TITLE:
Chinese-Language Digital/Social Media in Australia: Rethinking Soft Power
Aims:
China’s rise has generated widespread anxiety about its possible use of diasporic Chinese media to influence the world. Responding to such concerns, this project seeks to study the ways in which Mandarin-speaking PRC migrants in Australia produce and use digital and social media, with the aim of advancing a new framework for analysing the relationship between soft power, public diplomacy and propaganda. As secondary objectives, the project will bring this rethinking of soft power and propaganda to bear on our understanding of the Chinese diaspora and the concept of flexible citizenship, while also drawing out the implications for Australian cultural diplomacy. The project has four principal aims:
1. To chart the processes and pathways by which China’s soft power exercise interacts with local political-economic forces to shape the narratives of politics, economy, foreign affairs and culture/lifestyle in Australia’s diasporic Chinese media.
2. To investigate the new ways in which digital/social media allow nations and individuals to engage in propaganda and public diplomacy exercises.
3. To refine and refurbish the concept of flexible citizenship in diaspora studies against the backdrop of China’s rise, its soft power agenda, and PRC migrants’ strategic engagement with these developments.
4. To produce a more accurate assessment of China’s influence through migrant media in Australia, while also suggesting strategies for using diasporic Chinese media to achieve more effective public diplomacy with China.
澳大利亚的中文数字/社交媒体：软实力的再思考
中国的崛起引起了人们对其可能利用海外华人媒体影响世界的普遍焦虑。为了回应这些问题，本项目旨在研究中国大陆移民在澳大利亚生产和使用数字和社交媒体的方式，目的在于建立一个分析软实力、公共外交和宣传之间关系的新框架。
作为第二个目标，本项目将通过对软实力和宣传的再思考，来影响我们对海外华人和灵活公民身份概念的理解，同时也阐明其对澳大利亚文化外交的影响。
该项目有四个主要目标：
一。描绘中国软实力实践与当地政治、经济力量相互作用以塑造澳大利亚海外华人媒体的政治、经济、外交和文化/生活方式的叙述的过程和途径。
二。调查数字/社交媒体允许国家和个人参与宣传和公共外交活动的新方式。
三。在中国崛起、其软实力议程以及中国移民对这些发展的战略参与的背景下，改善和整修侨民研究中的灵活公民身份概念。
四。通过澳大利亚的移民媒体更准确地评估中国的影响力，同时提出利用海外华人媒体实现与中国更有效的公共外交的策略。