Research Title: Cultural Imagination of the Other: Chinese women in Hollywood Cinema
Hollywood has long been fascinated by Chinese women’s images (Marchetti, 1993; Leong, 2005; Funnell, 2014). However, the images shift with the development of American society and the changes in the Sino-American relationship. The representations of Chinese women in Hollywood cinema have contributed to shaping Americans’ diverse imaginings of China and Chinese during different periods (Leong,2005). For example, Dagon lady, played by Anna May Wong; The vicious assistant, presented by Tsai Chin; The exotic prostitute, illustrated by Nancy Kwan; Warrior women, portrayed by Ming-Na Wen and Lucy Liu; Kungfu girl, played by Ziyi Zhang, Bingbing li, and Michelle Yeoh. All of the actors have encountered constraints and opportunities due to their gender and race attributes but sought opportunities and ways to succeed both within and despite these constraints. However, due to cultural differences, their representations in Hollywood cinema are often controversial and thus cause social and academic debates. This research investigates the cinematic representations of Chinese women in Hollywood cinema by specifically focusing on three Chinese American actors: Anna May Wong (1905-1961) (黄柳霜), Nancy Kwan (1939- )（关南施）, and Lucy Liu (1968- )（刘玉玲）in order to explore the ever-changing imaginations of Chinese identity in Hollywood cinema. Their experience of gender, race, and ethnicity in Hollywood cinema is influenced by the social and film-industrial development in America and the Sino-American relationship. Wong, Kwan, and Liu are the most representative female Chinese American actors in their generation. Likewise, all of their American citizenships are often in question because of their racial heritage. The inquiry here is set in the separated periods when the images of these three actresses are largely represented in Hollywood films, namely, the 1920s to the 1940s for Wong, the 1960s to the 1980s for Kwan, and the 2000s to the 2020s for Liu.
Heyang Hu
Full-time PhD student in media and communications
Research Title: The information quality of Covid-19 coverage: A comparison between The Netherlands and the UK
As WHO has stated, a parallel “infodemic” is undermining efforts to combat the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Although misleading information about Covid on social media and its impacts were discussed in a vast majority of studies, the quality of information on mainstream media was largely overlooked. This project compares the performance of different types of media in the Netherlands and the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic by adopting a unique analytical framework for evaluating information quality. It aims to re-examine the values of public service media in European societies. Finally, it will provide an insightful discussion for addressing key issues that are central to the future of building a high-quality information environment in the post-covid era.
Xingfu Yu
Full-time PhD student in media and communications
Research Title: Comparing metaphors behind social media posts containing ‘COVID-19’ during its early stage in China and UK: Using Weibo and Twitter as examples
Metaphors are crucial for people to express attitudes and beliefs. During COVID-19 pandemic, lockdown and social distancing policies stimulated many internet users to express themselves on social media, where metaphors were widely used and significantly influenced their understanding of, and responses to, COVID-19. How people conceptualize and react to COVID-19 can be represented by their online discourse diachronically. To the best of my knowledge, no diachronic study has compared COVID-19 related metaphors on social media between China vs UK. They are comparable as social media discussions were synchronized with COVID-19 trends, and both countries were accused to provide incorrect information for the public.
The aim of this study is to compare the use of metaphors to ‘COVID-19’ behind social media posts from the institutional accounts on Sina Weibo vs Twitter and the comments below those posts in the early stage of the pandemic. I will further discuss whether discursive metaphors are more likely to drive government and public responses than scientific facts in such a severe public health crisis as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Yifang Yuan
Full-time PhD student in media and communications
Research Title: War Coverage, Foreign Policy and Media System: The 2022 Russo-Ukrainian War in the British and Indian Media
Existing research of war coverage is largely dominated by content analysis, often identifying patterns without providing thorough theoretical explanations. Additionally, most studies focus on Western media’s coverage of wars initiated by Western countries, with limited attention to conflicts in geopolitically significant third parties and insufficient exploration of Global South media. To address these gaps, this project explores media coverage of the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian War, focusing on how political and economic factors shape news representation.
This project aims to explain and compare the coverage of the war in the media of United Kingdom and India, building on Hallin and Mancini’s (2004) Comparing Media Systems models. Specifically, this project contributes to the application of media system theories to the explanation of media content patterns by (a) incorporating media system factors into a priori hypotheses and (b) introducing meso-variables (e.g. ownership, foreign policy) as mediating variables between macro variables (media system characteristics) and micro variables (news reporting patterns).
Qi Wang
Full-time PhD student in media and communications
Research Title: The Impact of Vernacular Mobile Phone Photography on Ideas of Beauty in Everyday Life
Historically, photography as a form of art was primarily associated with skilled artists and professionals, especially during the early nineteenth century when it was introduced. However, accessibility to photography has increased over time, particularly since the beginning of the twentieth century. In the twenty-first century, the increasingly widespread use of mobile phones has made photography more accessible to the public, and taking photographs with a phone has become common. Taking photographs with mobile phones has become commonly accessible to the everyday user. The popularity of mobile phone photography has drawn significant attention from both the public and academia.
My study investigates whether and how the everyday practice of vernacular photography among mobile phone users may impact their long-term aesthetic taste in identifying and appreciating beauty in their everyday moments. Whether photography enhances people’s aesthetic experience and lets them view things beautifully will be examined in the context of mobile phone photography. Qualitative interviews are employed, including interviews with mobile phone practitioners to gain their insights and concepts of beauty in relation to their photography practice.
Hanxue Zhang
Full-time PhD student in media and communications
Research Title: Exploring the narrative design of interactive online films for improving the interactor’s participation and understanding
Nowadays, video media such as films, TV series, and online series have become critical entertainment for current people who need to relax and escape the pressures of reality. The way people watch television has evolved in recent years. Video productions have also developed in many forms in response to different audience needs and technological advances. With the rapid development of the Internet, AI, VR, and other technologies, interactive drama has become a reality for the audience to ‘touch’. This research will make an in-depth understanding and exploration of audiences’ feelings, experiences, and needs and establishes a close relationship between the audience and interactive online films/series.
Zitong Zhu
Full-time PhD student in media and communications
Research Title: Moving Image Practice in Contemporary China: Institutional Context, Stakeholders and Artistic Perspectives
This doctoral project focuses on emerging Chinese artists who produce films of various lengths designed for exhibition in art galleries rather than cinemas. Over the past few decades, there has been a notable international surge in the convergence of art and cinema, with moving images increasingly showcased in galleries and museums, and filmmakers venturing into contemporary art (Elsaesser, 2018). This trend was catalysed by landmark exhibitions such as Hall of Mirrors: Art and Film since 1945 (1996) , Into the Light: The Projected Image in American Art 1964-1977 (2001), Le mouvement des images/The movement of images (Georges Pompidou Center, Paris, 2006) and The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality, and the Moving Image (Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC, 2008) which document the rising prominence of moving image works in the art world. In China, this phenomenon emerged post-2000, though Chinese video art dates back to the 1980s (Dong, 2019). However, despite the growing significance of moving image works, scholarly attention to the manifestations of this phenomenon in the Chinese context remains limited (Berry, 2014, 2015). The existing literature has largely focused on established Chinese artists like Yang Fudong and Cao Fei, overlooking the younger generation of artists active in this field (artists like Yang Di, Yang Dingliu and Hu Wei). Through in-depth interviews with Chinese moving image practitioners, the research aims to fill this gap by examining how emerging Chinese artists, through their moving image works, position themselves within the contemporary art world and the domestic and international art markets. The project also seeks to understand the extent of the institutional support for such artistic practices in contemporary China.
Zixian Zhao
Full-time PhD student in media and communications
Research Title: Setting the Political Agenda: TikTok’s Security Concerns in the Media Discourses of America, China and Other Countries
TikTok, one of the most renowned social media platforms, has been accused by the U.S. of potentially leaking user data to the Chinese government for surveillance and censorship. This proposed study aims to explore the media discourse surrounding TikTok’s security concerns in the U.S., China, Russia, India, Brazil, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and France. The research seeks to fill the gap in understanding TikTok’s geopolitical and security implications by analyzing how different countries shape media agendas regarding these concerns. The study will examine the media framing of TikTok’s security issues, identifying key emphases in each country’s coverage between November 1, 2019, and May 15, 2023. The findings will contribute to the theoretical understanding of agenda-setting in international media and emphasize the importance of balanced, professional journalism in global discourse.
Hoang Thi Kim Quy
Full-time PhD student in media and communications
Research Title: Vietnamese Media and the Russia-Ukraine War
Kim’s research interests are war coverage, political communication, media practice, and foreign policy. Before her current role, she was a reporter/editor covering international news for a state-owned online newspaper in Vietnam. She attained a BA and MA in Journalism in Vietnam and an MA in International Relations in Ireland under a fully funded scholarship from the Irish Government.
There is widespread recognition that the Russia-Ukraine war is taking place not only on the battlefield but also in the informational sphere. However, scholarship on the war’s media coverage has significantly focused on big-sized and more influential countries while lacking attention to small-sized countries, particularly Latin America, Asia, and Africa. To partly fill this gap, my project focuses on how Vietnamese media cover the war and examines the relationship between that coverage and its national foreign policy. The research aims to enrich scholarship about the Russia-Ukraine wars and media-foreign policy relations and extend the discussion of Vietnamese media in academic research.
Yao Cheng
Full-time PhD student in media and communications
Research Title: Cultural Imagination of the Other: Chinese women in Hollywood Cinema
Hollywood has long been fascinated by Chinese women’s images (Marchetti, 1993; Leong, 2005; Funnell, 2014). However, the images shift with the development of American society and the changes in the Sino-American relationship. The representations of Chinese women in Hollywood cinema have contributed to shaping Americans’ diverse imaginings of China and Chinese during different periods (Leong,2005). For example, Dagon lady, played by Anna May Wong; The vicious assistant, presented by Tsai Chin; The exotic prostitute, illustrated by Nancy Kwan; Warrior women, portrayed by Ming-Na Wen and Lucy Liu; Kungfu girl, played by Ziyi Zhang, Bingbing li, and Michelle Yeoh. All of the actors have encountered constraints and opportunities due to their gender and race attributes but sought opportunities and ways to succeed both within and despite these constraints. However, due to cultural differences, their representations in Hollywood cinema are often controversial and thus cause social and academic debates. This research investigates the cinematic representations of Chinese women in Hollywood cinema by specifically focusing on three Chinese American actors: Anna May Wong (1905-1961) (黄柳霜), Nancy Kwan (1939- )（关南施）, and Lucy Liu (1968- )（刘玉玲）in order to explore the ever-changing imaginations of Chinese identity in Hollywood cinema. Their experience of gender, race, and ethnicity in Hollywood cinema is influenced by the social and film-industrial development in America and the Sino-American relationship. Wong, Kwan, and Liu are the most representative female Chinese American actors in their generation. Likewise, all of their American citizenships are often in question because of their racial heritage. The inquiry here is set in the separated periods when the images of these three actresses are largely represented in Hollywood films, namely, the 1920s to the 1940s for Wong, the 1960s to the 1980s for Kwan, and the 2000s to the 2020s for Liu.
Heyang Hu
Full-time PhD student in media and communications
Research Title: The information quality of Covid-19 coverage: A comparison between The Netherlands and the UK
As WHO has stated, a parallel “infodemic” is undermining efforts to combat the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. Although misleading information about Covid on social media and its impacts were discussed in a vast majority of studies, the quality of information on mainstream media was largely overlooked. This project compares the performance of different types of media in the Netherlands and the UK during the Covid-19 pandemic by adopting a unique analytical framework for evaluating information quality. It aims to re-examine the values of public service media in European societies. Finally, it will provide an insightful discussion for addressing key issues that are central to the future of building a high-quality information environment in the post-covid era.
Xingfu Yu
Full-time PhD student in media and communications
Research Title: Comparing metaphors behind social media posts containing ‘COVID-19’ during its early stage in China and UK: Using Weibo and Twitter as examples
Metaphors are crucial for people to express attitudes and beliefs. During COVID-19 pandemic, lockdown and social distancing policies stimulated many internet users to express themselves on social media, where metaphors were widely used and significantly influenced their understanding of, and responses to, COVID-19. How people conceptualize and react to COVID-19 can be represented by their online discourse diachronically. To the best of my knowledge, no diachronic study has compared COVID-19 related metaphors on social media between China vs UK. They are comparable as social media discussions were synchronized with COVID-19 trends, and both countries were accused to provide incorrect information for the public.
The aim of this study is to compare the use of metaphors to ‘COVID-19’ behind social media posts from the institutional accounts on Sina Weibo vs Twitter and the comments below those posts in the early stage of the pandemic. I will further discuss whether discursive metaphors are more likely to drive government and public responses than scientific facts in such a severe public health crisis as the COVID-19 pandemic.
Yifang Yuan
Full-time PhD student in media and communications
Research Title: War Coverage, Foreign Policy and Media System: The 2022 Russo-Ukrainian War in the British and Indian Media
Existing research of war coverage is largely dominated by content analysis, often identifying patterns without providing thorough theoretical explanations. Additionally, most studies focus on Western media’s coverage of wars initiated by Western countries, with limited attention to conflicts in geopolitically significant third parties and insufficient exploration of Global South media. To address these gaps, this project explores media coverage of the 2022 Russo-Ukrainian War, focusing on how political and economic factors shape news representation.
This project aims to explain and compare the coverage of the war in the media of United Kingdom and India, building on Hallin and Mancini’s (2004) Comparing Media Systems models. Specifically, this project contributes to the application of media system theories to the explanation of media content patterns by (a) incorporating media system factors into a priori hypotheses and (b) introducing meso-variables (e.g. ownership, foreign policy) as mediating variables between macro variables (media system characteristics) and micro variables (news reporting patterns).
Qi Wang
Full-time PhD student in media and communications
Research Title: The Impact of Vernacular Mobile Phone Photography on Ideas of Beauty in Everyday Life
Historically, photography as a form of art was primarily associated with skilled artists and professionals, especially during the early nineteenth century when it was introduced. However, accessibility to photography has increased over time, particularly since the beginning of the twentieth century. In the twenty-first century, the increasingly widespread use of mobile phones has made photography more accessible to the public, and taking photographs with a phone has become common. Taking photographs with mobile phones has become commonly accessible to the everyday user. The popularity of mobile phone photography has drawn significant attention from both the public and academia.
My study investigates whether and how the everyday practice of vernacular photography among mobile phone users may impact their long-term aesthetic taste in identifying and appreciating beauty in their everyday moments. Whether photography enhances people’s aesthetic experience and lets them view things beautifully will be examined in the context of mobile phone photography. Qualitative interviews are employed, including interviews with mobile phone practitioners to gain their insights and concepts of beauty in relation to their photography practice.
Hanxue Zhang
Full-time PhD student in media and communications
Research Title: Exploring the narrative design of interactive online films for improving the interactor’s participation and understanding
Nowadays, video media such as films, TV series, and online series have become critical entertainment for current people who need to relax and escape the pressures of reality. The way people watch television has evolved in recent years. Video productions have also developed in many forms in response to different audience needs and technological advances. With the rapid development of the Internet, AI, VR, and other technologies, interactive drama has become a reality for the audience to ‘touch’. This research will make an in-depth understanding and exploration of audiences’ feelings, experiences, and needs and establishes a close relationship between the audience and interactive online films/series.
Zitong Zhu
Full-time PhD student in media and communications
Research Title: Moving Image Practice in Contemporary China: Institutional Context, Stakeholders and Artistic Perspectives
This doctoral project focuses on emerging Chinese artists who produce films of various lengths designed for exhibition in art galleries rather than cinemas. Over the past few decades, there has been a notable international surge in the convergence of art and cinema, with moving images increasingly showcased in galleries and museums, and filmmakers venturing into contemporary art (Elsaesser, 2018). This trend was catalysed by landmark exhibitions such as Hall of Mirrors: Art and Film since 1945 (1996) , Into the Light: The Projected Image in American Art 1964-1977 (2001), Le mouvement des images/The movement of images (Georges Pompidou Center, Paris, 2006) and The Cinema Effect: Illusion, Reality, and the Moving Image (Hirshhorn Museum, Washington DC, 2008) which document the rising prominence of moving image works in the art world. In China, this phenomenon emerged post-2000, though Chinese video art dates back to the 1980s (Dong, 2019). However, despite the growing significance of moving image works, scholarly attention to the manifestations of this phenomenon in the Chinese context remains limited (Berry, 2014, 2015). The existing literature has largely focused on established Chinese artists like Yang Fudong and Cao Fei, overlooking the younger generation of artists active in this field (artists like Yang Di, Yang Dingliu and Hu Wei). Through in-depth interviews with Chinese moving image practitioners, the research aims to fill this gap by examining how emerging Chinese artists, through their moving image works, position themselves within the contemporary art world and the domestic and international art markets. The project also seeks to understand the extent of the institutional support for such artistic practices in contemporary China.
Zixian Zhao
Full-time PhD student in media and communications
Research Title: Setting the Political Agenda: TikTok’s Security Concerns in the Media Discourses of America, China and Other Countries
TikTok, one of the most renowned social media platforms, has been accused by the U.S. of potentially leaking user data to the Chinese government for surveillance and censorship. This proposed study aims to explore the media discourse surrounding TikTok’s security concerns in the U.S., China, Russia, India, Brazil, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and France. The research seeks to fill the gap in understanding TikTok’s geopolitical and security implications by analyzing how different countries shape media agendas regarding these concerns. The study will examine the media framing of TikTok’s security issues, identifying key emphases in each country’s coverage between November 1, 2019, and May 15, 2023. The findings will contribute to the theoretical understanding of agenda-setting in international media and emphasize the importance of balanced, professional journalism in global discourse.
Hoang Thi Kim Quy
Full-time PhD student in media and communications
Research Title: Vietnamese Media and the Russia-Ukraine War
Kim’s research interests are war coverage, political communication, media practice, and foreign policy. Before her current role, she was a reporter/editor covering international news for a state-owned online newspaper in Vietnam. She attained a BA and MA in Journalism in Vietnam and an MA in International Relations in Ireland under a fully funded scholarship from the Irish Government.
There is widespread recognition that the Russia-Ukraine war is taking place not only on the battlefield but also in the informational sphere. However, scholarship on the war’s media coverage has significantly focused on big-sized and more influential countries while lacking attention to small-sized countries, particularly Latin America, Asia, and Africa. To partly fill this gap, my project focuses on how Vietnamese media cover the war and examines the relationship between that coverage and its national foreign policy. The research aims to enrich scholarship about the Russia-Ukraine wars and media-foreign policy relations and extend the discussion of Vietnamese media in academic research.