City University of Hong Kong
CityUHK Announcement Portal (CAP)
City University of Hong Kong
CityUHK Announcement Portal (CAP)

Posting Detail

(Reminder) COM Research Seminar: AI as Communicator and Method: How AI’s Discursive Strategies Compete for Public Attention by Mr Zening DUAN
(POSTED: 2025-02-22 12:00 AM )
COM Research Seminar: COM Research Seminar: AI as Communicator and Method: How AI’s Discursive Strategies Compete for Public Attention by Mr Zening DUAN, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madis. Date & Time: 24 February 2025, 16:00 - 17:30. Venue: Multimedia Laboratory (M5055),5/F, Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre, please click https://www.cityu.edu.hk/com/Public/AppForms/StI_AppForm.aspx?id=1198 to register for the seminar by 24 Feb 2025. Language: English. Abstract Over the past decade, social media has revolutionized the way information flows and how public attention is allocated, yet not all information comes from spontaneous human online interactions. Although social media platforms like X impose restrictions on non-algorithmic traces - particularly social bot activities - this appears to be an endless arms race. While prior research has attempted to describe the types, activities, and impacts of social bots, few studies have examined what these bots are saying and their potential implications on attention dynamics. This talk will discuss empirical findings on two distinct types of discourse strategies employed by social bots, and how these strategies effectively help these algorithmic agents compete for public attention and alter information flow patterns across different media ecosystems. About the speaker: Zening ("Ze") Duan is a Ph.D. candidate in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His research examines how AI functions as a communicator, influencing attention dynamics across newsrooms and social media. He employs computational methods to study AI’s role in shaping partisan information flow and online discourse, with recent work introducing the concept of “selective attention amplification.” His methodological contributions include developing “vec-tionaries,” a computational model for measuring latent message features in text, accompanied by an open-access Python package. Ze’s research has been published in Human Communication Research, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Political Analysis, and The International Journal of Press/Politics, with support from the NSF, Knight Foundation, and Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation. Prior to academia, he worked as a media specialist in tech-finance news.. For enquiries, please call 34428677.
Category:
Academic Seminar
Department:
Department of Media and Communication (COM)
Venue:
Multimedia Laboratory (M5055), 5/F, Run Run Shaw Creative Media Centre
Start Date:
2025-02-24 16:00
End Date:
2025-02-24 17:30
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