Monday, November 10, 2014

[Upcoming Seminar] Exploring Accounts of Chinese Air Pollution


Exploring Accounts of Chinese Air Pollution

Speaker: Alex COCKAIN  
(Teaching Fellow, Department of Applied Social Sciences, Hong Kong Polytechnic University)
Time: 12:30 p.m., Friday, 14 November, 2014  
Venue: Room 12 Humanities Building, New Asia College, CUHK

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This paper explores pictures of Shanghai residents emerging through various accounts of a weekend in December 2013 when the city experienced high levels of air pollution. Although this paper deals significantly with texts appearing in foreign media, I attempt to focus more concertedly upon texts appearing on weixin (a micromessaging service which also permits sharing of photographs and videos) and commentary generated by virtue of semi-structured interviews and being there at the time. My aim is not so much to engage with issues regarding what Shanghai residents “really feel” about air pollution (although I do, perhaps inadvertently, seem to impose a definitive reading) but rather to explore how journalists, residents and myself all seem to be engaged in constructing rhetorical performances determined by the need to tell an effective story.

ALL INTERESTED ARE WELCOME


Poster

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