Today, mobile technologies of all varieties increasingly dot the urban space around the world. More and more village residents use mobile phones to access the Internet and maintain their connections with families and friends in other regions or countries. Ordinary citizens resort to mobile media to communicate with one another. In the midst of these transformations, life’s colorful varieties persevere. People continue to seek and discover meaning from their lived spaces as some embrace while others resist these changes. What cultural and social processes characterize the intersections and interfaces of body, lived space, and mobile media? What new social collectivities, identities, and relationships emerge in these processes? How do these techno-social transformations challenge our understandings of publics, publicness, and the public sphere? This international symposium explores these central questions. A special issue of selected papers may be published in the new journal Communication and the Public.

The symposium is organized by the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania and made possible by a Penn China Research and Engagement Fund from the Office of the Provost. It is co-sponsored by the Department of Communication Arts of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the College of Media and International Culture of Zhejiang University with the support of the Institute of Journalism and Communication of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

CONFERENCE SCHEDULE:

June 18

9:00 – 9:20 AM 
Welcome Remarks

Guobin Yang, University of Pennsylvania
Fei Wu (吴飞), Zhejiang University
Xujun Tang (唐绪军), Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

Chair： Lu Wei (韦路), Zhejiang University

9:20 – 10:10 AM
Keynote Speech

Marwan Kraidy, University of Pennsylvania
"Security, Speed, Spectacle: The Body and the War Machine in the Digital Age"

Introduced by Guobin Yang, University of Pennsylvania

10:10-10:30 AM
Coffee Break

10:30 AM -12:20 PM
Panel 1 (in Chinese): Ethics and Rhetorics of Social Networking Sites

Qi Shen (申琦),  East China Normal University
Benefits, Risks and Costs: Research on Protective Behavior of Information Privacy in the Social Network

Li Deng (邓力), China University of Political Science and Law
Eloquent Journalists and Public Media Ethics: How Journalists Defend Themselves in the MH370 Event

Dan Ji (季丹), Shanghai Jiao Tong University
The Impact of Social Presence on Political Participation in Social Media

Yanhong Li (李艳红), Sun Yat-sen University
Negotiation Between Public Criticism and Journalists’ Contention: A Study of Two Social Media Events about Journalistic Ethics in Contemporary China

Chair: Xujun Tang (唐绪军), Chinese Academy of Social Sciences

12:20-1:30 PM
Lunch

1:30 – 3:20 PM
Panel 2 (English):  Gender, Sexuality, and Digital Placemaking in Locales and Globalizing Time

Hanna Adoni, Hebrew University of Jerusalem
On Gutenberg's Shoulders: On Using Print in Multi-Media Environment

Payal Arora, Erasmus University Rotterdam
Slumdog Romance: Facebook Love and Digital Privacy in the Global South

Rosemary Clark, University of Pennsylvania
Toward an Intersectional Anti-Street Harassment Activism: From Locative to Local Feminist Media Praxis

Xiaoling Shu, George Barnett, and Bob Faris, University of California, Davis
Telecommunication Ties and Gender Ideologies in the Age of Globalization: International Telephone Networks and Gender Attitudes in 47 Countries

Chair: Fei Wu (吴飞), Zhejiang University

3:20-3:40 PM
Coffee Break

3:40-5:00 PM
Panel 3 (in Chinese & English):  Persuasion and Influences in Social Media

Ruobing Li and Lijiang Shen, Pennsylvania State University
Machines Cannot Persuade: Effects of Message Source on Reactance and Different Forms of Freedom Restoration in Communicating Health Risks

Wu Minghua (吴明华), Chongqing University
Public Humiliation: Carnival Marketplace and Discourse Power Shifting in Chinese Social Media

Fanbin Zeng (曾凡斌), Jinan University, Guangzhou
Survey of the Users of the Micro Blogging News and Wechat News in Terms of the Reception, the Share and the Comment

Chair:  Lu Wei, Zhejiang University

6:00 PM 
Dinner for speakers and moderators

June 19

9:00-9:50 AM
Keynote Speech

Jonathan Gray, University of Wisconsin-Madison
"Swipe for More: Satire, Play, and Citizenship on the Move"

Introduced by Zhongdang Pan, University of Wisconsin-Madison

9:50-11:40 AM
Panel 4 (In Chinese): Multiple Facets of Mobile Networks

Ruiqin Nan (南瑞琴), East China Normal University
Discourse Analysis of the Communication Strategy of the We-media: A Case Study of the WeChat Official Account “Mi Meng”

Huijuan Li (李慧娟), University of Zhejiang SCI-TECH
Flowing Clusters: The Relation Production in the Space of Mobile Internet

Keqin Liu (刘克芹), Fujian Normal University
The Evolution of Artistic Media: A Case Study of Fujian Guqin Art Heritage

Li Ji (纪莉) and Wei Yin (尹伟), Wuhan University
The Legitimacy of the Internet Economy: On the Contentious Discourses about Uber in China

Chair: Lan Peng (彭兰), Renmin University

11:50 AM -12:50 PM
Lunch

12:50 – 2:20 PM
Panel 5 (In English): Affect and Aesthetics of Digital Performances

Elizabeth Brunner, Idaho State University & Kevin Michael DeLuca, University of Utah
The Affective Winds of Environmental Activism in China

Joe Xu, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Digital Palimpsest: The Coextensive Aesthetics of Chinese Online Comment Cultures

Haiqing Yu, University of New South Wales, Australia
Embodied Philanthropy, Parallel Evaluation, and Mobile Media in China

Chair: Hu Yong (胡泳), Peking University

2:20 PM
Closing Remarks

Zhongdang Pan, University of Wisconsin-Madison