The Sunflower and Umbrella Movement on Facebook

Jointly organized by the Cluster of LLCE, China Studies Centre and the Department of Chinese Studies, the University of Sydney

4-5:30pm, 23 October 2017

Teachers College Lecture Room 306

Contact:  Chiew-Hui Ho

Email:     chiewhui.ho@sydney.edu.au

Two large-scale protest movements erupted in 2014 in the China region six months apart. The Sunflower Movement in Taiwan and the Umbrella Movement in Hong Kong bear striking similarities in context and nature, one of the latter was the prominent role of Facebook in them. This seminar presents the result of a study of the content published about the two movements on selected public pages of the social media platform. It seeks to understand how Facebook played a part in each of the movements and how the two compare. It examines what was communicated by whom and what the communication aimed to achieve. The study differentiates three types of actors—individuals, media, and organisations—and acknowledges the existence of a counter-movement in each of the locations. Analysing the communicative function and stance along the post-comment-reply communication chain provides insight into the organisation of the movements in the online networked environment.

About the speaker:

Dr Joyce Nip joined the University of Sydney in 2010 and is senior lecturer in Chinese media studies. Before coming to Sydney, she had more than 20 years of experience in journalism teaching, research and practice as assistant professor and as a journalist mainly in Hong Kong. Her present research interest focuses on the political and social implications of the Internet and social media in Chinese societies. She is a member of the editorial board of Journalism Practice and Digital Journalism.