Meng Liang (Teaching Fellow)
Meng Liang (Teaching Fellow)
Background:
Meng Liang is an interdisciplinary researcher with a specialization in digital media. Her scholarly inquiry explores the nuances of the attention economy, particularly focusing on its business models and the intricate cultural norms that both influence and are reshaped by these economic mechanisms. A significant aspect of her research is centred on the digital media platforms of East Asia, exploring the social and cultural influences since the 1990s. Presently, she is engaged in research that scrutinizes the patterns of emotional dependency and recognition among underage and senior users of algorithmic media, specifically in the context of TikTok. This study is a part of her broader inquiry into algorithmic media, aiming to understand how these platforms impact and interact with various user demographics on an cultural and emotional level.
She earned her Ph.D. in Media and Film Studies from University College London, supported by the Oversea Research Scholarship (ORS-UCL). Her doctoral work concentrated on the development of participatory media and its attention economy models within the Chinese context since 1995. Additionally, she enriched her academic experience by participating in an exchange program at the Global Media Technology and Cultural (GMTaC) Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) during 2019-2020.
Research Topic:
Digital Media Economy and Politics, Digital Media Culture, Algorithmic Media, Media Technology, Attention Economy.
Selected Publications
Journal Essays and Book Chapters:
- Meng Liang, 2022, “The End of Social Media? How Data Attraction Model in the Algorithmic Media Reshapes the Attention Economy”, Media, Culture and Society. doi:10.1177/01634437221077168
- Meng Liang, Song Sun, Oct 2022, “Short Video as Streaming Media: A Symbolic Expression of Chinese Compressed Modernity”, Streaming and Screen Culture in Asia-Pacific, edited by Louisa Mitchell and Michael Samuel, Palgrave Macmillan. doi: 10.1007/978-3-031-09374-6_5
- Meng Liang, Keith Wagner, 2018, “Love and Producer and its Asianized Transmediality: A Virtual Character Economy Emerging from China and Penetrating Japan and South Korea” Transmedia Storytelling in Asia and Pacific Region, edited by Dr. Filippo Gilardi and Dr. Celia Lam, Palgrave Macmillan
Other writings:
- Meng Liang, March 2020, “Love and Producer: Otome games history and future in the East Asia”, Blog Post on MIT GMTaC, https://globalmedia.mit.edu/2020/05/03/love-and-producer-otome-games-history-and-future-in-the-east-asia/
- Meng Liang and Han Su, Dec 2019, “‘Planting Grass’ and RED: How E-commerce in China is Interweaved with Social Media”, Blog Post on MIT GMTaC, http://globalmedia.mit.edu/2019/12/01/2058/
Talks and Presentations:
- Nov 2023, MIT Worlding 2023: Story + Space + Climate, presenting documentary, “From Factories to Algorithms: Food Deliver Riders in Hangzhou”.
- March, 2023 Visiting Lecturer at the University of Sheffield, “Attention Economy and Data Attraction Model on Tiktok”
- July 2020, MIT CMS seminar, “Tiktok, Short Video and Social-Commerce Practice: A Changing Advertisement Practice and Narratives”
- April 2020, MIT CMS seminar, “Book Review: The Other Digital China: Nonconfrontational Activism on the Social Web by Wang Jing”
- Sep 2019, “Chinese Mobile Leapfrogging and Its Social Media Development” at MIT GMTaC bi-weekly seminar.
- March 2019 DIGSUM’s Critical Digital and Social Media Research Conference, Umea University. “Internet Social Network Development in China: Liberalizing the telecommunications industry, Internet, and Tencent”
- Nov 2019, Infrastructures and Inequalities: Media industries, Digital Cultures and Politics, University of Helsinki. “The History of Tencent in the Dynamic Liberalising Context”
Modules Taught
IM901 Cultures of the Digital Economy
Contact
Centre for Interdisciplinary Methodologies University of Warwick
Coventry CV4 7AL