Diyi is a student on the DPhil in Information, Communication, and the Social Sciences. Her research aims to explore the issue of “connection” in the digital era. She’s fascinated by how digital networks boost the power of online communities, influence the way that social actors exchange meaning with each other, and ultimately reshape people’s social lives. While working as an intern at the Communication and Information Unit of UNESCO, she extensively contributed to the pilot research on the application of UNESCO’s ‘Internet Universality Indicators Framework‘ in Thailand and communicated around some other projects regarding regional ICT development. She has also been an intern at Reuters News Bureau (Shanghai) and Kuaishou Technology (Beijing), where she became increasingly interested in issues such as platform governance, data compliance as well as content moderation, and gained comprehensive insights into the legal and policy frameworks surrounding the internet.
Diyi holds a BA in International Journalism from Shanghai International Studies University as well as a MA in International Journalism and Communication from the Renmin University of China. Her applied research seeks to understand communication networks both at the macro and micro level, focusing on the analysis of self-presentation, language use and social capital in online supportive communication, social bots’ engagement in online social networks, and international hyperlink network. Her work on online social bots and health misinformation acceptance have appeared in ‘International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health‘ and ‘Frontiers in Psychology‘ respectively. Her commentary writing on internet universality and digital divides has also been published on ‘The Diplomat‘. During her doctoral studies, she strives to incorporate computational, psychological and sociological approaches into investigating network-driven information consumption and diffusion, especially in the realms of politics and health. Her DPhil is generously funded by the Clarendon Scholarship.
computational social science, social networks, online journalism, mis/disinformation, platform governance, ICT4D
