Author: Tong Wang

The recent coronavirus outbreak both in China and worldwide has become a breeding ground for conspiracy theories. According to a recent Washington Post article, “roughly 2 million tweets peddled conspiracy theories about the coronavirus” in a period of three weeks since the outbreak began to spread across the world. In “A Riot of Conspiracies”, Fine … Continue reading Conspiracy Theories and the Coronavirus Outbreak

In “Weibo, WeChat, and the Transformative Events” by Deluca et al, the authors discuss the power of social media to generate “wild public screens” and give rise to activism and free expression, in spite of the active and often overwhelmingly powerful censorship apparatus employed by the authoritarian Chinese state. In this post, I wanted to … Continue reading China’s Social Media and the “Fifty-Cent Party”

In “SMALL CHANGE”, Malcom Gladwell pushes back on the notion that Twitter and other forms of social media fundamentally change how protests and revolutions are organized. Drawing on the distinction between strong ties and weak ties, Gladwell argues that social media cannot provide what is essential for a successful social movement – strong tie among … Continue reading On Social Media and Activism

In "Does Anyone Really Identify with Lara Croft", Shaw struggles to unravel the complex process of identification between video game players and their in-game characters/avatars, clarifying the commonly employed yet seldom clearly defined notion of "identification". Shaw points out that numerous scholars have recognized the enormous potential of video games to generate “true” identification, due … Continue reading Identification or Not in Video Games