As China’s internet has matured, from its initial web-based origins through innovative ‘2.0’ and ‘3.0’ innovations, so too have the community sentiments that criss-cross the People’s Republic of... Show moreAs China’s internet has matured, from its initial web-based origins through innovative ‘2.0’ and ‘3.0’ innovations, so too have the community sentiments that criss-cross the People’s Republic of China’s networked society. A perennial issue has been the question of how Chinese nationhood has been constructed and reproduced through digital technologies and how the evolving affordances of internet technology have contributed to China’s many nationalisms. This short essay reflects on this history. It discusses how early internet forums and blogs allowed users to coordinate their sense of Chineseness, how these processes later changed when communication moved to widely adopted microblogging platforms and what we can expect of the future, as China’s media environments shift their focus towards short-messaging applications and video-sharing platforms. What will happen to Chinese nationalisms as China’s platformisation enters its next phases? Show less
This dissertation studies the construction of Chinese nationalism by the Chinese government and media companies through mass communication of government-staged and abrupt events in the reform era... Show moreThis dissertation studies the construction of Chinese nationalism by the Chinese government and media companies through mass communication of government-staged and abrupt events in the reform era between 2008 and 2012. It examines how Chinese audiences express online nationalist sentiments, representing whether the communication of media events meets the social demands established by “dream discourses.” Using mixed qualitative and quantitative methods, it focuses on two case studies: the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2012 Diaoyu (Senkaku) Islands incident. The dissertation finds that these mass media events play a significant role in shaping Chinese state nationalism and popular nationalism. The related mass communication helps the Chinese government increase or, at least, maintain its legitimacy through various strategies. The findings of this dissertation also show that as Chinese audiences have increasingly voiced themselves in the information age, the government will keep treating the robust, uneasy entanglement of nationalism, globalization, and digital media more cautiously for its social development and stability. Show less
Journalism, both as a profession and as a practice, is changing rapidly. Technologies inside the newsroom are mutating, and journalistic practices, norms, and values are being reshaped with them.... Show moreJournalism, both as a profession and as a practice, is changing rapidly. Technologies inside the newsroom are mutating, and journalistic practices, norms, and values are being reshaped with them. Drawing on seven months of ethnographic fieldwork in Chile, including participant observation, I argue that the introduction of certain digital technologies has transformed journalists’ ability to negotiate editorial values. Media professionals are increasingly feeling trapped into routines established by third-party platforms. The conclusions suggest that the way newsrooms approach new digital technologies have created a lack of harmony in the way journalists are expected to work, the topics they are expected to cover, and the journalistic values they hold true. Show less
This dissertation explores the question of what contemporary mapmaking practices can reveal about the ever-evolving field of graphic design.The shift towards digital modes of production has... Show moreThis dissertation explores the question of what contemporary mapmaking practices can reveal about the ever-evolving field of graphic design.The shift towards digital modes of production has fundamentally changed the field of graphic design, to the extent that a clear distinction between the producers and users of visual information no longer exists. The evaluation of graphic design’s recent developments is too strongly focused on what happened to the persona of the graphic designer. In this research an alternative model is introduced that focuses on the technologies that have shaped the field.Graphic design and cartography have different origins and concerns, but their contemporary practices have much in common. In this research, cartography is considered a testing ground to understand the transformations of graphic design. Adopting notions from post-representational cartography, three mapmaking practices of amateurs and technology companies were selected to survey, analyse and test that transformation.The dissertation contains of a series of visualizations that embody an alternative documentation of the research. The development of alternative and complementary languages is considered to be an essential aspect of artistic research. This parallel visual documentation of the research questions the discursive text, and all the prejudices and histories contained within it. Show less
My research includes both qualitative and quantitative analyses of the public discourse in Chinese online media platforms. Throughout my research, I have incorporated a variety of digital tools for... Show moreMy research includes both qualitative and quantitative analyses of the public discourse in Chinese online media platforms. Throughout my research, I have incorporated a variety of digital tools for data analysis. My study of China’s geopolitical strategy with respect to the current Belt and Road Initiative and its challenges ahead is to understand how digital media are shaping the communicative strategies of the traditional mass media in contemporary China. By examining the intertwined relations among traditional mass media, social media platforms, China’s cultural governance and policy-making mechanisms, my research also expands our understanding of how the advances of the ICTs influence the government’s communicative strategies. Show less
Faust, M.; Schneider, F.A.; Herdin, T.; Ji, D.; Negro, G.; Zhou, T.; ... ; Oliveira Nascimento, A.K. de 2018
In this article, contributions from scholars working in the field of visual communication and/or online communication are gathered whose scholarly work falls into the BRICS countries realm. The... Show moreIn this article, contributions from scholars working in the field of visual communication and/or online communication are gathered whose scholarly work falls into the BRICS countries realm. The interviews are framed by a brief sketch of the relevance of BRICS countries research in communication and media studies and some prospective comments on this novel field. The contributing scholars in this issue focus on China and Brazil in particular and work across the globe in Germany, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, PR China, the UK and Brazil. They shared their ideas on the subject even though their scholarly roots lie in fields as diverse as regional studies, political studies, communication and media studies and educational studies. Their thoughts were collected through email interviews and they are presented here in form of a cross-disciplinary dialogue on the issue of visual online communication in BRICS countries and the De-Westernization discourse. Gratefulness goes out to all the ones who have contributed and hopefully this project will have a say in many future dialogues between scholars from across the world. Show less
