How to put research and theory into practice?

How to put research and theory into practice?

by Tobias Zuser

Starting from the 2024/25 academic year, the School of Journalism and Communication at The Chinese University of Hong Kong will offer a new postgraduate course that provides students with the knowledge, tools, and experience to conduct meaningful research projects. Together with a selected number of Knowledge Partners from different sectors of society, as well as high-profile scholars, we want to address the actual challenges that communities and organizations in Hong Kong, and elsewhere, are facing.

In collaboration with the Digital Narratives Studio, this new course is particularly directed towards master students of the Global Communication Programme to apply and test media and communication theories. Over two semesters, the students will work closely with our knowledge partners, and eventually publish a report with the aim to shape public discourse. While students may not become full experts on local issues within the span of just one academic year, they will have learnt how to invest in local ecosystems, and how to create new methodologies which are centered around questions of care, ethics, and safety.

In May 2024, Prof. Nishant Shah and Dr. Tobias Zuser hosted the inaugural knowledge partner meeting at Eaton HK to identify the key challenges for local communities and organizations in relation to technology, infrastructure, and society at large – especially when it comes to the future of coming together. Throughout the event, we were incredibly humbled by the enthusiastic engagement of our knowledge partners:

• Carmen Lam, assistant director at the local NGO “Mother’s Choice” and an experienced social worker in Hong Kong
• Dave Besseling, author and deputy editor at the South China Morning Post Magazine
• Johnson Chin-Yin Yeung, policy advocate and coordinator for the international Clean Clothes campaign
• Joseph Chen, Director of Culture at Eaton HK
• Phoebe Tang Pui-Yee, a former Senior Policy Analyst at the Policy Innovation and Co-ordination Office of the HKSAR Government
• Preston Cheung, Senior Policy Advisor at the Justice Centre

Our panel of external knowledge partners was also joined by various faculty of the School of Journalism & Communication: Prof. Donna Chu, Prof. Saskia Witteborn, Prof. Jian Lin, Prof. Oliver Chan, and Prof. Sam Chan helped us mapping out the framework for possible research pathways. We are also grateful for the additional insights from Prof. Alexandra Juhasz from Brooklyn College, CUNY, who visited Hong Kong as part of her Narrative Change Residency with the Digital Narratives Studio, as well as interdisciplinary researcher, artist, and writer Dr. Sonia Wong, who is a co-facilitator of our workshop series on the “Technological Pandemic”.

The result of this first meeting was an inspiring draft for a research brief on what kind of research may be needed – given the technological, social, and infrastructural challenges that communities and organizations face.

Technological Challenges

While social media may be the dominant issue, our knowledge partners all agreed that it is important for researchers to also think about other dimensions, such as financial digitalization. This has taken up an even greater significance since the COVID-19 pandemic, when many experienced a further urge in normalizing digital payment forms in places such as Hong Kong. While there is a strong narrative for further economic cross-border integration, access and literacy have affected the possible inclusion/exclusion in such digital ecosystems that structure our social lives on either side of the border. A study on how different communities in Hong Kong are impacted may also extend to policymaking and can become a reference for comparative global projects in the future.

Among the brainstormed ideas were studies on elderly populations in Hong Kong and how financial digitalization has impacted their daily life, their access to pension funds, their access to public services (that are increasingly digitalized) or their ability to visit friends and families in Mainland China. Similarly, how are tourists/outsiders able to navigate these systems? With regards to communities of foreign domestic helpers, migrant workers, and ethnic minorities, it could also be a meaningful exercise to understand more how money and people move through gateway systems: e.g., which parallel ecosystems are they using to facilitate the formal and informal movement of money? What are the barriers for asylum seekers or homeless people, without government ID and residential address, to be included in the financial ecosystem?

Another perspective could be to look at existing and evolving tactics and strategies of resistance to technological/digital overstimulation: e.g. the emergence of technological/digital detox movements can become a case on analyzing the changes in coming and being together since the pandemic. Are such movements relevant or even feasible in places such as Hong Kong or China? Such questions could also lead to comparative perspectives across different countries and continents.

However, relevant research must also not fall into the trap of trying to come up with better technologies. Instead, the primary aim should be to examine the logics of technology and create a space for us to rethink government-driven techno-solutionism. E.g. technology may not replace the importance of freedom of association and collective bargaining (which are the foundations of labour rights movements) in overcoming modern slavery. Similarly, is there space for another form of financial inclusion that is not subjected to the logic of big tech?

Social Challenges

Media literacy has become an important subject in education and policymaking – as response to various challenges associated with our exposure to, consumption of, and usage of technologies (including the wide-spread adaptation of generative AI tools). However, it appears to be worthwhile to further expand the relevant scope of media literacy. Apart from, for instance, the linguistic dimensions, media literacy can also be concerned with the desired outcomes: the creation of safe, caring, and meaningful interaction.  What have been the challenges of coming together in the past years, and how do we currently protect ourselves?

Further, it has been acknowledged that the conditions for civic spaces around the world have changed in recent years - both for traditional media and actors that advocate for social change. How does storytelling happen? How do storytellers operate/maneuver in this new context? And how can storytelling remain both truthful and effective?

Meanwhile, NGOs and advocates of social change may face the dilemma of wanting quality news coverage (in contrast to tabloid-driven sentimental stories), which in turn is often paywalled and has therefore limited reach/impact. So what would be possible strategies to navigate these new media spaces? How to maintain independent quality news while securing access to free news in a neoliberal market, especially when it comes to underreported stories on marginalized/vulnerable communities?

From a journalism perspective, a main concern is related to the changes of news consumption via social media platforms, and the blurring lines of what context may constitute reliable information or misinformation/disinformation. How can journalists and NGOs navigate these online spaces that are increasingly shaped by a “doom and gloom” algorithm of despair, and how can we keep safe in these environments? But also, do these professional concerns of media industry professionals actually matter to the average reader?

We also observed that widespread issues such as misinformation may be closely linked to the issue of trust: You may not trust the information, but the environment in which you consume the information. So how should we navigate (news-)journalism in this day and age? Is it still possible to understand news media separate from the platforms they are shared/consumed through? Last but not least, we may also need to rethink storytelling in the context of generative AI.

Infrastructural Challenges

In centering the issue of infrastructure around the idea of coming together and being together, we identified three areas that are front and center for community organizing:

The necessity of physical and material spaces has been challenged since the Covid-19 pandemic has radically changed our ways of interaction. Especially, in contrast to the virtualization (or ZOOMification) of organizing, we started re-evaluating the importance of physical and material spaces – especially in relation to values of transparency, safety, and intimacy.

Meanwhile, it is important to acknowledge the human factor of organizing: NGO workers, volunteers, facilitators and participants may need to negotiate their different backgrounds (incl. language barriers). Many sectors are dominated by a global NGO regime and multilateral mechanism, which often results in a race to the bottom for resources. There may also be a perceived uneven distribution or even lack of resources.

Lastly, in the NGO ecosystem, Hong Kong is often positioned as a place for fundraising rather than a place where projects and programs are implemented.

Fundraising itself has become a professional activity of navigating funding cycles and matching programming. But given that many movement cycles are very contingent and fluid, there often appears a mismatch between the infrastructure and communities served.

Research in this field would particularly benefit from a bottom-up approach, where the researchers are not just observers, but also actively involved in an organization or community.