Questions for Yingdan Lu's talk on "Narratives of Foreign Media Ecosystems in Chinese Social Media Discussions of the Russo-Ukrainian War"

[jamesallenevans]

Post your questions regarding Yingdan Lu's 2/22 talk: Narratives of Foreign Media Ecosystems in Chinese Social Media Discussions of the Russo-Ukrainian War How do audiences living in countries with strong government censorship learn about foreign news? The prevailing expectation is that these governments act as the sole gatekeepers of information about foreign affairs. This talk presents an alternative perspective – the construction of foreign political news results from complex, transnational assemblages of online and traditional media, even in seemingly “closed” information systems such as China. However, under conditions of stringent censorship, transnational assemblages reflect pre-existing geopolitical alignments. By comparing narratives about the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian War circulating on Chinese social media with narratives found in over 24 million articles from 10,000 Chinese, Russian, Ukrainian, and U.S.-based news websites, we find, in alignment with our theoretical expectation, that Russian news websites are the largest originators and influencers of narratives related to the Russo-Ukrainian War found on Weibo, followed closely by Ukrainian news websites and more distantly by Chinese and U.S. news websites. These results show that transnational assemblages, rather than the Chinese government alone, shapes the inflow of information and construction of foreign news in a system of stringent censorship. This paper provides content-based computational frameworks for identifying multilingual, cross-country, and cross-platform digital communication, shedding light on the consequences of information control to the global information ecosystem.

Paper in invitation email (currently under review).

[bhavyapan]

Thank you for sharing your research with us - this is very interesting and relevant to the current debates around using sophisticated NLP techniques to uncover patterns and observations about conversations on the web. However, I am wondering how your experience has been, working with unstructured data, particularly in the context of semantic data preparation and searches using LLMs or other generative AI tools. Where do you think new innovation and tools are headed in this context and how can they be adopted by computational social scientists better?

[XiaotongCui]

Very interesting research! I really like the research topic. I have a question that during the analysis of Weibo narratives, did the study consider the differences between user-generated content (UGC) and official media releases? How did this difference affect the assessment of narrative origins and influence? Thanks!

[QIXIN-ACT]

In China there's few big social media platforms and this study focuses on narratives related to the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian War on Weibo. Given that Weibo and other platforms (like WeChat) cater to distinct user demographics, how might the differing user bases of these platforms impact the findings of research into the construction and circulation of foreign news narratives? Specifically, how could the varied backgrounds and preferences of Weibo versus other platform users alter the reception and propagation of narratives stemming from Russian, Ukrainian, Chinese, and U.S. news sources in the context of stringent censorship?"

[kiddosso]

Hi Prof Liu, thanks for sharing your insightful research! Your research site Weibo is indeed an important social media platform in China, but I wonder does the same phenomenon apply to other social media platform in China. Selection of different media sites would be a key issue in carrying out research as such. Some media platform in China such as Douban might produce a different result than this one. Could your research finding reflect the general public opinion in China towards the Russo-Ukraine war?

[C-y22]

Thank you for this interesting research! How do narratives about the Russo-Ukrainian War on Chinese social media platforms, influenced by Russian, Ukrainian, Chinese, and U.S. news websites, reflect the complexities of transnational information flow and the impact of government censorship on shaping public perceptions in countries with restricted media environments?

[Hai1218]

In the context of the Chinese social media discussions on the Russo-Ukrainian War, to what extent do netizens' preferences for Russian and Ukrainian news sources over Chinese and American ones reflect an organic exercise of agency, influenced by perceptions of credibility and neutrality, rather than solely the result of state censorship mechanisms filtering out content deemed threatening and unfavorable to the regime?

[ecg1331]

Thank you for sharing your research!

I thought it was interesting that Russian news websites were the largest originators of the narratives surrounding the Russia-Ukranian war, with China being third.

Is this because Chinese news websites did not have as many reports regarding the topic? I would have assumed that the largest influence on narratives would originate in the country primarily using that media source.

[Jessieliao2001]

Thank you so much for your sharing! My curiosity is what impact do the emotional trends and sentiment shifts observed in social media narratives, particularly those related to major geopolitical events like the Russo-Ukrainian War, have on consumer confidence and market sentiment in China, and how might these trends subsequently influence macroeconomic indicators such as consumer spending, investment, and stock market performance?

[jinyz1220]

Thank you for sharing your inspiring work! My question is: What do you think about the impact of China's extensive internet censorship, often referred to as the 'Great Firewall,' on the formation and characteristics of public opinion within China on international political issues, particularly in light of limited access to foreign media outlets and social media platforms? What are the government's intentions on keeping the firewall, especially in terms of regulating public opinions?

[PaulaTepkham]

Thank you for sharing your informative paper. For me, the fact that the paper provide content-based computational frameworks for identifying multilingual, cross-country, and cross-platform digital communication is really intrigued me. Since, there might be a completely different environments, for example the different way of people communicate, how intense of government cencorship. How you deal with environment differences, and how you normalized it in order to analysis it fairly?

[natashacarpcast]

Thank you for the interesting research! I was surprised on the fact that narratives were most sympathetic towards Russia. From my point of view and immediate context, I've only seen the opposite: sympathy towards Ukraine and disgust towards Putin and Russia. It makes me reflect on how biased and narrowed my point of view can be sometimes, and how there are also a lot of other different realities and perceptions going on in other parts of the world.

[Caojie2001]

Thank you for sharing your interesting research, the conclusion of which aligns with my personal experience using Chinese social media. However, I have a question about the figure 3 on the page 17. Since the Russian full invasion of Ukraine began in late February 2022, and many of the events mentioned in the narrative description took place after the war started, how is the left part of the figure generated?

[zhian21]

The study examines how foreign news, especially from Russian and Ukrainian sources, shapes discourse on China's Weibo, challenging the notion that authoritarian governments can fully control narrative flow within their borders. Utilizing narrative analysis and DP-Means clustering, it highlights the complex interplay of narratives in a globalized, digital world and suggests authoritarian censorship and propaganda may need to adapt to these evolving information dynamics. Given the study's findings, how might the dynamics of information flow and public opinion formation in authoritarian regimes change in the face of increasing globalization and digital connectivity? Would these regimes need to adapt their censorship and propaganda strategies, and if so, how?

[Weiranz926]

Thank you for your sharing.
My question is: How does the internal Chinese political discourse and its portrayal of the Russo-Ukrainian War interact with or diverge from the narratives propagated through the transnational media assemblages you've identified? Specifically, are there instances where the Chinese government's stance or narratives significantly influence or alter the reception and interpretation of these foreign narratives among Chinese social media users?

[ethanjkoz]

It is not surprising that Russia is a top contributor to news around the Putin's war in Ukraine. It makes sense given the geopolitical relationships between China, Russia, the US, and Ukraine that China would rely more so on Russian news media. Something that I was hoping could be elaborated on was the use of narratives to understand conversations rather than simply topics or something more basic. I am still somewhat confused on how this mixture of word embedding and clustering is different from topic modeling? On a different note, I would be interesting to see a similar analysis for topics closer to home for China.

[Zhuojun1]

Thanks for sharing! Based on your findings, how do Chinese social media platforms' algorithms and content moderation policies influence the visibility and spread of foreign narratives about the Russo-Ukrainian War? Furthermore, how might these platform-specific dynamics interact with or counteract state censorship efforts and geopolitical interests in shaping public discourse?

[secorey]

Hi Professor Lu, Thanks for coming to present your research. My question is more related to the way that news tends to flow in China in general. In the US, it's my understanding that most of our international news comes from US sources that are abroad. Is this the same for Chinese news sources?

[grawayt]

Hi Professor Lu,

Thank you for sharing your paper! I am wondering what factors informed your decision to use huggingface to generate summaries of text within each cluster. What benefits does it have and were there other tools you considered using instead?

[JerryCG]

Dear Yingdan,

It is so interesting to see the foreign news that Chinese citizens receive are more likely to influenced by websites from other countries, instead of the China's official websites. I think it is a natural result that makes much sense since the Russia and Ukrain were the countries involved in this event. How about other events like US-China trade war? In this case, did US websites also have great influence on the news that Chinese obtain? I guess not? I believe it depends on the nature of the news that whether transnational platforms have great influence, especially when it touches the critical national interests of China.

Best, Jerry Cheng (chengguo)

[ksheng-UChicago]

Thank you for sharing. Sources illustrate that the Chinese government was reluctant to pick a side because Crimea left Ukraine and joined Russia through a referendum or a vote. The Chinese government was concerned about the potential risk that such an example would influence its domestic affairs. How do you understand this? Do you think such ambiguity of the Chinese government is causing the result?

[HamsterradYC]

Thank you for sharing your insightful research. Considering the study's reliance on mainstream media websites and news articles, which may not fully capture the engagement of average Weibo users in discussions, how can we understand the impact of such media information on the broader public's discourse and perception of related events? Additionally, beyond the influences of governmental censorship and international media, what role do non-state actors, such as influencers or unofficial news aggregators, assume in shaping narratives on Weibo? How do these entities maneuver through the censorship framework to influence public discourse?

[isaduan]

Fascinating topic! I wonder based on your observation, what are the strategies for counter-narratives to survive and spread in tightly control information environment?

[yunfeiavawang]

This is an impressive paper on multi-platform information flow with the application of NLP techniques! Thank you Yingdan! I have a question about the dataset selection. As illustrated in the article, your team concentrated on the similarity between Chinese social media text and other countries' new coverage text. They are justifiable data sources for identifying where the narratives on Chinese social media are from. However, considering people's habits of news consumption nowadays, social media could be a predominant source, not only in China but also in other countries. News websites could be an official information source but not representative of the whole population in a country. Why do your team only consider Chinese social media but ignore the social media data in the other three countries?

[nourabdelbaki]

Really looking forward to your presentation! I wonder if specific types of narratives originating from foreign news sources resonate more with Chinese audiences on Weibo, even under censorship? If so, what are the characteristics of these narratives and how might they circumvent censorship mechanisms? In order to identify specific content features that attract attention and potentially bypass censorship filters.

[fabrice401]

Very interesting research! For the observed influence of Russian and Ukrainian news narratives on Chinese social media discourse amidst strict censorship, how might these transnational media narratives interact with China's domestic policies and public opinion formation, especially in the context of China's geopolitical strategies and alignments? Furthermore, what implications does this interplay have for the global information ecosystem, given the role of digital platforms in transcending traditional boundaries of censorship and geopolitical influence?

[anzhichen1999]

If we want to examine the construction of foreign political news narratives within China's censorship environment, how might the article and methodology shed light on the dynamics and potential impacts of China's Great Firewall on the flow and shaping of international news narratives in the context of transnational media assemblages and cross-platform communication?

[zihua-uc]

Thank you for presenting this interesting paper! I wonder if there are parallels to the dynamics between US, China, Ukraine, and Russia; i.e., are there any other contexts (other countries with strong government censorship) that we can find similar phenomenon where non-government sources of information play a big part in the information ecosystem.

[kexinz330]

Very interesting topic! My question is that your study indicates Russian and Ukrainian news websites significantly influenced narratives on Weibo. I was wondering how do you interpret the influence of Ukrainian websites in the context of China's closer geopolitical alignment with Russia? Also, I would like to know if there are any plans to expand this research to other conflicts or international events, such as the Israeli-Palestinian war, to compare the findings with the Russo-Ukrainian war? Thank you!

[YucanLei]

The social media platforms in any country is limited, that is, there are only that many social media where one can acquire information from, this particularly holds true in China. Since the research focuses in Chinese social media, it should also be considered the social media platforms in China tend to appeal to different demographics. When collecting data, when taking this factor into account, what would happen if we focus on one particular platform? How is that differed from the holistic study?

[lbitsiko]

I was hoping you could further explain the theoretical underpinnings of "assemblages" and their use as an analytical tool in a broad context.

[yuhanwang7]

Thanks for sharing interesting and insightful research. As the research demonstrates a way of analyzing how China as gatekeeper plays its role well at the beginning of the information spread, I wonder what could be an effective way to find out the remaining space for free discussion of events like the Russo-Ukrainian War through the comments and regenerate contents?

[Marugannwg]

I see multiple comments mentioned about something related to distinct user demographics when it comes to various social media platforms. Even within each platform, there can be smaller cocoons/black holes that prevent a particular population from viewing certain content. I'm really curious about the data collection method --- how to mitigate the effect and get a large-scale, less biased data on social media today?

[hchen0628]

Thank you very much for your impressive research, which has answered many of my questions as someone who has personally experienced these discussions. However, I am still curious about how you determine that the distribution of narratives in the data stems from confrontations and alliances between countries rather than the stances of information. Is it possible that the criteria for China allowing the release of foreign news are more about judging whether it will negatively impact the CCP, and it just so happens that American news contains more of this narrative? In contrast, Russian news has less, thus resulting in the narrative distribution observed in the data. My question arises because one of Russia's major international media outlets, Russia Today, has published some articles pointing out the cooperation between the US and the Wuhan lab and suggesting that the virus was produced in Wuhan with US funding. However, because they are also potentially offensive to the CCP they do not seem to be spreading on the Chinese Internet

[shaangao]

Thanks for sharing your research! On Chinese social media, there is this phenomenon where people (sometimes even state media accounts) "cite" foreign news resources in order to appear as trustworthy, but they are in fact intentionally misrepresenting what's being said in the actual source news in order for it to serve their own purpose. I was wondering how you think this might affect the findings of this paper.

[zhuoqingli526]

Thank you for sharing insightful research. It suggests that even under such a censorship regime, the globalization of information flows can still impact domestic public discourse in nuanced ways. I'm curious whether the final results, which indicate that the majority of narratives found on Weibo originate from the online ecosystems of Russia and Ukraine, are a result of selective extraction and engagement with information by Chinese media and individuals after receiving signals about geopolitical alliances conveyed by the Chinese government.

[oliang2000]

The paper is intriguing as it leverages the distinct context of China's censorship to examine the correlation between narratives and geopolitics. Regarding data collection on the discourse related to the Ukraine War on Weibo, I am curious about how you would address potential sampling bias if the data was gathered by searching for specific keywords. Given the algorithms employed by Weibo for censorship, I am aware that individuals express more "radical" opinions using less easily searchable terms or homonyms.

[yuzhouw313]

Hello Professor Lu, thank you for sharing your research with us! I am wondering how does the categorization and ranking of news domains by international data sources like Amazon Alexa and Cloudflare align with or diverge from the domestic perception and consumption of news within China, Russia, and Ukraine? Additionally, what implications might these discrepancies have for understanding the global information ecosystem and its impact on geopolitical narratives?

[lguo7]

Thank you for sharing your exacting work! My question is: Given the restrictions on accessing foreign social media platforms in China, what mechanisms or digital pathways do Chinese audiences utilize to engage with and disseminate narratives from these foreign news websites, especially those from Russia and Ukraine, on platforms like Weibo?

[zimoma0819]

Thank you for sharing your research!!! I wonder: What impact do cultural differences between Chinese and Western social media platforms have on the framing and reception of international conflicts, such as the Russo-Ukrainian War, in online narratives?

[wenyizhaomacss]

Thank you for sharing the intriguing research! Your study suggests that geopolitical alignments influence the flow of information and narratives. Could you elaborate on the potential long-term geopolitical implications of such information flows? For instance, how might this affect China's relationships with not only Russia and Ukraine but also with the United States and other countries?

[Daniela-miaut]

Thanks for your inspiring study! I am particularly amazed by your methods. I am also curious if you consider add quantitative analysis to your interpretation o the data.

[icarlous]

Thank you for sharing your research. I'm interested in the dynamics of news dissemination in China. In the United States, it seems that much of our global news originates from American sources located overseas. Is a similar pattern observed with Chinese news sources?

[xiaowei-v]

It is a really interesting topic! I wonder if there is a way to identify the pattern of posts that were blocked or taken down during this period. Also, it is interesting to look at how source of information (from where people learn the news) influence the narrative since there might be greater heterogeneity in how people acquire information on international news in China, especially when it is related to sensitive political topics.

[Pritam0705]

Thank you for sharing your research. The study is a great read showcasing both qualitative and quantitative analysis/results. I would like to know about the content moderation policies of the Weibo platform, do you think they have any influence over managing the content flow on the platform? Also, according to you what might be the reasons for people's sympathetic narratives/beliefs toward Russia From what I remember we were receiving most of the tweets showcasing sympathy toward Ukraine because of which our narratives\beliefs were set (or can we say influenced).

[Anmin-Yang]

Thank you for sharing this interesting research. Given China and Russia's close geopolitical relationship, it is not surprising that Russia's voice is circulated in Weibo. What do you think would be the observation if you applied the same methodology on the conflict between Israel and Palestine?

[erikaz1]

This is a fascinating article. My questions echo Hchen and some others above. The paper identified numerous foreign sources of international affairs news which has been allowed to circulate around Weibo for domestic consumption. However, the exogenous origins of this news does not directly prove that the CCP is not the sole gatekeeper of foreign political news, as social media posts can still be censored on topics unfavorable for the Chinese government. I am also curious about the structure of news gathering in China--what is the journalism culture like? Lastly, how exactly were co-occuring articles identified?

[alejandrosarria0296]

Considering the intriguing findings presented in your paper on the construction of foreign political news within countries experiencing strong government censorship, I am particularly interested in the methodological nuances of your research. Could you elaborate on how you developed the content-based computational frameworks to analyze multilingual, cross-country, and cross-platform digital communications? Additionally, how did you ensure the accuracy and reliability of identifying and comparing narratives across such a diverse and vast dataset of over 24 million articles from different geopolitical contexts?

[jiayan-li]

Thanks for sharing. I'm wondering what role do you believe social media users in China play in shaping the narratives surrounding the Russo-Ukrainian War, considering the limitations imposed by government censorship and the influence of transnational media assemblages?

[fvescia]

Thank you for sharing your work! I'm curious to hear more about what it was like to do a multilingual analysis. Did you have Russian, Ukrainian, and Chinese speakers working on the project? If so, how did that inform your use of the MPNet-based and mDeBERTa-based models? If not, do you think your process would have looked different if there had multilingual researchers on the team? Or is the value-add of multilingual semantic search that it allows for analysis in languages the researchers don't themselves speak?

[Brian-W00]

Given the research showing Russian and Ukrainian news sites have a big impact on what is said about the Russo-Ukrainian War on Chinese social media like Weibo, how do these outside sources' views fit or not fit with what the Chinese government says about the war? With strict rules on what information can be shared, how does Chinese social media control or change these stories from other countries?