Positive Energy: Perceptions and Attitudes Towards COVID-19 Information on Social Media in China
CHI 2021The outbreak of COVID-19 has resulted in a worldwide public health crisis. In such times of crisis, access to relevant and accurate information is critical. For many people in China, domestic social media platforms such as WeChat and Weibo have become dominant sources of COVID-19-related information and news. On these platforms, government censorship policies, astroturfers, and other government interventions have contributed to an increasingly complex social media environment. People have to evaluate the trustworthiness of COVID-19-related information and make sharing decisions in such a complex environment. We conducted interviews with 33 Chinese WeChat users to understand how individuals were seeking COVID-19-related information and how they identified and evaluated specific COVID-19-related misinformation. This work exposes that COVID-19-related content with ‘positive energy’ is prevalent on social media in China. A significant number of interviewees exhibited a willingness to prioritize information valence over veracity when evaluating and sharing content with others. Further, the work revealed that Chinese citizens’ understanding of information ecosystems plays an important role in their attitudes towards censorship and official media, and their evaluation of both domestic and international information during the global crisis.
Chenxinran Elise Shen
HCI Researcher
I am an HCI researcher interested in Virtual Reality (VR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). My enthusiasm lies in exploring how VR and AI-mediated technologies can influence an individual’s perception and behavior, and the potential of this influence to enhance communication among people. I recently completed my Master’s degree in Computer Science at the University of British Columbia, under the co-supervision of Prof. Joanna McGrenere in eDapt and Prof. Dongwook Yoon in D-lab. My thesis involved developing a VR system named LegacySphere. This system offers a perspective-taking approach aimed at enhancing younger adults’ understanding and empathy towards their elder family members by allowing them to experience their family members’ viewpoints. The paper is currently under review for CHI 2024. Prior to this, I completed my undergraduate degree in Computer Science at the University of Toronto, under the guidance of Prof. Daniel Wigdor in the Dynamic Graphics Project and Prof. Zhicong Lu. During this time, three of our Social Computing papers were accepted by CSCW and CHI conferences. Notably, my first-authored paper, which investigates the gig economy in gaming, was awarded an honorable mention at CHI. In addition to my academic pursuits, I am a cat lover and a fanfiction writer. Send me your cat pictures to elise.shen007@gmail.com , and I’ll reply with heartfelt words of praise and delight!