About the Project
This research project focuses on mis/disinformation across transnational, intergenerational, and multilingual communications networks within Asian diasporas.
We are interested in the histories and politics surrounding race, migration, and class behind information spread and the relationship between social differences including religion, ethnicity, class, and gender, media and platform use, and political positioning.
While Asian and Asian Americans are the fastest growing racial group in the U.S. According to a 2020 survey, nearly one in six Asian Americans use messaging applications such as WeChat, WhatsApp, and KaKao to discuss politics. Many first generation immigrants turn to ethnic media as a primary source of information. Studies of mis/disinformation have primarily focused on Twitter and Facebook as platforms, this project emphasizes intimate and informal communication networks and forms of information sharing from the dinner table to the family group chat. While these networks are relatively small and made up of deeper, longer-term relationships, they may also have highly differentiated political perspectives split across generations, as well as across other factors including geographic location, education background, and socioeconomic class. While media genres have emerged to facilitate political conversations across generations, there can be presumptions around progressive politics, American-ness, and educational background and erasures of generational struggles and traumas.
Attention can be paid to how the spread of mis/disinformation within diasporic communities link to lived experiences of trauma, war, and political suppression as well as the role of social and cultural hierarchies of power (ex: class, caste, ethnicity, religion, nation). We look at how histories and lived experiences undergird political analyses as well as ways these experiences can be exploited.
We critically engage with histories and political contexts of information spread by looking at genealogies of information within Asian and Asian American diasporic communities. A transnational and historical analysis of information systems both expands the analytical limits of disinformation studies and emphasizes material impacts on specific communities. The political and economic dynamics of East, Southeast, West, and South Asian histories and ongoing U.S. intervention continue to shape geopolitical configurations that require paradigms beyond the ‘West and rest’.
Project Goals
Methodological Process
Our project builds a holistic method and framework for a relational study of Asian diasporic communities across platforms, languages, and histories. We aim to develop processes and best practices for intergenerational and multilingual conversations about politics, as well as community skills-building in conducting oral histories.
Diasporic Depth & Breadth
‘Asian America’ is a vast diasporic umbrella with a diverse array of linguistic and cultural backgrounds and histories across local and transnational geographies. This study seeks to understand how specific (and unevenly lived) differences, such as migration, religion, ethnicity, nation, caste, etc, as well as how geopolitical tensions across Asia and between the U.S. and Asia, play a role in information uptake and spread.
Advocacy & Power-Building
This research demonstrates the political significance of diasporic social platforms that necessitate critical engagement and attention by journalists, elected officials, and civic organizations; advocates for language justice; and supports building grassroots power and transnational political analysis.
MEET THE RESEARCH TEAM
-
Rachel Kuo
PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
Dr. Rachel Kuo researches race, social movements, and digital technology. She is an Assistant Professor at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in the Department of Media and Cinema Studies at the College of Media. She is a co-founder of the Asian American Feminist Collective.
-
Jiwon Jenn Oh
RESEARCH ASSISTANT, SPRING 2023
Jiwon Jenn Oh is a PhD student at the Institute of Communications Research at the University of Illinois. Her research interests intersect emerging technology, globalization, and identity, with a particular focus on Asian technocultures and the ways in which Asian diasporic communities navigate digital spaces.
-
Jennifer Li
RESEARCH ASSISTANT, SPRING 2022
Jennifer Li graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign with a BS in Computer Science + Advertising and a minor in Informatics. As an aspiring UX Designer, her research interests revolve around the intersection of identity, technology, and design as well as ways to craft digital experiences to be inclusive for a diverse set of audiences.
-
Lan Li
RESEARCH LEAD, 2021-23
Lan Li is doctoral student at the School of Information and Library Science (SILS) at the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill and CITAP graduate affiliate. Her research interests include digital labor, online platforms, and AI and work.
-
Madhavi Reddi
RESEARCH LEAD, 2021-23
Madhavi Reddi is a PhD Candidate at the Hussman School of Media and Journalism School at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill and CITAP graduate affiliate. She is interested in identity, entertainment media, art, and politics. In addition to research, she is also practices performing arts.
-
Ophelia Fangfei Wang
RESEARCH ASSISTANT, SPRING 2022
Ophelia Fangfei Wang is research fellow at Duk University, where she earned a master’s degree in Critical Asian Humanities as a Chinese international student. Her research interests include Asian American literature, history, and culture, as well as Chinese popular culture, cyberspace, and nationalism. She is a happy ENFP.
-
Angela Chung
RESEARCH ASSISTANT, SPRING 2022
Angela Chung is a junior at Duke University studying International Comparative Studies with a focus on East Asia. She is a Korean-American from Southern California passionate about technology policy and ethics, data rights, and Thai milk tea. In their free time, you can find them reading a book, listening to music, or watching The Great British Baking Show (again).
-
Laurel Holley
RESEARCH ASSISTANT, SPRING 2022
Laurel Holley is a first-year at Duke University, studying Public Policy, Global Health, and Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, focusing on Chinese. She chairs the Duke-UNICEF Club’s Durham Affairs committee and dances competitively for Rhydhun, Duke’s premier Bollywood-fusion dance team.