Really happy to receive the Top Poster award! 🎲 We turned our poster into a board game.

Roach is indeed a good friend of China. My previous paper identified him as the #3 most-cited foreign expert in Chinese media:

Thanks to my two collaborators, @pengyilang and @tianyangyt , from whom I have learned a lot. We all got PhD from @AnnenbergPenn , and this is our collaboration after graduation. Also huge thanks to reviewers and friends who provided valuable feedback!

We therefore suggest that, since the content provided by the companies is so important in directing audience attention and helping partisan media gain followers, there is a need to know more about how they operate. Interviews/field observations are encouraged for future studies.

We call these videos "viral entertaining media." The Epoch Times (and many others) buy license of the videos from companies such as JukinVideo, ViralHog and Storyful. We tried to look for more about these companies, but found no academic studies and very little media coverage.

The most effective content for audience growth and engagement is short videos such as cute animals and funny clips. These videos have nothing to do with politics, but they are the cornerstone of ET's ability to build a fan base and become an influential far-right media outlet.

Our main finding is that The Epoch Times does NOT rely on anti-China or even U.S. far-right political content to draw followers on Facebook—political posts at best only temporarily increase engagement and do not significantly increase followers.

Previously, @kevinroose of NYTimes and @svzwood at The Atlantic noticed the intriguing transformation of the outlet and wrote stories that provided insightful observations. In a recent paper, we empirically reveal the main strategies of its transformation

As shown in the figure, it has far more followers than Breitbart and Newsmax on Facebook. According to third-party ratings, it is indeed very biased and unreliable content-wise.

The Epoch Times may still be seen by some as an anti-China media outlet owned by Falun Gong. However, since 2016, its English-language version has become an important actor of far-right media in the U.S. Its main agenda changed from anti-China to pro-Trump.

How do far-right media leverage social media logics and entertainment content to amplify their voices? We are excited to share our new research in New Media & Society (w/ @tianyangyt @fangkc ).

到Threads关注我和新闻实验室吧⬇️

Thanks to two fabulous student co-authors Jing and Xiaoyun. Xiaoyun is a core member of the large database project. Their contribution is essential ❤️

This study is part of a larger project I have been developing: a database of journalistic sourcing in Chinese media. We will launch a website to showcase the database soon. It can be used to study multiple aspects of Chinese media and society.

We borrow the concept of "authoritarian environmentalism" and show that Chinese media used the issue of climate change to glorify the political performance of the leadership, rather than encouraging citizens and stakeholders to participate in environmental actions.

We identify 3 features: 1️⃣ climate change is used to propagate the progress and achievements of China 2️⃣ sources are mainly officials who convey and interpret gov policy, drowning the voices of experts and citizens 3️⃣ critical opinions are gradually muted

We tackle this question through analyzing media articles on climate change in Chinese media. Specifically, we examine sources (who were mentioned and cited) on this issue in three newspapers. Sourcing is important because sources provide facts and opinions, even set the tone.

We know that climate change is a politicized issue in the West, especially in US partisan politics. But what about China? ��Ecological civilization” is now enshrined in China's constitution. Does that mean China’s model of environmental protection is superior?

🌡️🌏 New publication on climate change in Environmental Communication: (a thread🧵) https://t.co/YbZ9YBsGhB

感谢Karen愿意用中文来录制这期播客，许多朋友都觉得Karen说得太好啦👏