Wild hopes: Sourcing the political vocabulary of digital citizenship from the LIHKG forum

John Nguyet ERNI; Yin ZHANG

doi:10.1177/17480485221094123

Wild hopes: Sourcing the political vocabulary of digital citizenship from the LIHKG forum

John Nguyet ERNI^*
, Yin ZHANG

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal Publications › Journal Article (refereed) › peer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

In the 2019 Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill resistance movement, Hong Kong netizens used a popular digital platform known as LIHKG (連登) as a communicative center to exchange time-based information, express outrage or solidarity, and assemble decentered actions of agitation. There was an implied sense that LIHKG was facilitating a “wild” mode of politics oriented toward agitation, disturbance, and chaos. This paper examines its “wild politics” and asks: how might we trace the evolution of a complex political vernacular capable of creating a chaotic form of organizing, and what did this vocabulary tell us about the latent meanings, desires, and identity-making of the networked protesters? Utilizing the LDA topic-modelling method, we analyzed a large corpus of discussion threads on LIHKG to develop a customized domain-specific thematic repertoire, and revealed a “language in the wild” as part of a cultural archive that embodied the netizens’ ambivalent hopes.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	349-375
Number of pages	27
Journal	International Communication Gazette
Volume	84
Issue number	4
Early online date	12 Apr 2022
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/17480485221094123
Publication status	Published - Jun 2022
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

The authors thank our Research Assistant, Randy Zhihuai Lin, for his high efficiency and commitment to this project. He has made an important contribution to the data analysis part of the paper.

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2022.

Funding

The computational analysis part in this study is supported by the Initiation Grant for Faculty Niche Research Areas, Hong Kong Baptist University (Ref. RC-IG-FNRA/17-18/02).

Keywords

anti-ELAB movement
digital activism
Hong Kong
LDA topic modelling
LIHKG forum

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10.1177/17480485221094123

Cite this

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title = "Wild hopes: Sourcing the political vocabulary of digital citizenship from the LIHKG forum",

abstract = "In the 2019 Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill resistance movement, Hong Kong netizens used a popular digital platform known as LIHKG (連登) as a communicative center to exchange time-based information, express outrage or solidarity, and assemble decentered actions of agitation. There was an implied sense that LIHKG was facilitating a “wild” mode of politics oriented toward agitation, disturbance, and chaos. This paper examines its “wild politics” and asks: how might we trace the evolution of a complex political vernacular capable of creating a chaotic form of organizing, and what did this vocabulary tell us about the latent meanings, desires, and identity-making of the networked protesters? Utilizing the LDA topic-modelling method, we analyzed a large corpus of discussion threads on LIHKG to develop a customized domain-specific thematic repertoire, and revealed a “language in the wild” as part of a cultural archive that embodied the netizens{\textquoteright} ambivalent hopes.",

keywords = "anti-ELAB movement, digital activism, Hong Kong, LDA topic modelling, LIHKG forum",

author = "ERNI, \{John Nguyet\} and Yin ZHANG",

note = "The authors thank our Research Assistant, Randy Zhihuai Lin, for his high efficiency and commitment to this project. He has made an important contribution to the data analysis part of the paper. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2022.",

year = "2022",

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doi = "10.1177/17480485221094123",

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AU - ZHANG, Yin

N1 - The authors thank our Research Assistant, Randy Zhihuai Lin, for his high efficiency and commitment to this project. He has made an important contribution to the data analysis part of the paper. Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2022.

PY - 2022/6

Y1 - 2022/6

N2 - In the 2019 Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill resistance movement, Hong Kong netizens used a popular digital platform known as LIHKG (連登) as a communicative center to exchange time-based information, express outrage or solidarity, and assemble decentered actions of agitation. There was an implied sense that LIHKG was facilitating a “wild” mode of politics oriented toward agitation, disturbance, and chaos. This paper examines its “wild politics” and asks: how might we trace the evolution of a complex political vernacular capable of creating a chaotic form of organizing, and what did this vocabulary tell us about the latent meanings, desires, and identity-making of the networked protesters? Utilizing the LDA topic-modelling method, we analyzed a large corpus of discussion threads on LIHKG to develop a customized domain-specific thematic repertoire, and revealed a “language in the wild” as part of a cultural archive that embodied the netizens’ ambivalent hopes.

AB - In the 2019 Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill resistance movement, Hong Kong netizens used a popular digital platform known as LIHKG (連登) as a communicative center to exchange time-based information, express outrage or solidarity, and assemble decentered actions of agitation. There was an implied sense that LIHKG was facilitating a “wild” mode of politics oriented toward agitation, disturbance, and chaos. This paper examines its “wild politics” and asks: how might we trace the evolution of a complex political vernacular capable of creating a chaotic form of organizing, and what did this vocabulary tell us about the latent meanings, desires, and identity-making of the networked protesters? Utilizing the LDA topic-modelling method, we analyzed a large corpus of discussion threads on LIHKG to develop a customized domain-specific thematic repertoire, and revealed a “language in the wild” as part of a cultural archive that embodied the netizens’ ambivalent hopes.

KW - anti-ELAB movement

KW - digital activism

KW - Hong Kong

KW - LDA topic modelling

KW - LIHKG forum

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DO - 10.1177/17480485221094123

M3 - Journal Article (refereed)

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SN - 1748-0485

VL - 84

SP - 349

EP - 375

JO - International Communication Gazette

JF - International Communication Gazette

IS - 4

ER -

Wild hopes: Sourcing the political vocabulary of digital citizenship from the LIHKG forum

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Funding

Keywords

Access to Document

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