TikTok is the international twin of China’s mobile short video app, Douyin, and one fastest growing platforms in world. Owned by Chinese tech giant, ByteDance, Douyin share many similarities terms appearance, functionality, platform affordances; however, they exist radically different markets are governed forces. Unlike other popular media China internationally, neither part big three giants nor five US. This provides an interesting case study to investigate how emerging internet company...

The microvideo platform TikTok has emerged as a popular hub for self-expression and social activism, particularly youth, but use of the platform’s affective affordances to spread awareness important issues not been adequately studied. Through an exploratory multimodal discourse analysis sample climate change-hashtagged videos, we examine how visibility, editability, association facilitate formation publics on TikTok. We describe TikTok’s features allow creators construct propagate...

(2021). ‘#OkBoomer, time to meet the Zoomers’: studying memefication of intergenerational politics on TikTok. Information, Communication & Society: Vol. 24, The Playful Politics Memes, Guest Editors: Mette Mortensen and Christina Neumayer, pp. 2459-2481.

Abstract TikTok, a short‐video app featuring video content typically between 15 and 60 s long, has become immensely popular around the world in last few years. However, worldwide popularity of TikTok requires platform to constantly negotiate with rules, norms regulatory frameworks regions where it operates. Failure do so had significant consequences. For example, for content‐related reasons, been (temporarily permanently) banned several countries, including India, Indonesia Pakistan....

Research on conspiracy theories in digital media has grown considerably recent years. As a result, the field of research become more multidisciplinary and diverse. To bridge disciplinary boundaries, identify foci analysis gaps, this study provides an interdisciplinary systematic literature review (2007–2020), analyzing current theorizing online, both quantitatively qualitatively. Findings show that majority studies lack definition fail to conceptually delineate from other forms deceptive...

We define scientific misinformation as publicly available information that is misleading or deceptive relative to the best evidence and runs contrary statements by actors institutions who adhere principles. Scientific violates supposition claims should be based on relevant expertise. As such, observable measurable, but research date has often missed opportunities clearly articulate units of analysis, consult with experts, look beyond convenient sources such social media content. outline ways...

In Chinese political discourse, “positive energy” (zheng nengliang) is a popular expression that has embodied mainstream ideology in China since 2012. This term also become prominent on Douyin, short-video platform. By June 2018, over 500 governmental accounts Douyin had promoted positive energy videos, and the content was viewed 1.6 billion times. even created separate trending section, Positive Energy, for videos dominant state ideology. study argues Energy feature significant. The...

In January, 2018, the global anti-sexual violence and harassment movement – popularly known as #MeToo had its Chinese nascence. This study drew upon theory of connective actions to investigate how digital technologies shift way in which feminist activism takes place. Both quantitative qualitative analyses were employed systematically analyse over 36,000 online articles related campaign. The identified 48 cases sexual allegations. Findings from time series analysis show that China's campaign...

This study investigates how COVID-19-related content, especially conspiracy theories, is communicated on "dark platforms" — digital platforms that are less regulated and moderated, hence can be used for hosting content creators may not tolerated by their more mainstream counterparts. The objective of this two-fold: First, it introduces the concept dark platforms, which differ from counterparts in terms governance, user-base technological infrastructure. Second, using 8kun Gab as examples,...

In recent years, conspiracy theories have pervaded mainstream discourse. Social media, in particular, reinforce their visibility and propagation. However, most prior studies on the dissemination of digital environments focused individual cases or as a generic phenomenon. Our research addresses this gap by comparing 10 prominent Twitter, communities supporting them, main propagators. Drawing dataset 106,807 tweets published over 6 weeks from 2018 to 2019, we combine large-scale network...

China's control of information online is often imposed by social media platforms in the name “rumor management.” This article examines content moderation strategies Sina Weibo, largest microblogging platform, regulating discussion rumors following 2015 Tianjin blasts. More than 100,000 Weibo posts were collected and categorized into three data sets: rumor from public, rumor‐debunking Weibo's official rebuttal accounts, removed system. Two content‐moderation strategies, namely removal,...

Objectives This study described the needs of pregnant women and contents online obstetric consultation in representative areas with various severity epidemic China. Design was a cross- sectional study. Setting Yue Yi Tong (YYT), free communication platform that allows to consult professional obstetricians. Participants All who used YYT platform. Intervention From 10 23 February, we collected data on consultations participants’ satisfaction through mild, moderate severe which were defined...

Since the onset of COVID-19, incidents racism and xenophobia have been occurring globally, especially toward people East Asian appearance descent. In response, this article investigates how an online community has utilized social media to engage in cathartic expressions, mutual care, discursive activism amid rise anti-Asian during COVID-19. Specifically, we focus on 1.7-million-strong Facebook group “Subtle Traits” (SAT). Throughout COVID-19 pandemic, 1,200 new posts it publishes daily...

Purpose This study empirically investigates how the COVID-infodemic manifests differently in different languages and countries. paper focuses on topical temporal features of misinformation related to COVID-19 five Design/methodology/approach COVID-related was retrieved from 4,487 fact-checked articles. A novel approach conducting cross-lingual topic extraction applied. The rectr algorithm, empowered by aligned word-embedding, utilised. To examine interplays with pandemic, a time series...

Migrant female sex workers (FSWs) are one of the most at-risk populations for HIV in China. This study demonstrates how multiple risk factors situated and vary by types work environments a sample 348 migrant FSWs Beijing. Participants reported high rates clients' refusal to use condoms (76%), unsafe with both clients (32%), non-paid regular partners (e.g. boyfriend or husband) sexually transmitted infection symptom (79%) last year. Only 22% had been tested HIV. Risk were compared three...

This article investigates how citizens contribute to rumour verification on social media in China, drawing a case study of Weibo communication about the 2015 Tianjin blasts. Three aspects citizen engagement verifying rumours via are examined: (1) they directly debunked related blasts, (2) verified official messages and (3) used Weibo’s community function collectively identify fact-check rumours. The argues that carrying out such activities, ordinary users were engaging practices journalism....

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become a prominent public issue, particularly in China, where the government announced plans to turn country into global AI power. This study analyses discourse about China through conceptual lens of spheres theory and counter-public spheres. It compares official narrative on People’s Daily Online with discussion social medium WeChat, we assumed that views would be challenged. Using combination qualitative computational methods, 140,000 AI-related articles...

Since its launch in 2018, TikTok has become one of the fastest-growing social media applications world, being particularly popular among young people. Memetic videos, which often feature lip-syncing, dance routines and comedic skits, are a defining platform. This study used quantitative content analysis qualitative thematic to examine science memes, an increasingly genre on TikTok, by analysing 1368 videos that science-related content. The results uncover most influential creators content,...

TikTok, a short-video app featuring video content between 15 and 60 seconds long, has in the last few years become immensely popular around world. Because of its Chinese ownership popularity among underage users, however, platform attracted criticism been subject to close scrutiny. Despite these hurdles, TikTok emerged as hub for creativity is being used by educators governments reach out younger demographic. This Special Section first collections articles growing field studies on legacy...

Democratic societies inherently depend on an informed citizenry. By shaping citizens’ voting behavior, fostering political cynicism, and reducing trust in institutions, misinformation can pose significant challenges to individuals societies. Against this backdrop, fact-checking initiatives aimed at verifying the accuracy of publicly disseminated (mis)information have flourished worldwide. However, existing research is disproportionately oriented toward Global North, with a focus United...

Despite the growing significance of Chinese digital diaspora, large-scale empirical research on its communication patterns platforms remains scarce. This study presents first analysis Jianzhong Quan (简中圈), a key diasporic community X (formerly Twitter). By examining temporal and thematic as well group composition, this provides valuable insights into how communities engage in political discussions while navigating contrasting media systems technopolitical landscapes. Given that has been...

With global media content databases and online being available, analyzing topical structures in different languages simultaneously has become an urgent computational task. Some previous studies have analyzed topics a multilingual corpus by translating all items into single language using machine translation service, such as Google Translate. We argue that this method is not reproducible the long run proposes new – Reproducible Extraction of Cross-lingual Topics Using R (rectr). Our utilizes...