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@hkstudies.org.