kong studies, facilitating intellectual exchanges across academic disciplines, nurturing the research capacity of scholars and students, transferring scientific knowledge to the local and international communities, and developing new scholarships to understand Hong Kong in relation to China, Asia and beyond.​

An affiliate of the Association for Asian Studies, SHKS has developed collaborative relationships with other initiatives devoted to Hong Kong Studies. These include the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences at the University of Hong Kong, the Hong Kong Studies Initiatives at the University of British Columbia, and the Academy of Hong Kong Studies at the Hong Kong Education University.

 

Notes:

  • Directions to venue
  • A complimentary light lunch and morning and afternoon coffee & tea will be offered to all attendees.
  • Please bring your own water bottle to refill at the drinking water station at the venue. Water in small disposable plastic bottles are not on sale on campus.

For enquiries, please contact Benjamin Lam at the Society of Hong Kong Studies, benjaminlamht@hkstudies.org.

Free admission. Please register here.