Hello, I am out of the office until August 30. I will reply to emails when I return. Best, Cristyne Cristyne Hébert, PhD Associate Professor, Assessment and Evaluation Chair, Educational Technology Faculty of Education University of Regina On Aug 25, 2021, at 4:33 PM, Ziyu Jiao via Air-L <air-l@listserv.aoir.org> wrote:

Hi everyone,

I hope you’re making process of your research on these difficult days. I’m Ziyu, a last semester master student from the University of Sydney.

I’m recruiting survey respondents for my dissertation project! It concerns the employment of social media as a new arena for political propaganda across many countries. The topic is mostly related to internet research, international relations (also as my degree), political communication (e.g., propaganda, public perceptions, media literacy, digital information market, etc.). And any other area for who may consistently following the process of regulating online propaganda.

Desired participants should be qualified as “expert” in the related fields. It’s because that I adopt the Delphi method in the study. This method is an iterative anonymous panel discussion among knowledgeable individuals that allow them to present their future forecast and exchange opinions in a safe environment. You find more information about this method via this link: https://www.rand.org/topics/delphi-method.html (as who invented it in the 1960s). I plan to run three rounds of this survey, and currently it’s in fact running to the end of the first round.

I really don’t want you to be deterred by the expectation of “expertise”. The first-round already have 11 participation who comes form 9 countries, different academia interest and discipline. However, one of them may consider dropping out in the next round. So, I highly encourage anyone who may be interested and considering joining the project to reach out. I’m more than happy to talk!

You can also read the brief background information: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Jllh8DqWNBxI0AmcdBnTgSnI8pddUe4E/view?usp=s... for understanding the context of my project, And the participation information statement: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1rbRws5IlnGKfKfyKFpMFEZWjEUWdUDpm/view?usp=s...  for more information about your status as research participant as required as it’s required by the Ethical Department of the University of Sydney.

Due to the restriction of my research method, I need to know you first then send you access to the survey. But I can still brief you on the content of my questionnaire. It is designed in three parts to understand your perception of the employment and development of current online propaganda; how different stakeholders have addressed these problems; and discuss a few scenarios of future online environments and regulations. It also concludes a few jargon such as “information operation” “deterrence” “grand strategy”, and requires your judgment and analysis of the political or commercial motivation of countries and internet companies. If you have more knowledge of their technical ability to control and detect propaganda information on social media platforms, that would be desirable.

Please get in touch with me if you have a mere interest to join! You can also forward this information to anyone you think may interesting in my topic. Feel free to email me or call me if that’s more convenient for you.

Kind regards, Ziyu

Master student of International Relations Department of Social and Political Science Faculty of Arts and Social Science The University of Sydney zjia4517@uni.sydney.edu.au +86 183 2809 2092

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