Ding, Jiawei; (2024) Chinese University Social Media Communication: Exploring Production Processes, Textual Meanings and Cultural Practices through Multi-Method Qualitative Inquiry. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

Text PhD Thesis_Jiawei Ding.pdf - Accepted Version Access restricted to UCL open access staff until 1 January 2026. Download (9MB)

Abstract

This thesis examines the official public-facing social media communication of Chinese public universities, focusing on Douyin, WeChat, and Weibo. It problematises the international dominant focus of social media as a marketing tool for universities and the Chinese domestic emphasis on its political objectives within China. This study redefines the purposes and potentials of university social media through empirical evidence. Informed by digital ethnography, actor-network theory, platformisation, and a multimodal approach to communication, this exploratory research investigates the purposes, production processes, and cultural implications of university social media communication. This project offers a robust integration of qualitative approaches and methods for exploring complex and emerging digital phenomena. Primary data sources include digital observational notes, 32 interviews with university media producers and active audiences, social media posts, and documents collected from January 2020 to December 2022. It also includes a multimodal digital ethnographic analysis of university participation in two Douyin trends: #NoEmoBeHappy and #YouthDayGestureDance. The findings suggest that universities use social media platforms for promotion, community engagement, and public education while tapping into digital cultures and mainstream ideologies. The study explores how students contribute to the routine co-production of official university communication and examines its implications. It further illustrates how platforms influence university communication, from everyday templates to strategic knowledge partnerships. The analysis of two Douyin cases demonstrates how universities navigate diverse cultural environments through procedural designs involving students, platforms, and the state, prompting varied audience interpretations. The study shows that the co-created university social media communication can align strategically with institutional goals yet vary in meaning across stakeholders and gradually integrate into everyday media consumption of digital users. By introducing the concept of platformised university communication, I speculate on the proactive engagement of universities with platform capabilities to enhance educational missions aimed at broader societal benefits and to foster cultural influences.

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