Date: Monday October 28, 2024

Time: 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM

Location: LIB1117

Speaker: Dion Stevers, PhD Candidate at the Hertie School’s Centre for Digital Governance

Abstract

This presentation explores the ‘cloud supervising’ (yunjiangong 云监工) trend, which emerged on Weibo in January 2020, taken as an example of how digital participatory cultures and propaganda intersect. By mixing computational methods with in-depth qualitative analysis, I argue that online popular support for the state and its policies often takes the form of patriotic online movement. While state media cannot determine cultural production on platforms like Weibo, my findings suggest that they play a significant role by amplifying such online support. These observations indicate that information control strategies are evolving, as the state navigates a landscape where citizen engagement is increasingly complex and dynamic.

Bio

Dion Stevers is a PhD candidate at the Hertie School’s Centre for Digital Governance. He holds a BSc in Psychobiology from the University of Amsterdam, a BA in China Studies from Leiden University, and an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from the University of Oxford. His research looks at the changing relationship between old and new media, with a special focus on contemporary China.