Mobile Communication in Asian Society and Culture Continuity and Changes across Private, Organizational, and Public Spheres

Table of Contents

List of figures

List of tables

List of contributors

Acknowledgements

1. Introduction to Mobile Communication in Asian Society

Ming Xie

Part I

Mobile Communication in the Private Sphere

2. WeChat Gaming, Learning, and Midlife Empty Nest

Dongdong Yang, Kenneth Lachlan, Ye Chen

3. Social Media Portrayal of Housewives and Gender Issues in Chinese Society: A Perspective of Digital Feminism Framework

Ming Xie and Chin-Chung Chao

4. Facebook-Based Mental Health Discourse in Bangladesh: Self-Disclosure, Social Support, Consultation

Simu Dey and Josh Averbeck

Part II

Mobile Communication in the Organizational Sphere

5. Mobile Communication as Disaster Response Infrastructure for Cross-Sector Coproduction: A Field Study of Mobile Apps in China Flood Seasons

Minshuai Ding

6. Livestream E-Commerce: The New Social Norm and Its Impact on Chinese Culture

Ping Yang

7. How do Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in India Focusing on Mental Health use Instagram?

Roma Subramanian

Part III

Mobile Communication in the Public Sphere

8. How mobile users differ from non-mobile users in #IndiaFightsCorona on Twitter: An LDA topic modeling and content analysis

Md Enamul Kabir and Louisa Ha

9. Health Information Seeking via WeChat, Social Determinants, and COVID-19 Vaccination Intentions: An Exploratory Study

Li Chen, Yafei Zhang, Ge Zhu

10. Mobile Communication and New Social Movement: Evidence from Global South

Shudipta Sharma

Part IV

Mobile Communication in the Networked Society

11. Reclaiming Power on Social Media: A Networking Analysis of #VeryAsian Movement on Twitter

Lei Guo and Jeremy Lipschultz

12. Mobilized Cultural Identities: Digital Friendship and Identity Maintenance among Japanese Immigrant Wives

Min Wha Han

13. "Respectfully, Pls Ask Someone Else": Pride & Shame in International K-Pop Fandom

Samantha James

14. Future outlook of Mobile Communication in Asia and Research Directions

Ming Xie

Contributors

Ming Xie is Assistant Professor at West Texas A&M University. Ming earned her Ph.D. in Public Administration from the University of Nebraska at Omaha in the U.S. and another Ph.D. in Cultural Anthropology from the Graduate School of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing, China. She is particularly interested in nonprofit organization management and communication, social media, emergency management, and intercultural communication.

Chin-Chung Chao is Professor of communication at University of Nebraska at Omaha. Her primary research interests span conflict management, leadership, intercultural communication, organizational communication, and media communication. She served as the President of Association for Chinese Communication Studies (ACCS) in 2011–12 and the Chair of Asian/Pacific American Communication Studies Division (APACS) in 2012–13, and served as Guest Editors of the Chinese Media Research and Negotiation and Conflict Management. In addition, she has served on the editorial boards of the Journal of Intercultural Communication Research, Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, and Negotiation and Conflict Management Research. She has published 2 books, 20 peer-reviewed articles, and 10 book chapters. Her research has won multiple awards.

Josh Averbeck (PhD University of Oklahoma) is a Professor in the Department of Communication at Western Illinois University where he directs the Social Media Lab. His research on language use in message design has been published in journals such as Communication Monographs, Journal of Communication, and Human Communication Research.

Li Chen (Ph.D., University of Iowa, 2016) is an associate professor at the Department of Communication in West Texas A&M University, Canyon, TX. Chen’s research focuses on health communication, in particular, the impact of health misinformation on decision-making, social media use and perceptions of health, and media representations of public health controversies.

Ye Chen (M.A., University of Connecticut, 2018) is an ABD in the Department of Communication at the University of Connecticut. Her research interests include the psychological effects and behavioral implications of new communication technologies, such as social media in terms of self-disclosure, relationship maintenance, information seeking and learning, civic engagement and well-being.

Simu Dey (MA Western Illinois University) is a doctoral student in the Lew Klein College of Media and Communication at Temple University. Her research focuses on using various social media platform communication tools as channels for providing mental health support to different at-risk populations.

Minshuai Ding　is currently a research project manager of the Bureau of　Sociological Research the University of Nebraska Lincoln. He received his Ph.D. in Public Administration from the University of Nebraska at Omaha. His fields of interest include public opinion research, local government, and communication in the public sector.

Ge Zhu, Ph.D., is a Research Associate at the College of Public Health, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa, USA. Her research contributes to the area of health communication and utilizes multiple methodologies, including conventional quantitative research methods, computer-assisted text mining, and social network analysis. Ge's current work focuses on social media campaigns addressing vaccine hesitancy in midwest rural and micropolitan communities.

Lei Guo (PhD, University of Missouri) is an assistant professor at School of Communication, University of Nebraska at Omaha. Her research interests include the intersection of media effect, journalism studies, and media sociology.　

Louisa Ha is a professor of research excellence (2021-24) in the School of Media and Communication at Bowling Green State University, Ohio, U.S.A. She is the Founding-Editor-in-Chief of Online Media and Global Communication, and also the former editor of Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, the flagship journal of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. She is the founder and chair of the Emerging Media Research Cluster in the School of Media and Communication. She is the Advertising Major Advisor and Internship Coordinator. She is also the Graduate Coordinator of the School of Media and Communication's Graduate Programs. Her research interests are misinformation, social media influencers, online videos, new media business models, social and mobile media use, international conflicts and comparative communication, online and international advertising, and audience research.

Min Wha Han (Ph.D., Ohio University) is a scholar of communication whose study centers around rhetorical criticism, qualitative communication and media research in East Asian context. Her current research projects include explorations of identities and collective memories of Korean diaspora community in Japan, integrating oral/life historical accounts from intergenerational perspectives. Dr. Han has published in various peer-reviewed journals, such as Communication Theory, the International Communication Gazette, the Review of Communication, Keio Communication Review, Language and Intercultural Communication. Dr. Han’s recent publications include a co-edited volume, "Korean Diaspora across the World: Homeland in History, Memory, Imagination, Media, and Reality" (Lexington Books, 2020), a peer-reviewed journal article, "Globalization from above and below: Rejecting superficial multiculturalism and igniting anti-Korean sentiments in Japan" (Journal of International and Intercultural Communication), and a book chapter, "Reframing the difference of co-ethnic other in Japan: An analysis of representations and identifications in a South Korean documentary film ‘Uri-Hakkyo’" (University of Michigan Press, in press).

Samantha James is a doctoral candidate in Organizational Communication and Technology at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research focuses on the intersection of affect, digital technology-mediated communication, and globalization. She has publications in outlets such as Seoul National University Press and has presented award-winning work at national and international conferences for communication scholarship. She is a 2022-2023 Fulbright Research Award recipient.

Md Enamul Kabir is a Doctoral student at Bowling Green State University in the United States. Kabir studies the use of computational approaches in communication, with a focus on machine learning applications. His research centers around communication and racism, social media activism, misinformation, and pedagogy. His recent award-winning research created a novel scale to gauge ‘the degree of racial identity’ in modern American classrooms.

Kenneth A. Lachlan (Ph.D., Michigan State University, 2003) is Professor and Department Head in the Department of Communication at the University of Connecticut. His current research interests include the functions and effects of social media during crises and disasters, and the use of social robotics in delivering risk messages. Lachlan is ranked among one of the top 1% of published scholars in key journals in Communication between 2007 and 2011, and between 2012 and 2016. He is a former editor-in-chief of Communication Studies and a coauthor of several textbooks, including Risk and Crisis Communication: Communicating in a Disruptive Age, Introduction to Computer Mediated Communication: A Functional Approach (1st and 2nd editions), and Straight Talk about Communication Research Methods (1st, 2nd, and 3rd editions).

Jeremy Harris Lipschultz (PhD, Southern Illinois University-Carbondale) is Peter Kiewit Distinguished Professor at School of Communication, University of Nebraska at Omaha. His research focuses on social media listening and engagement, journalism, and media ethics and law.

Shudipta Sharma, M.Phil., is a doctoral student in the School of Media and Communication at Bowling Green State University, USA. He is also an assistant professor (on study leave) in the Department of Communication and Journalism at the University of Chittagong, Bangladesh. His research interests include political communication, social movements, misinformation, violent extremism, and critical communication studies. In addition to writing several scholarly articles and book chapters, he co-edited Bazarer Yuge Media (Media in the Age of Market), Adarsha, 2011. His recent works explore the role of social media in violent extremism and social movements in Bangladesh. After earning B.A. and M.S.S. degrees in communication and journalism, he achieved M.Phil. degree in government and politics. Before joining the university as a faculty, he worked as a journalist for eight years in leading newspapers in Bangladesh.

Roma Subramanian, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the School of Communication at the University of Nebraska Omaha. She is also an affiliate faculty member in the university’s medical humanities program and the Goldstein Center for Human Rights. Her research focuses on health communication, particularly regarding stigmatized health issues (e.g., mental illness, sexual abuse). Other areas of interest include the impact of social and mobile media on health, the dynamics of patient-provider communication, and the intersection between art and health. Her recent work has been published in Critical Public Health and the Journal of Visual Communication in Medicine.

Dongdong Yang (M.A., Wake Forest University, 2018) is an ABD in the Department of Communication at the University of Connecticut. Yang is primarily interested in how cross-cultural differences between China and the U.S. influence the use and effects of new communication technologies on social media. She also examines how identity influences perceptions and attitudes in sports communication. Yang is a recipient of two top paper awards at the AEJMC annual conferences.

Ping Yang (Ph.D., Arizona State University) is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication & Theatre at Millersville University. She holds her Doctorate in Intercultural Communication, an M.A. in Communication, a second M.A. in Linguistics, and a B.A. in English Language and Culture. Her research and teaching interests are located in the intersection of culture, communication, and technology. Her publications focus on identity negotiation, cultural adaptation, media representation, computer-mediated communication, and intercultural communication competence.

Yafei Zhang is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Communication at the Renmin University of China. Zhang’s research focuses on strategic communication, corporate social responsibility, big data analysis, and social network analysis.

Biography

Ming Xie is Assistant Professor at West Texas A&M University. Ming earned her PhD in Public Administration from the University of Nebraska at Omaha and another PhD in Cultural Anthropology from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. She is particularly interested in nonprofit organization management and communication and emergency management.

Chin-Chung Chao is Professor of Communication at University of Nebraska at Omaha. Her primary research interests span conflict management, leadership, intercultural communication, organizational communication, and media communication. She has written two published books, twenty peer-reviewed articles, and ten book chapters. Her research has won multiple awards.