Online Workshop on Nationalism, Populism and Social Media

Ting Luo, Digital Politics Research Group

We will explore the rise of nationalism and populism on social media.

We have witnessed an increasing popularization on social and political issues in the world in recent years. In China’s cyberspace, online political discussion often involves nationalism, a cultural and cognitive ideology related to collective identity and social solidarity for a nation or a state. Outside China, we observe parallel scholarly discussions on populism, a vague and thin ideology equated to nationalism by some. How to conceptualize nationalism and populism? How do populist expressions and nationalist expressions form and change online? What is the role of social media in the process? In this workshop, we hope to start a conversation and compare empirical findings from studies on nationalism in China’s cyberspace and populism outside China. In addition, we will address the methodological challenges brought by the nature of social media data - such as bots, censorship, and noisy and high-dimensional data - and the ethical issues surrounding data collection from social media.

<h3>Organisers: </h3>Ting Luo, Senior Lecturer in Political Communication, Manchester Metropolitan UniversityYan Wang, Lecturer in Digital Sociology, Lancaster University<h3>Sponsor: </h3>British Academy

<h3>About the link to the event:</h3>The link to the online event will be available closer to the event day.

<h3>A﻿genda: Friday, May 12, 2023</h3>9:30 - 9:45	Keynote Speech 	 Professor Peter Gries, Manchester China Institute, University of Manchester9:45 - 11:15	Session I: Methodological Challenges of Social Media Data AnalysisAbstract: Social media are playing an increasingly important role in politics. Governments rely on social media to reach the public and receive feedback on policies. Citizens rely on social media to acquire, share, reproduce, and discuss political information. Interactions and communications between political actors on social media generate big data that can be used to capture real-time, dynamic, and fine-grained changes in politics. To social scientists, social media offers an excellent opportunity to take the pulse of society and uncover dynamic interactions between political actors. However, there are methodological challenges brought about by the nature of social media data. In the data collection stage, researchers rely on data sources provided by social media platforms. However, how the platforms select data remains a black box, making validating and replicating the results hard. There are also ethical issues involved. Do we simply assume that accessible social media data are public, thus not requiring informed consent and consideration of participants’ right to withdraw? In analysing social media data, the nature of social media also poses great challenges. How do we deal with bots, censorship, and the like where user-generated content is manipulated or fake? How do we analyse and aggregate noisy and high-dimensional data to extract meaningful findings? To what extent can we generate the findings from a sample of social media data, the population of which is unknown? In this session, we invite scholars working on computational social science and big data analysis to share their insights on the methodological challenges of social media data analysis. Speakers: Dr Sian Brooke, LSE; Dr Anfan Chen, The Chinese University of Hong Kong; Dr Pu Yan, Peking University; Dr Yan Wang, Lancaster University.11:15-11:30	Break11:30-13:00	Session II: The Institutional, Communicative, and Digital Roots of Collective Identity FormationAbstract: We have witnessed an increasing popularization of social and political issues in recent years. In China’s cyberspace, online political discussion often involves nationalism, a cultural and cognitive ideology related to collective identity and social solidarity for a nation or a state. Outside China, we observe parallel scholarly discussions on populism, a vague and thin ideology equated to nationalism by some. The key issue behind nationalism and populism pertains to collective identity formation. Our focus in the session is the institutional and societal factors that impact the formation of collective identity. How do populist expressions and nationalist expressions form and change online? What is the role of social media in the process? What is the role of the state in creating the collective identity? Does the rise of a particular collective identity have anything to do with the governing practices at the national and local levels? In this session, we invite scholars working on political communication, digital governance, and participatory governance to share their insights on collective identity formation in the digital age. Speakers: Professor Bingchun Meng, LSE; Professor Ralph Schroeder, University of Oxford; Dr Catherine Owen, University of Exeter; Dr Ting Luo, MMU.13:00-14:00 Break14:00-15:30 Session III Nationalism and Its Political ImplicationsAbstract: Nationalism in China is on the rise, as we have seen in many anti-foreign online protests in response to political incidents, such as the 2016 Taiwan Presidential elections, the South China Sea issue, the Zhao Wei incident, the Horton event, and the THAAD dispute. Social media have provided a venue for the mobilization of these online nationalist movements and protests. How do we understand the rise of these online nationalist protests in recent years? How do we conceptualize nationalism? Does the rise of nationalism in China tell us anything about the state’s Chinese vision? What are the political implications of nationalism in China? In this session, we invite scholars working on Chinese politics and international relations to share their insights on the political implications of Chinese nationalism. Speakers: Dr Jonathan Sullivan, University of Nottingham; Dr Andrew Chubb, Lancaster University; Dr David Stroup, University of Manchester; Dr Tao Wang, University of Manchester.15:30 - 15:45 Keynote Speech Professor Daniela Stockmann, The Hertie School, Berlin. 15:45 - 16:00 Concluding remark

Online Workshop on Nationalism, Populism and Social Media

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Online Workshop on Nationalism, Populism and Social Media

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