Keren Wang

SCOM 3050 Lesson 13: Quantitative Methods - Content Analysis

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 20:48:09 +0000

Overview

Content Analysis: A research technique for the systematic classification and description of communication content based on predetermined categories. It can be quantitative, qualitative, or a combination of both.

Quantitative content analysis involves counting occurrences (e.g., how often violence is depicted in media).
Qualitative content analysis involves interpreting the meaning behind the content, overlapping with rhetorical and other qualitative methods discussed in previous weeks.

Why Use Content Analysis?

Researchers use content analysis to measure behavior within media, such as how characters in films or television programs act, or how frequently certain themes appear in advertisements or articles.
It is commonly used to investigate themes like violence, bias, identity representation, or other significant patterns in media.

Manifest vs. Latent Content

Manifest Content: What is explicitly presented in the media (e.g., a character saying "I love you").
Latent Content: The underlying, hidden meanings behind what is explicitly shown, though content analysis typically focuses on manifest content.

Coding

Coding is a critical process in content analysis, where researchers classify and categorize the data they've collected based on predefined rules. Coding allows researchers to systematically organize and interpret large sets of data, making it easier to quantify and analyze the information.

Types of Coding

Open Coding: This is the initial phase of coding where researchers start by identifying key themes, concepts, or patterns in the data. This approach is flexible and exploratory, allowing researchers to see what categories naturally emerge.
Axial Coding: Once the initial categories are identified, axial coding refines and links the categories by identifying relationships among them. This step helps in organizing the data around central themes.
Selective Coding: In this phase, researchers focus on the core categories that have emerged and further explore connections. This step helps develop a coherent narrative around the data.

Coding Process

Create Categories: Researchers must establish a clear system of categories based on the research question. For example, if studying violence in TV shows, categories could include "physical violence," "verbal aggression," and "implied violence."
Operational Definitions: Essential for clear, measurable research, operational definitions specify how a concept will be measured in the study. For example, define what counts as "violence" to ensure consistent coding.
- It is crucial to provide detailed operational definitions for each category. For example, if the category is "physical violence," the definition might include "any act where one character physically harms or attempts to harm another character, including hitting, kicking, shooting, etc."
- Coding for abstract concepts like "patriotism" or "beauty" can be difficult because these terms can be interpreted differently depending on context. Researchers must carefully operationalize these concepts to ensure clarity.
Mutually Exclusive Categories: Categories must be distinct, meaning that a single piece of content should only fit into one category. If categories overlap, coding will be inconsistent and unreliable. For example, "verbal aggression" and "insult" should be clearly distinguished to avoid overlap.
Intercoder Reliability: To maintain consistency, especially in larger studies involving multiple coders, researchers should test consistency between different coders, known as intercoder reliability. This process involves having several coders analyze the same content independently and comparing their results.
- A high level of agreement between coders (typically 90% or higher) indicates reliable coding. If discrepancies arise, the operational definitions or coding procedures may need to be revised.

Sampling

Sampling refers to the process of selecting a representative subset of content from a larger pool to study. In content analysis, sampling is crucial because it directly affects the generalizability and reliability of the findings.

Sampling and coding are closely related because the way you select and code your sample affects the validity of your research project. A well-chosen, representative sample ensures that the data collected can be generalized to the broader population, while accurate coding ensures that the data collected is reliable and meaningful.

What Is AI? Part 2 – Demystifying AI Through Four Acts

Mon, 01 Dec 2025 09:35:52 +0000

Scene from the 1983 sci-fi thriller WarGames, directed by John Badham. The film dramatizes a near-catastrophe triggered by a military decision to entrust U.S. nuclear deterrence to an autonomous AI system that treats thermonuclear war as a solvable optimization problem. Source: DVDXtras, “WarGames (1983) | Behind the Scenes,” Internet Archive, June 2, 2022. <LINK>

Continuing from: “What Is AI?” Part 1: A Survey of Imaginaries, Mythologies, and Rhetorical Structures of Thinking Machines*

In the previous segment of our genealogical survey, we have traced ancient imaginaries that seeded today’s visions of machine intelligence. From Yan Shi’s mechanical performers to Talos’ bronze vigilance and the ritual logic of golems and Homunculi, we explored how mythic prototypes shaped the rhetorical terrain on which “AI” would later emerge as a technological category.

Whereas earlier societies used myth and ritual to make sense of uncanny forms of artificial agency and “thinking machines,” in this second part we turn from historical mythologies to present-day technological possibilities. The term “artificial intelligence” circulates in our cultural lifeworld with astonishing fluidity. It appears in commercials, policy reports, sci-fi movies, legal disputes, and everyday conversations. It is used to describe everything from basic computer programs to sophisticated generative models capable of complex knowledge-performance.

"What Is AI?" Part 1: A Survey of Imaginaries, Mythologies, and Rhetorical Structures of Thinking Machines

Mon, 17 Nov 2025 14:18:43 +0000

*Online lesson module and WIP chapter draft.

When our own era proclaims artificial intelligence (AI) as the centerpiece of contemporary technological fetishism, it often points to its sweeping impact on medicine, autonomous mobility, creative production, and the evolving rituals of law and civic life. Yet even amid these transformations, we should resist the impulse to treat AI as a clean break with the past, for the imaginaries that animate it are far older than the machines themselves.¹

Long before the first integrated circuit pulsed with electricity, societies from the past contemplated thinking machines in forms that now read like allegories of our contemporary anxieties.

Free Speech and Communication Rights

Mon, 03 Nov 2025 04:41:42 +0000

Online lesson module - A practical walk through First Amendment foundations, controversial but protected expressions, categories of unprotected speech, and contemporary questions of platform power, VPNs, and the Tor network. This lesson follows our in‑class slide deck and uses the same conceptual scaffolding for continuity.

1) Free Expression: Constitutional and Global Frames

The framers of the US Constitution felt a strong need to safeguard the freedom of speech and the press (as well as religion and the right to assemble).

The First Amendment of the Constitution articulates a bright‑line commitment: “Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” [1]

Interpretive anchor: Political and religious speech receive the highest protection under the US constitutional framework. Restrictions must satisfy content‑neutral “time, place, and manner” standards and leave open alternative channels of communication. [2]

The term “press” in the First Amendment is NOT meant to be narrowly understood as newspapers or printed matter. The Supreme Court of the US (SCOTUS) has consistency interpreted the "press" as an umbrella encompassing any medium used to disseminate information and opinions to the public. The "press" includes, but not limited to: print publications, broadcast media, digital platforms, blogs, podcasts, streaming contents, social media, and software source codes. [3]

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Art. 19

Everyone has the right to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. This is the global lingua franca of communication rights.[4]

While the U.S. Constitution enshrines free expression through the First Amendment, its spirit resonates in international human rights law. Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) extends the same principle beyond national boundaries, affirming that “everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” [5]

In this sense, the American jurisprudence on press freedom contributes to a broader global discourse on communication rights—the notion that access to information and the ability to share ideas are not privileges granted by the state, but intrinsic conditions of human dignity and democratic participation. [6]

2) Free Expression in American History

The First Amendment’s promise of free expression has never fully insulated the United States from attempts to silence dissenting voices or control the press. A vivid early example came in 1798, when the Federalist-controlled Congress enacted the Alien and Sedition Acts, a series of laws designed to suppress opposition during a time of political and international tension. The Sedition Act, in particular, made it a crime to “write, publish, or print any false, scandalous, and malicious writing” against the president, Congress, or the federal government.[7]

In practice, these laws targeted journalists, editors, and immigrant supporters of the Democratic-Republican Party, whose criticism of Federalist policies was reframed as a threat to national security. The Acts proved deeply unpopular, provoking a national backlash over what many viewed as an assault on constitutional liberties. When the Federalists were voted out of power in 1800, the new administration swiftly allowed the legislation to expire, marking an early and decisive reaffirmation that political dissent and criticism of public officials lie at the core of the American free speech tradition. [8]

2.1 Prior Restraint and its Discontents

Prior restraint refers to government actions that prevent speech or publication before it occurs, typically through injunctions, licensing, or other forms of preemptive censorship. Prior restraint has deep roots in English common law, where monarchs required the press to obtain royal licenses, in effect silencing political or religious dissent. [9]

The struggle over prior restraint became especially visible in twentieth-century American jurisprudence, as courts were forced to define the limits of government control over publication. In 1931, the Supreme Court’s decision in Near v. Minnesota marked the first major ruling to strike down a state’s attempt to suppress a newspaper before distribution. The case arose when Minnesota officials tried to shut down The Saturday Press for accusing local politicians of corruption. The Court ruled that such pre-publication censorship violated the First Amendment, establishing that punishment for libel or incitement must come after publication through due process, not before. [10]

A declassified Central Intelligence Agency map from November 1950 depicting dissident activity in Indochina, later published by The New York Times as part of the Pentagon Papers series. Source: Central Intelligence Agency, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons <https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dissident_Activities_in_Indochina.svg>

Four decades later, in 1971, New York Times Co. v. United States—the “Pentagon Papers” case—reaffirmed that even claims of national security rarely justify silencing the press in advance. The Nixon administration’s effort to block the Times and Washington Post from publishing leaked documents on the Vietnam War was rejected, with Justice Black famously writing that “the press was to serve the governed, not the governors.” [11]

The issue of prior restraint resurfaced in 1979 with United States v. The Progressive, when the Department of Energy (DOE) sought to prevent The Progressive magazine from publishing an article titled “The H-Bomb Secret: How We Got It, Why We’re Telling It.” Written by freelance journalist Howard Morland, the piece compiled publicly available scientific information to explain the general principles of hydrogen bomb design.

The US government argued that even though the H-bomb data was unclassified, the article could help hostile nations develop nuclear weapons and therefore threatened US national security. A federal judge initially granted an injunction, marking one of the rare instances in U.S. history where prior restraint was temporarily upheld. However, the case was dropped before reaching the Supreme Court after similar information appeared in other publications, rendering the injunction moot. [12]

3) One Man’s Vulgarity is Another’s Lyric

The First Amendment protects not only agreeable or accurate speech but also expression that is false, unsettling, or offensive, so long as it does not cross into one of the legally defined unprotected categories.

For instance, most false statements (or the “right to lie”) are protected as long as they do not amount to defamation, perjury, or professional malpractice. The Supreme Court made this point explicit in United States v. Alvarez (2012), when it struck down the Stolen Valor Act, which had criminalized falsely claiming military honors. The Court reasoned that the government cannot impose blanket bans on lies without threatening the broader freedom to engage in activities intrinsic to public discourse and self-expression. [13]

Cover of the November 1979 issue of The Progressive, displaying a simplified diagram of the Teller–Ulam hydrogen bomb design— an issue the U.S. Department of Energy sought to censor on national security grounds.
Source: By The Progressive magazine, Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=20156806

Another recurring controversy involves the publication of classified or sensitive government information by journalists or private citizens. In most circumstances, the First Amendment prohibits the government from punishing the press for publishing lawfully obtained materials, even if those materials expose state secrets or political wrongdoing.

The Pentagon Papers case (1971) and the United States v. Progressive “H-bomb” case (1979) we’ve discussed earlier reaffirmed this principle, holding that the risk of embarrassment or diplomatic tension generally does not outweigh the public’s right to know.

Finally, unpopular or offensive expressions, for the most part, remains constitutionally protected unless it directly incites violence or falls within another unprotected category such as fighting words (more on this later). This includes speech that most find morally objectionable or politically extreme. The protection of offensive speech ensures that public authorities cannot easily redefine the boundaries of "acceptable opinion." As Justice Harlan observed in Cohen v. California (1971), when a man wore a jacket emblazoned with “F*** the Draft” in a courthouse:

“One man’s vulgarity is another’s lyric.” [14]

4) Unprotected Speech

While the First Amendment offers broad protection for expression, it is not absolute. Over time, the US Supreme Court has defined a narrow set of unprotected categories of speech—forms of expression that are considered so harmful, fraudulent, or devoid of public value that they do not merit constitutional protection. Each category has been shaped by specific historical cases, reflecting the tension between liberty and harm prevention in a democratic society.

4.1 Defamation (libel & slander)

Defamation refers to false statements of fact that unjustly harm another person’s reputation. For speech to qualify as defamation, it must meet ALL four criteria: it must be:

(1) Untrue - verified to be factually false or misleading.

(2) Public - cannot be an one-on-one private conversation, must be at minimum communicated to a third party individual.

(3). Actual Malice - made with reckless disregard for truth AND the intent to cause harm.

(4)Actual Injury - must result in verifiable monetary or reputational damages [15]

The Onion. “IRS Allows Taxpayers to Deposit Payments Directly into Elon Musk’s Bank Account.” The Onion, June 6, 2025. https://www.theonion.com/irs-allows-taxpayers-to-deposit-payments-directly-into-elon-musks-bank-account

Although The Onion’s June 6, 2025 article, “IRS Allows Taxpayers To Deposit Payments Directly Into Elon Musk’s Bank Account,” makes numerous false claims about the U.S. government and Elon Musk, it is a work of satire and does not meet the legal criteria for defamation. Satirical and parodic works like The Onion’s are protected precisely because they cannot reasonably be understood as stating actual facts. The publication made clear signals to its readers that the piece is humorous commentary on systemic wealth inequality, not actual news report. [16]

1. Untrue: The claim is factually false.
2. Communicated to at least one third party: It was shared to a large online audience.
3. Actual malice: The celebrity chef acted with reckless disregard for the truth by publishing without verification.
4. Actual injury: The restaurant suffered measurable financial and reputational harm.

4.2 Fighting Words (rarely applicable today)

The category of fighting words refers to a very narrow class of speech acts so personally abusive and confrontational that they are likely to provoke an immediate violent response from the person addressed. The doctrine was first articulated in the controversial case Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire (1942). Since then, courts have dramatically narrowed the fighting words doctrine, and it is almost never applied today—surviving more as a historical artifact. [17]

To qualify as fighting words, speech must satisfy ALL of the following elements:

(1) Personally Abusive — must be directed at a specific individual in a way that is extremely insulting or demeaning;

(2) Face-to-Face — must occur in a close, personal encounter where physical confrontation between involved parties is possible;

(3) Incite Immediate Physical Violence — the speech must be so severe where an reasonable be provoked into immediate physical retaliation (not merely offend, disturb, or anger).

(4) Lack of Broader Value — must exist purely as a personal insult and cannot be reasonably interpreted as having serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value (“SLAPS” value)

Once again, fighting words are an exceedingly narrow exception to free expression, representing the constitutional system’s effort to balance the right to speak with the need to prevent immediate, face-to-face violence. Because these conditions are so strict, very few cases meet all four elements—even when the speech in question is highly offensive or hateful.

4.3 Obscenity (Miller's test)

The Supreme Court’s decision in Miller v. California(1973) established the three-part test for determining obscenity. [18]

A work is considered obscene only if it satisfies ALL of the following elements (also known as the Miller’s test):

(1) Appeals to the Prurient Interest - That “the average person, applying contemporary community standards,” would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to an excessive or unhealthy interest in sexual matters. [19]

(2) Patently Offensive - Whether the work depicts or describes patently offensive "'hard core' sexual conduct specifically defined by the regulating state law, as written or construed." [20]

(3) No "SLAPS" Value - the work, taken as a whole, does not have serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value (“SLAPS” value). [21]

Screenshot of adult video-sharing website Pornhub’s “Notice to User” page, captured on November 1, 2025. The page automatically appears when users attempt to access the site from regions subject to state-level age-verification laws. At the top of the notice, a video message features Dr. Cherie DeVille, an American licensed physician, adult film performer, and free speech advocate. In the clip, Dr. DeVille explains that recently enacted state statutes require age and identity verification before granting access to adult content. Her statement frames the measure as both a legal compliance notice and a policy commentary on the right to free expression in digital environments.

Age Verification Laws and Digital Rights

Under the Miller's test, most mainstream online pornography platforms are not likely to meet the legal definition of obscenity. The Miller framework narrowly defines obscenity as expression that appeals to prurient interests, depicts sexual conduct in a patently offensive way, and lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. By contrast, U.S. courts have repeatedly held that consensual adult pornography constitutes protected speech (so long as it does not involve minors or non-consensual acts), as they may reasonably be understood as having some expressive or artistic value. [22]

However, beginning around 2021, a global wave of adult-content removals and site-access restrictions emerged—not through direct governmental censorship, but via indirect enforcement mechanisms.

Rather than invoking obscenity law, public authorities and private intermediaries have increasingly relied on trafficking and age-verification statutes to limit access to online adult material. These include 18 U.S.C. §§ 2257 and 2257A, which mandate age and identity verification for all performers in sexually explicit content, and the FOSTA–SESTA package (2018), which expanded platform liability for facilitating sex trafficking or prostitution. [23]

Under the threat of severe financial and legal penalties, credit card companies and payment processors suspended services to adult-content platforms such as Pornhub until they implemented stricter user identity and age verification systems that satisfied government and corporate compliance standards. This strategy effectively bypasses traditional obscenity law, achieving de facto regulation through economic pressure and private enforcement rather than court rulings.

Many digital rights and free expression advocates have voiced concern that such measures, while intended to prevent exploitation, expand the infrastructure for online censorship and erode user privacy. Mandatory age-verification systems require users to upload sensitive identification documents, increasing the risk of data breaches, identity theft, and potential state surveillance. In this way, the contemporary regulation of adult content reflects a shift from moral censorship under obscenity doctrine to a new regime of bureaucratic and corporate gatekeeping, where privacy and free expression are increasingly contingent on compliance with opaque verification systems. [24]

4.4 Intellectual Property Violations

While the First Amendment protects expression, it does not protect the unauthorized use of another person’s creative work. Copyright infringement is one of the most common forms of restricted speech in the digital age. In fact, the vast majority of online takedown and censorship cases involve intellectual property violations, not hate speech or political dissent.

Under U.S. law, copyright protection extends for the lifetime of the author plus 70 years after their death, a duration considerably longer than in most other countries. Once that period expires, the work enters the public domain, where it may be freely used, adapted, or redistributed.

However, a significant loophole allows corporations to preserve their intellectual monopolies: by continually producing “new” versions or derivative works based on existing characters and franchises. Each new iteration—whether a sequel, prequel, or cinematic remake—resets the clock on copyright protection for that specific creative expression. This system contributes to the recent wave of live-action remakes, reboots, and remasters of older works in film and television. [25]

4.5 Speech Integral to Criminal Conduct

The final major category of unprotected speech encompasses expressions that are themselves integral to criminal activity. Unlike controversial or offensive ideas—which remain protected under the First Amendment—these forms of communication are inseparable from the commission of a crime. The law draws a firm line between speech that expresses an idea and speech that acts as a mechanism of harm.

Examples include fraud and scams, where deceptive speech is used to obtain money or property through misrepresentation; the possession and distribution of child abuse material, which is categorically excluded from protection because it involves the documentation of real criminal abuse; criminal solicitation or conspiracy, in which language functions as the coordination or encouragement of illegal acts; and targeted harassment or threats of specific, imminent harm, where speech directly endangers the safety of an identifiable person.

In the digital age, many of these offenses increasingly manifest as forms of cybercrime—where speech itself becomes both the medium and mechanism of violence. [26]

Screenshot of the splash screen of the payload of the original version of Petya – a family of ransomware that encrypts its victims' hard drive and prevents their PC computers from booting. It subsequently demands that its victims to make a payment in cryptocurrency (typically Bitcoin) in order to regain access to their PCs.

An example illustrating this boundary is the case of Petya, a family of ransomware first identified in 2016. Petya malware encrypts the victim’s hard drive and prevents their computer from booting, displaying a ransom note demanding payment in cryptocurrency (such as Bitcoin) to restore access. [27]

5) Internet Censorship & Communication Rights

As discussed in our previous lesson, the internet remains an enduring paradox: it is both an infrastructure of free expression and a technology of control. On one level, it has democratized access to speech and empowered individuals to publish, organize, and collaborate across geographic and political boundaries. Yet the same architecture that enables open exchange also provides governments and corporations with unparalleled capacities for surveillance, behavioral manipulation, and information restriction. In this way, the internet operates simultaneously as a public sphere and a system of governance—a space where freedom and regulation constantly collide.

Forms of Internet Censorship:

Content Blocking: when Internet Service Providers (ISPs) or regulatory agencies restrict access to certain websites, social media platforms, or news outlets—often justified in the name of national security or “public morality.” [28]

Surveillance & Data Harvesting: allow both states and private firms to monitor user activity, constructing detailed behavioral profiles that can be used to shape, predict, remove, or "shadow ban" speech.[29]

Algorithmic Filtering: Platforms algorithmically curate or suppress visibility of particular content, can be driven by the economic logic of engagement or government pressure.[30]

Legal/Administrative Pressure: Arrests, fines, or online takedown orders targeting journalists, activists, users, ISPs, sites and payment processors.

5.1 Communication Rights

In response to these pressures, scholars and civil society groups have advanced the framework of communication rights, extending the logic of free speech into the digital age. These rights include:

The right to information - freedom to seek, receive, and impart information through any media (UN Declaration of Human Rights, Art. 19). The right to equitable digital access - free from discriminatory throttling or commercial gatekeeping.

Freedom from surveillance - protection from arbitrary surveillance and content restriction.

Data privacy - protection of personal data from being collected and used without user’s authorization.

Together, these principles reflect the spirit of Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), which recognizes that the ability to communicate “through any media and regardless of frontiers” is essential to both human dignity and democratic governance.

The persistent balancing problem for communication rights lies in reconciling legitimate security concerns with the preservation of user rights protections. Measures enacted under the guise of protecting citizens (e.g. to combat terrorism, misinformation, or cybercrime) can easily evolve into permanent instruments of control. Once extraordinary powers are normalized, they seldom retreat. Thus, maintaining an open and pluralistic internet requires institutional transparency, public oversight, and digital literacy to ensure that digital protections do not quietly become digital censorship. [32]

5.1 VPNs: Benefits and Constraints

A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a tool that encrypts a user’s internet traffic and routes it through a remote server, effectively masking the user’s IP address and geographic location. In doing so, VPNs provide a degree of privacy and autonomy in digital communication, which can be vital for journalists, activists, or citizens in countries with heavy online surveillance.

From a free speech perspective, VPNs extend the practical reach of expression by allowing individuals to bypass censorship, access restricted information, and protect their anonymity while engaging in political or social discourse. However, while VPNs are often marketed as instruments of digital freedom, they also introduce new ethical, legal, and trust-based dilemmas.

Why users adopt VPNs

Mask IP location to reduce tracking and profiling by advertisers, governments, or hostile actors.

Limit ISP and search engine data collection, preventing providers from logging browsing histories.

Bypass censorship and geo-restricted content, such as blocked news sites or streaming services.

Mitigate dynamic pricing based on a user’s location, device, or browsing history.

Secure, nonprofit options

Most commercial VPNs operate under opaque ownership structures, and many “free” VPNs monetize user data through surveillance advertising or analytics resale. By contrast, a small number of nonprofit projects are designed explicitly to serve privacy and anti-censorship goals:

- - Riseup VPN — One of the few legitimate free and open VPN services, supported entirely by charitable donations from privacy and anti-censorship advocates. https://riseup.net/en/vpn
  - ProtonVPN — Founded by scientists at CERN and initially financed through a community crowdfunding campaign; now operated by the Swiss-based nonprofit Proton Foundation. https://github.com/ProtonVPN

Constraints and Ethical Implications

- - A VPN doesn’t make you completely immune to all tracking: Websites can still identify users via cookies, browser fingerprinting, or account logins.
  - A VPN hides user data from the ISP, but the VPN provider can see user traffic.
  - Cybercriminals, (e.g., ransomware authors) also use VPNs to conceal their identities
  - In some countries (e.g., Belarus, Egypt, Iran, Pakistan, PRC, Russia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, UAE), using a VPN is restricted or banned.

5.2 The Tor Network and the “Dark Web”

Tor Browser is available in two versions for Android—standard and alpha. Non-technical users are advised to install the standard release, which is more stable and less prone to errors. The official Tor Browser for Android can be safely downloaded from the Google Play Store, F-Droid, or the Tor Project’s official website; obtaining it from any other source poses significant security risks.
Source: Tor Project. Mobile Tor Manual. Last modified 2024. https://iacobus.pages.torproject.net/manual/ca/mobile-tor/

Whereas a VPN relies on a single provider to encrypt and reroute traffic, Tor (also known as the Onion Router) -- an open source, open access project -- distributes this process across a decentralized network of volunteer-run servers, or “relays.”

As data travels through multiple nodes, each layer of encryption is peeled away like an onion, ensuring that no single relay knows both who the user is and what content they are accessing.

This structure minimizes centralized control and makes it exceptionally difficult for surveillance systems to trace communication back to its origin. [33]

Tor serves as both a technical safeguard for privacy and a philosophical statement about informational freedom. For users in heavily censored environments, Tor can mean the difference between silence and participation.

Yet Tor’s very strength—its multilayered anonymity—also fuels public suspicion. The same system that protects dissidents and reporters can be used by criminals to conduct illicit trade, distribute malware, or traffic in stolen data.

Advantages of using Tor

Circumvent Censorship: Enables users in restrictive regimes to access blocked sites and communication tools.

Protect Privacy: conceals both user identity & browsing activity from ISPs, governments, and advertisers.

Digital Democracy: Tor Project is open-source and community-run. Journalists, activists, and whistleblowers use it to safely share information without fear of retaliation.

Constraints & Ethical Concerns

Tor can be slow due to multiple encryption layers and limited volunteer bandwidth.

While Tor safeguards legitimate users, it is also exploited for cybercrimes such as illegal marketplaces

Just like the VPNs, access to Tor is also heavily restricted in many countries.

References

Cohen-Almagor, Raphael. The scope of tolerance: Studies on the costs of free expression and freedom of the press. Routledge, 2005.
Brownstein, Alan E. "Harmonizing the Heavenly and Earthly Spheres: The Fragmentation and Synthesis of Religion, Equality, and Speech in the Constitution." Ohio St. LJ 51 (1990): 89.
Balkin, Jack M. "Digital speech and democratic culture: A theory of freedom of expression for the information society." In Law and Society approaches to cyberspace, pp. 325-382. Routledge, 2017.
United Nations. General Assembly. Universal declaration of human rights. Vol. 3381. Department of State, United States of America, 1949.
McLeod, Sharynne. "Communication rights: Fundamental human rights for all." International journal of speech-language pathology 20, no. 1 (2018): 3-11.
Mallén, Ignacio Bel. "Freedom as the Essential Basis for Communication Rights." The Handbook of Communication Rights, Law, and Ethics: Seeking Universality, Equality, Freedom and Dignity (2021): 7-19.
Bradburn, Douglas. "A clamor in the public mind: Opposition to the Alien and Sedition Acts." The William and Mary Quarterly 65, no. 3 (2008): 565-600.
Levy, Leonard W. "Liberty and the First Amendment: 1790-1800." The American Historical Review 68, no. 1 (1962): 22-37.
Jeffries Jr, John Calvin. "Rethinking Prior Restraint." Yale LJ 92 (1982): 409.
Meyerson, Michael I. "Rewriting Near v. Minnesota: Creating a Complete Definition of Prior Restraint." Mercer L. Rev. 52 (2000): 1087.
Godofsky, Stanley, and Howard M. Rogatnick. "Prior Restraints: The Pentagon Papers Case Revisited." Cumb. L. Rev. 18 (1987): 527.
Dumain, Ian M. "No secret, no defense: United States v. progressive." Cardozo L. Rev. 26 (2004): 1323.
Lieffring, Staci. "First Amendment and the right to lie: Regulating knowingly false campaign speech after United States v. Alvarez." Minn. L. Rev. 97 (2012): 1047.
Farber, Daniel A. "Civilizing public discourse: An essay on Professor Bickel, Justice Harlan, and the enduring significance of Cohen v. California." Duke LJ (1980): 283.
Dienes, C. Thomas, and Lee Levine. "Implied Libel, Defamatory Meaning, and State of Mind: The Promise of New York Times Co. v. Sullivan." Iowa L. Rev. 78 (1992): 237.
This protection was firmly established in Hustler Magazine v. Falwell (1988), where the Supreme Court held that even offensive parodies of public figures are constitutionally protected so long as they cannot reasonably be interpreted as factual claims.
Wright, R. George. "Fighting Words Today." Pepp. L. Rev. 49 (2022): 805.
Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15 (1973).
Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, 15 (1973).
Ibid., at 27.
Ibid., at 15, 23.
Karniel, Yuval, and Haim Wismonsky. "Pornography, Community and the Internet-Freedom of Speech and Obscenity on the Internet." Rutgers Computer & Tech. LJ 30 (2004): 105.
Marsden, Christine. "Age-verification laws in the era of digital privacy." Nat'l Sec. LJ 10 (2023): 210.
Murray, Alana, Huma Chhipa, and Johnathan Yerby. "Cyber risk, privacy, and the legal complexities of age verification for adult content platforms." Issues in Information Systems 26, no. 4 (2025): 332-347.
Bowrey, Kathy, and Michael Handler, eds. Law and Creativity in the Age of the Entertainment Franchise. No. 27. Cambridge University Press, 2014.
Holt, Thomas, and Adam Bossler. Cybercrime in progress: Theory and prevention of technology-enabled offenses. Routledge, 2015.
Fayi, Sharifah Yaqoub A. "What Petya/NotPetya ransomware is and what its remidiations are." In Information technology-new generations: 15th international conference on information technology, pp. 93-100. Cham: Springer International Publishing, 2018.
Ververis, Vasilis, Sophia Marguel, and Benjamin Fabian. "Cross‐Country comparison of Internet censorship: A literature review." Policy & Internet 12, no. 4 (2020): 450-473.
Wang, Keren. "Legal and Ritological Dynamics of Personalized “Pillars of Shame” in Chinese Social Credit System Construction." China review 24, no. 3 (2024): 179-206. https://www.jstor.org/stable/48788933
Cobbe, Jennifer. "Algorithmic censorship by social platforms: Power and resistance." Philosophy & Technology 34, no. 4 (2021): 739-766.
McLeod, Sharynne. "Communication rights: Fundamental human rights for all." International journal of speech-language pathology 20, no. 1 (2018): 3-11.
Bennett, W. Lance, and Barbara Pfetsch. "Rethinking political communication in a time of disrupted public spheres." Journal of communication 68, no. 2 (2018): 243-253.
AlSabah, Mashael, and Ian Goldberg. "Performance and security improvements for tor: A survey." ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR) 49, no. 2 (2016): 1-36.

Fake News: Concepts, Rhetorical Disruptions, and Policy Implications

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 00:26:53 +0000

Media, Society, and Culture Lesson Module

Seeing Isn’t Believing

 RepresentUs, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons: A synthetic Kim Jong Un warns Americans—evidence that our eyes/ears are no longer reliable gatekeepers.

This video clip is a "deepfake" of Kim Jong Un created in 2020 by RepresentUs, a non-partisan non-profit organization that produced it to raise public awareness about fake news in the emerging age of generative AI. The footage itself is fully synthetic, yet it’s an amalgamation from genuine video footage and voice samples of the North Korean leader drawn from publicly available news archives. It was intentionally designed to look real enough to unsettle us, but still recognizable as “fake” for educational purposes. Since 2020, of course, deepfake technology has advanced by orders of magnitude, in terms of realism, accessibility, and speed of production.

Public Relations: Industry, Practices, and Democratic Implications

Mon, 20 Oct 2025 16:35:06 +0000

Posted by Keren Wang, FA 2025

1) Public Relations and Propaganda

Let’s start today’s discussion with one of the most famous political ads in American history: Lyndon B. Johnson’s 1964 “Daisy” ad. It’s only about a minute long, but it changed the entire landscape of political persuasion. Go ahead and give it a watch: LBJ campaign’s “Daisy” ad (1964).

The Internet - from "Nuclear Hardened" Networks to Algorithmic Governmentality

Sun, 12 Oct 2025 17:15:36 +0000

References

Beck, Estee. "Who Is Tracking You?: A Rhetorical Framework for Evaluating Surveillance and Privacy Practices." In Cyber Law, Privacy, and Security: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications, pp. 121-138. IGI Global, 2019.

Belk, Russell. “Extended self and the digital world.” Current Opinion in Psychology 10 (2016): 50-54.

Chen, Ning, and Yu Chen. “Smart city surveillance at the network edge in the era of iot: opportunities and challenges.” Smart cities: development and governance frameworks (2018): 153-176.

Understanding Advertising through Consumer Psychology and Computational Rhetoric

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 03:44:29 +0000

What Do You See?

Historical "Thickness" of Advertising

Demonstrative and Associative Ads

Advertising & Consumer Psychology

Bandwagon & Anti-Bandwagon Effects

Social Marketing & Exploitation

Computational Rhetoric of Hyper-Personalization

What Do You See?

Let’s begin today’s lesson with a quick glance at these sets of images. What do they remind you of?

Lesson 7: Rhetorical Artifacts

Sun, 14 Sep 2025 21:00:04 +0000

Posted by: Keren Wang

Before you start this lesson, please READ: Berger, Arthur Asa. 2024. Media and Communication Research Methods: An Introduction to Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. 3rd ed. Chapter 4, “Rhetorical Analysis.” Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781071939017.

1. Overview

What do you think of when you hear the word “artifact”? In rhetorical scholarship, the term “artifact” is not limited to historical objects or museum pieces. Instead, it encompasses various texts, speeches, symbolic objects, and events produced by humans.

In communication research, one key difference between rhetorical and critical methods and other qualitative research methods is that, while qualitative methods such as interviews, observations, and focus group studies revolve around studying human subjects, rhetorical scholars analyze rhetorical artifacts, or “texts” that have already been produced.

New Research Project: Artificial Intelligence and Human Sacrifice

Mon, 25 Aug 2025 02:36:41 +0000

On December 4, 2024, news broke that a lone gunman had assassinated UnitedHealthcare’s chief executive officer, Brian Thompson, outside the company’s headquarters.¹ The killing itself was shocking, but what unsettled many observers was the wave of sympathy that quickly coalesced around the perpetrator—donations, online tributes, and statements of support that revealed a raw seam in America’s collective experience of health care.² This dramatic act of killing is entangled with the dark trajectory in the devolution of the marketized healthcare industry in the United States: normalizing traumatic acts of takings, with increasingly unsustainable industry practices justifying the suspension of pre-existing taboos concerning the sanctity of life and the boundaries of wealth transfer.³

Introduction to a Brief History of Media

Mon, 25 Aug 2025 02:34:28 +0000

We begin by asking a deceptively simple question: What is media?

At its core, media is any technology that enables the storage, organization, transmission, and dissemination of information.

When we hear the word today, we tend to think of “mass media” — newspapers, television, the internet — technologies that spread information rapidly across wide distances. Commonly, people imagine the story of media beginning with the invention of the electric telegraph in the early 19th century. But is that really where media begins?

MEDIA & VIOLENCE - A Transnational Perspective

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 18:23:19 +0000

Lesson Module by Keren Wang, updated 4 Nov 2025.

This lesson module examines the contested and ambivalent relationship between media and violence from historical and transnational perspectives.

1. Violence as Ritual & Power: Historical and Global Perspectives

Let's open this session with a reference from Greek mythology: consider the telltale of Prometheus, whose theft of fire from the Olympian gods for humanity’s benefit inadvertently brought both civilization and destruction. Like Prometheus’s fire, the development of media technology simultaneously brings enlightenment and cataclysm.

1.1 Rhetorical Artifacts and Human Sacrifice

The history of the development of writing technology overlaps with the history of war propaganda and human sacrifice.^[1] As early as the Narmer Palette, one of the earliest hieroglyphic artifacts ever found from circa 3200 BCE depicting scenes of conquest and violence:

Similarly, during the height of the Chinese Bronze Age, also known as the Shang dynasty (c. 1250–1046 BC) produced ritual bronze artifacts at monumental proportions -- such as the 833 kg (1,836 lbs) Houmuwu Ding -- one of the heaviest bronze vessel from the ancient world -- and the 13-foot (3.96 m) tall Sanxingdui bronze tree (c. 1200 BC):

Rhetorical Methods - Ideological and Psychoanalytic Criticism

Wed, 02 Apr 2025 12:40:01 +0000

Originally posted by: Keren Wang, Fall 2024

Ideological Criticism - Overview

Ideological criticism is a method of analyzing texts and other rhetorical artifacts to uncover the underlying ideologies that shape and are reflected in them. This type of criticism is often used to explore how media, literature, and other forms of communication reinforce or challenge dominant social, political, and economic power structures.

Evaluating Online Sources

Wed, 26 Mar 2025 20:28:08 +0000

1. OVERVIEW

This lesson will be focusing on understanding and evaluating evidence and information sources, a crucial aspect of constructing persuasive arguments. It explains how evidence interacts with values, and presents general tests for assessing the quality of evidence. We will also be learning how to locate and evaluate various sources of evidence, guiding you on choosing reliable information from books, periodicals, websites, and more. The chapter emphasizes the importance of digital literacy and critical evaluation of different types of sources.

Media Bias Chart published by Ad Fontes Media, 2020. Fact-checking always lags behind the emergence of new biased sources of information.

2. UNDERSTANDING EVIDENCE

Evidence and Values

In public discourse, evidence is invariably filtered through the "terminal screens" of societal norms and cultural values, leading to divergent interpretations even when presented with the same set of facts. Consider, for instance, debates surrounding Artificial Intelligence (AI) and employment. For techno-optimists, as represented by some Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, rapid technological advancements are seen as essential for societal evolution. They may interpret the emergence of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) labor as an auspice for accelerated economic growth, productivity, and innovation, contending that AI liberates human workers from repetitive labor and allows greater engagement in creative, strategic, or emotionally rewarding tasks. Conversely, many labor advocates and trade unionists may interpret the prospect of an AGI workforce less positively. As critics of unchecked technological disruption, they might perceive this development as a harbinger of livelihood displacement, expressing concerns that automation could trigger widespread unemployment, diminish workers' bargaining power, and deepen existing economic inequalities. Such rhetorical divergence highlights how interpretations of evidence surrounding AI's impact are strategically framed to reinforce broader narratives of either progress or caution.

This example illustrates that the interpretation of evidence is not merely a neutral or objective process but is deeply intertwined with rhetorical constructions that reflect and reinforce specific value systems. Recognizing this interplay is crucial for understanding the dynamics of public debates and the ways in which information is presented and perceived.

Lesson on Data Visualization and its Misuses

Tue, 12 Nov 2024 01:05:28 +0000

Posted by Keren Wang, FA 2024

In this session, we aim to achieve several key learning objectives:

Understand the fundamental principles of framing and visual rhetoric, exploring how they shape the design and interpretation of data visualizations.
Examine the art of designing and manipulating graphic systems of signs that disclose or conceal specific quantitative or qualitative information.
Identify common types of data visualizations, such as bar charts, pie charts, line graphs, and network graphs, along with their appropriate applications.
Recognize the advantages and potential misuses of data visualizations, including manipulative techniques like framing and scaling distortions.
Critically analyze real and hypothetical examples to detect misleading or biased visual representations.
Develop best practices for creating clear, honest, and effective data visualizations, ensuring accuracy and ethical integrity.

Photography and Visual Rhetoric

To truly grasp the fundamental principles and perils of data visualization, we must journey back to the birth of photography and photojournalism. When photography was first employed in news reporting, it carried an inherent demand for credibility. Unlike paintings or sketches, photographs were perceived as unfiltered, unmediated representations of reality. Ironically, as our discussion will reveal, even from its inception, photojournalism was subject to rhetorical manipulation.

Argumentation - Language in Argument

Sun, 27 Oct 2024 21:16:47 +0000

Lesson on Statistical Evidence

Sun, 27 Oct 2024 18:04:48 +0000

Lesson on Statistical Evidence - Survey and Opinion Polling

Sun, 27 Oct 2024 18:01:49 +0000

Argumentation - Digital Literacy in Argumentation

Sun, 20 Oct 2024 17:59:23 +0000

Digital Literacy in Argumentation

SCOM 2710 Argumentation Lesson, Posted by Keren Wang, updated 2024

Overview

This week we will be focusing on understanding and evaluating evidence, a crucial aspect of constructing persuasive arguments. It explains how evidence interacts with values, and presents general tests for assessing the quality of evidence. We will also be learning how to locate and evaluate various sources of evidence, guiding you on choosing reliable information from books, periodicals, websites, and more. The chapter emphasizes the importance of digital literacy and critical evaluation of different types of sources.

Media Bias Chart published by Ad Fontes Media, 2020. Fact-checking always lags behind the emergence of new biased sources of information.

Understanding Evidence

Evidence and Values

Evidence is always interpreted through personal and cultural values. Here are some examples of how values shape our interpretation of evidence:

Artificial Intelligence in Employment: Evidence showing that AI can improve productivity and efficiency is interpreted by some as a positive development for economic growth, whereas others see it as a threat to jobs, fearing mass unemployment and widening economic inequality.
Genetic Editing (CRISPR): Evidence about the successful application of CRISPR to edit genes in humans can be seen as a revolutionary medical advancement that will eliminate hereditary diseases, or as a dangerous intervention with unknown ethical and social consequences.
Universal Basic Income (UBI): Evidence from trials of Universal Basic Income might show improvements in mental health and poverty reduction, which is interpreted positively by proponents as proof of the policy’s benefits. However, others might see it as fostering a culture of dependency or as economically unviable, depending on their economic values.
Police Surveillance Technology: Evidence supporting the use of facial recognition and other surveillance technology to improve public safety can be seen as a way to effectively reduce crime. On the other hand, it is interpreted by others as a serious threat to privacy and civil liberties, especially in communities that may be disproportionately targeted.
Vaccination and Public Health: Evidence showing the efficacy of mandatory vaccination for school children may be interpreted as essential for public safety by some individuals, while others may view it as intrusive government overreach or distrust the pharmaceutical industry.

Evidence that suggests a major breakthrough in general artificial intelligence may be seen either as a major technological advancement or as ethically problematic depending on the individual's values.

General Tests of Evidence

Herrick introduces seven general tests of evidence that can help evaluate whether evidence used in an argument is reliable, credible, and sufficient to support a conclusion. These tests provide a comprehensive approach to assessing the quality of evidence. Here’s a detailed breakdown:

Accessibility: Is the Evidence Available?Evidence that is accessible and open to scrutiny is generally considered more reliable.Example: A public health official cites the number of COVID-19 cases reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This evidence is accessible because the CDC publishes its data on a website that anyone can visit and verify.Counterexample: Someone claims that the government has "secret documents" showing proof of extraterrestrial contact. Since these alleged documents are not accessible for review, the claim fails the test of accessibility.
Credibility: Is the Source of the Evidence Reliable?This can depend on the reputation of the author or organization providing the evidence, as well as whether the source has the appropriate credentials or expertise.Example: A research paper on the safety of vaccines authored by a team of immunologists and published in The New England Journal of Medicine is credible due to the expertise of the authors and the reputation of the journal.Counterexample: A claim about vaccine dangers coming from an anonymous social media post lacks credibility because the author’s qualifications are unknown, and the post does not have any verifiable authority.
Internal Consistency: Does the Evidence Contradict Itself?Evidence should not contradict itself. If evidence is self-contradictory, it weakens the argument and creates doubt regarding its reliability.Example: A government report on unemployment must consistently present the same statistics throughout the report. If one section states an unemployment rate of 6% and another section states 8% without clarification, the evidence lacks internal consistency.
External Consistency: Does the Evidence Contradict Other Evidence?Evidence that sharply contradicts most other reputable evidence is often seen as unreliable.Example: A study on climate change that finds rising global temperatures should align with the majority of climate research from other scientific bodies such as NASA, the IPCC, and NOAA.
Recency: Is the Evidence Up to Date?Evidence that has been superseded by more recent findings may no longer be applicable.Example: Citing a 2023 meta-analysis on the effectiveness of renewable energy technologies is preferable to citing a study from 2001, as the newer study will have taken into account technological advancements.
Relevance: Does the Evidence Bear on the Conclusion?Evidence that does not directly relate to the argument is not helpful.Example: If a speaker argues for increasing the minimum wage, citing research that shows increased minimum wages boost consumer spending is relevant because it directly supports the argument.
Adequacy: Is the Evidence Sufficient to Support Its Claim?Adequate evidence means having enough quality evidence to convincingly support the claim being made.Example: If you are trying to prove that sugary drinks contribute to obesity, providing multiple studies from different credible sources, statistics on consumption rates, and expert testimony would collectively provide adequate evidence to support your claim.

Sources of Evidence

Herrick, Chapter 7 outlines different types of sources for evidence and their respective strengths and limitations:

Periodicals: These include scholarly journals, special-interest magazines, and news/commentary publications. Scholarly journals are considered the most reliable due to their rigorous editorial and peer-review process.
- Scholarly journals are considered the gold standard due to their peer-review process, while special-interest publications and news magazines can offer accessible information but with less depth and more bias. They can be easily accessed via university libraries.
Books: Books can be useful sources of in-depth information, but it is important to consider the author's credentials, publication date, and the type of publisher.
Documentaries: These can offer reliable insights but may be influenced by commercial interests or biases.
The Internet: Offers vast information, but requires critical assessment for credibility. Websites with recognizable authors and credible organizations are generally more reliable. Digital literacy has become an essential skill for identifying and evaluating online sources.

Digital Literacy

Digital Literacy refers to the ability to effectively navigate, evaluate, and utilize online information. Digital literacy is more than simply being able to use technology; it is about understanding how to critically evaluate the veracity and quality of digital content and its sources. Key aspects of digital literacy include:

Critical Evaluation of Sources: Not all websites are created equal, and digital literacy involves determining whether an online source is credible, up-to-date, and relevant. It also requires recognizing the purpose of the content—whether it aims to inform, persuade, entertain, or mislead.
Understanding Bias and Intent: It is important to understand the motives behind the creation of digital content. Websites often have particular political, social, or commercial agendas, and digital literacy involves identifying these biases. For example, a blog promoting dietary supplements might not be objective if it’s sponsored by a company that sells such products.
Verification of Facts: Digital literacy requires cross-referencing information found online with multiple reliable sources. This helps verify facts and avoid falling for misinformation or “fake news.” For instance, a claim about a health benefit found on social media should be verified through medical publications or government health websites.
Awareness of Digital Manipulation: The internet includes not only text but also images, videos, and audio clips, many of which may be digitally altered. Digital literacy involves assessing whether visual or multimedia evidence has been manipulated to present a biased narrative.
Navigating Information Overload: The sheer volume of information available online can be overwhelming. Being digitally literate means knowing how to sift through large amounts of data to find high-quality, relevant information. This involves using effective search terms, recognizing authoritative domains (e.g., “.gov” or “.edu”), and understanding how search engine algorithms may prioritize certain content.
Digital Security and Privacy: Digital literacy also includes understanding how to protect one's privacy online and recognizing secure websites. For example, a digitally literate individual would know to look for “https://” at the beginning of a URL as an indicator of a secure website.

Example of Digital Literacy in Practice: Suppose you are researching the benefits of electric vehicles (EVs). A digitally literate approach would involve consulting a mix of sources, including reputable news organizations (e.g., Associated Press, Reuters), trusted independent technical professional organizations or public agencies (e.g., IEEE, European Alternative Fuels Observatory), and peer-reviewed journals (Energies, Transport Reviews, Journal of Power Sources). It would also involve recognizing potential biases—such as an oil company-funded blog questioning the sustainability of EVs.

Evaluating Websites

Evaluating the credibility of websites is a critical component of digital literacy. The internet contains valuable information but also a lot of misleading or false content. Here are key considerations for evaluating websites:

Key Considerations for Evaluating Websites

Language and Content Quality:
- Credible websites typically use a moderate and professional tone. They avoid extreme or sensational language that appeals to emotions rather than presenting facts.
- Grammatical accuracy and proper punctuation are often indicators of a professional and reliable website. Sites riddled with typos or casual language may lack reliability.
- Fact-based Content: Reliable websites provide references, links to original studies, or citations to support their claims.
- Example: A health website like Mayo Clinic (www.mayoclinic.org) provides detailed health information, cites medical sources, and avoids sensational claims about treatments.
Authority of the Site Creator:
- Consider who created the website. Recognized authorities (e.g., universities, government institutions, established news organizations) provide credible content.
- Look for the author’s credentials. An article on medical treatments should ideally be authored by a healthcare professional or medical researcher, with appropriate qualifications listed.
- Example: The American Medical Association’s website (www.ama-assn.org) is a trustworthy source for medical information because it is maintained by a reputable professional organization.
External Consistency:
- External consistency is about comparing the information on the site with other reliable sources. A credible website should not present claims that contradict established knowledge.
- Cross-referencing helps determine if the information presented aligns with mainstream consensus or is a fringe theory.
- Example: If a website claims that climate change is not occurring, a comparison with multiple authoritative scientific sources (e.g., NASA, NOAA, IPCC) may reveal that the claim lacks external consistency and therefore credibility.
Objectivity and Bias:
- Recognize the potential bias or purpose of a website. Websites created to sell a product, promote a political agenda, or advocate for a specific cause may present information in a skewed manner.
- Lobbying organizations, for example, may present one-sided information to persuade rather than to inform.
- Example: Greenpeace’s website (www.greenpeace.org) provides valuable information on environmental issues but is also advocating for specific policy changes. It is important to note that the content is aimed at activism and may include a biased perspective.
Currency of Information:
- Up-to-date content is crucial, especially for topics like technology, health, or science. Websites should indicate the date the content was published or last updated.
- Outdated information can mislead or provide inaccurate conclusions if more recent research contradicts earlier findings.
- Example: A website discussing COVID-19 treatments that has not been updated since 2020 may not reflect recent advancements, making it less reliable for current information.
Security of the Website:
- Secure websites often indicate greater credibility. Look for “https://” in the URL as a sign of secure data handling.
- Trustworthy websites also typically have an “About Us” page that details their mission, authors, and organization’s background.
Cross-Referencing Sources:
- A good practice in evaluating websites is to cross-check information with other reputable sources. If multiple authoritative sites support the same conclusion, the information is more likely to be accurate.
- Use fact-checking websites such as Snopes (www.snopes.com) or Media Bias / Fact Check (mediabiasfactcheck.com) to verify claims and their sources that seem suspicious.
Avoiding Clickbait and Sensationalism:
- Clickbait headlines are designed to attract attention but often lack substance or reliable evidence. Reliable websites present headlines that are informative and factual rather than exaggerated or misleading.
- Example: Compare a “clickbait” headline like "5 Ways Coffee Will Instantly Cure All Health Problems!" with a more measured one such as "Research Shows Potential Health Benefits of Moderate Coffee Consumption." The latter is more likely to come from a reputable source.

Free City Radio Interview: Exploring the Inherent Sacrifices of Capitalism

Thu, 03 Oct 2024 13:37:35 +0000

I’m excited to share that I was recently featured on Free City Radio in an in-depth conversation about my research on the concept of human sacrifice in capitalism. The interview, now available on SoundCloud, is part of an interview series that examines the foundational realities of modern-day capitalism, specifically shaped by the notion of human sacrifice as a necessary element of economic systems.

Here’s a link to the interview: Author Keren Wang on Human Sacrifice as Inherent to Capitalism Today. During this conversation, I explore how this framework, traditionally viewed through ancient rituals, continues in modern contexts through the exploitation of labor, environmental destruction, and systemic injustices.

New Publication: Legal and Ritological Dynamics of Personalized “Pillars of Shame” in Chinese Social Credit System Construction

Fri, 13 Sep 2024 15:12:22 +0000

I am delighted to announce the publication of my latest article, “Legal and Ritualological Dynamics of Personalized ‘Pillars of Shame’ in Chinese Social Credit System Construction," featured in the latest issue of The China Review (Vol. 24, No. 3). This work explores the intersection of the Chinese Social Credit System (SCS) with the Confucian ritual legal tradition and the rhetoric of public shaming. It integrates insights from rhetorical studies and philosophy of law to examine how the SCS operates as both a governance-by-data experiment and a framework that aligns with—and diverges from—domestic and transnational constitutional norms.

"Constitutional Dynamics in China-Taiwan Relations: A Historical and Comparative Analysis" Presentation at Emory International Law Review Symposium on Disputed Territories Across the Globe, 13 April 2024

Fri, 03 May 2024 19:34:56 +0000

I would like to start by extending my heartfelt gratitude to Angelica Paquette, Editor-in-Chief of the Emory International Law Review, and Grayson Walker for their outstanding organization of this special symposium on Disputed Territories across the Globe: A Future of Peace or Change, and particularly this panel on China-Taiwan relations. A special thank you to Hallie Ludsin from Emory’s Center for International and Comparative Law for her valuable insights as our panel respondent today. I’m also grateful to see Professor Larry Catá Backer among us and would like to acknowledge Professor Martha Albertson Fineman for her invaluable guidance on my comparative and critical-legal research. My work is further supported by the American Council of Learned Societies Emerging Voices Fellowship, for which I am profoundly thankful.

Dasein, ChatGPT, and the Ritology of AI: Special lecture at East China University of Political Science and Law, Shanghai, June 18 2023 (updated_

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 12:55:09 +0000

Dasein, ChatGPT, and the Ritology of AI:

Special lecture at East China University of Political Science and Law, June 18, 2023

What philosophical mischief might we unleash if Plato’s Cave or Zhuangzi's Well suddenly became inundated by algorithms, with the sound and fury of GeForce RTX™ GPU fans, insisting they’ve seen the light?

Extended Abstract:

This WIP paper builds off a guest lecture I have presented at the East China University of Political Science and Law (ECUPSL) in Shanghai, June 18, 2023. In this lecture, I had the privilege of sharing some of the preliminary research questions for my ongoing transdisciplinary survey, focusing on the intricate interplay between artificial intelligence and phenomenology. I will be highlighting the potentially profound implications of AI and its existential entanglements, particularly revolving around the context of Heidegger’s concept of Dasein, and problematize some common ethical and ontological issues connected to being-AI-in-our-world.

The relentless acceleration of innovation in large language models (LLMs) and artificial neural networks (ANNs), embodied by transformative technologies like ChatGPT, deepfakes, and AI-generated art, has ignited a dual fire of awe and trepidation among technologists, ethicists, policymakers, and the broader public. As a vast body of literature explores the societal, ethical, and epistemological ripples of this ongoing technological upheaval—particularly within the fields of Information, Science, and Technology (IST)—this project seeks to offer a novel contribution by bringing into focus the lens of phenomenology: an intricate branch of philosophical inquiry renowned for its profound and methodical examination of the fundamental structures of human consciousness. By advocating for a phenomenological perspective, the project aims to illuminate how AI’s disruptions reshape not only our daily lives but also our understanding of what it means to be. In doing so, it offers critical insights into the interplay between human and supra-human consciousness, reframing our relationship with emerging technologies and their implications for the future of sentient existence.

Persuasion and Propaganda - Supplementary Reading on Visualizing Propaganda (Emory, FA23)

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 11:36:19 +0000

Key Concepts: Visualizing Propaganda

Jenne, Erin K. “Varieties of Nationalism in the Age of Covid-19.” Nationalities Papers 50, no. 1 (2022)

Antagonistic sovereignty: Antagonistic sovereignty refers to two types of divisive portrayals. The first is an in-out depiction, which alienates and demonizes individuals who are not citizens of the nation (“non-nationals”). The second is an ‘up-down’ depiction, targeting and vilifying the upper echelons of society, including the ’elites’ and the ’establishment’. [1]

Class slides for Social Movements and Social Change (Emory, FA23)

Tue, 31 Oct 2023 11:20:56 +0000

Class teaching slides for CHN 375W Chinese Political Thought at Emory University, fall 2023

Section on social movements and social change in modern China:

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Class slides - The Hundred Schools of Thought (Chinese Political Thought)

Tue, 17 Oct 2023 10:08:46 +0000

Class PowerPoint slides for CHN375W: Chinese Political Thought/Propaganda (Emory University, Fall 2023): covering the historical evolution and contemporary implications of “The Hundred Schools of Thought” in Chinese governance and political practices.

Demystifying The Chinese Social Credit System - Presentation for the Symposium on China’s Data Governance and its Impact on US-China Relations, hosted by the Carter Center China Focus

Thu, 12 Oct 2023 21:46:45 +0000

Demystifying The Chinese Social Credit System - Presentation for the Symposium on China’s Data Governance and its Impact on US-China Relations, hosted by the Carter Center China Focus

Introduction:

There is nothing new about public authorities using collected numerical info as a governing technology. Census has been a central governance tool throughout Ancient Rome and Imperial China. In fact, the need for keeping taxation records was a key historical exigence driving the invention of many earliest writing systems.

Throughout human history, public authorities have relied on collected numerical data as a tool for governance. This was evident with the census in Ancient Rome and Imperial China, where early writing systems were developed primarily for taxation records. The digitization of data and advancements in data science have revolutionized governance-by-data, making it continuously updated and more encompassing. The Chinese Social Credit System (SCS) is a testament to this evolution. Despite its significance, the SCS remains misunderstood, especially outside the Global North. Today, I aim to provide clarity on this topic, considering its implications on human rights and rule of law both within and beyond China, and shedding light on US-China relations. This talk will bring together relevant historical, rhetorical, socio-cultural and legal contexts to unpack the emergent structures of the Chinese social credit system and data governance experiments. By catalyzing greater open dialogue and critical inquiry on this thorny topic, this lecture seeks to advance the vision of The Carter Center and contribute to a deeper understanding of the past, present, and future of US-China relations.

About

Tue, 29 Aug 2023 11:12:35 +0000

Keren Wang, PhD

Faculty, Department of Communication, Georgia State University · Visiting Scholar, Emory University
ACLS Emerging Voices Fellow (2022–2024)

Highlighted Posts

New Research Project: Artificial Intelligence and Human Sacrifice

This series will share work-in-progress manuscript draft as I develop the project into a full-length monograph. In the months ahead, I will trace how sacrificial rationalities persist, adapt, and become reconfigured in our algorithmic age. From oracle bone pyromancy in ancient China to AI-augmented prior-authorization denials in contemporary healthcare, the rituals may differ in form, but the underlying logic remains hauntingly familiar.

Event Announcement: China’s Data Governance and Its Impact on U.S.-China Relations, Sept 26th at The Carter Center

Tue, 29 Aug 2023 10:50:24 +0000

We are pleased to announce an upcoming hybrid symposium titled “China’s Data Governance and Its Impact on U.S.-China Relations” organized by The Carter Center, Emory University, China Research Center, Georgia State University, and Spellman College.

Event Details:

Date: September 26, 2023 Time: 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm

Location (in-person): Cyprus Room, The Carter Center , 453 John Lewis Freedom Parkway NE | Atlanta, GA 30307

Virtual Attendance Registration: Register Here

Event Description:

The relationship between the United States and China is currently facing significant challenges, particularly in the areas of technology and national security. Unfortunately, many misconceptions surround the development of the Chinese data governance system, often exacerbated by sensationalized discussions in the public discourse on US-China relations. This symposium aims to dispel these myths and provide a nuanced understanding of Chinese data governance and its implications for US-China relations. It seeks to foster open and critical dialogue among scholars, policymakers, and practitioners, offering an in-depth update on the topic.

Speakers:

Obse Ababiya, Associate Director, Office of Global Strategy and Initiatives at Emory University
Larry Catá Backer, Professor of Law and International Affairs, Penn State Law School
Jamie Horsley, Senior Fellow, Paul Tsai China Center at Yale Law School | John L. Thornton China Center at Brookings Institution
Aynne Kokas, C.K. Yen Professor at the Miller Center and Associate Professor of Media Studies, University of Virginia
Maria Repnikova, Associate Professor in Global Communication, Georgia State University
Keren Wang, ACLS Emerging Voices Fellow, Emory University Department of Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures

The symposium is being convened by Dr. Yawei Liu, Senior Advisor on China at The Carter Center and Dr. Keren Wang of Emory University Department of Russian and East Asian Languages and Cultures

Agenda:

1:30 pm: Ms. Obse Ababiya opens the meeting, introducing the organizers and sponsors

1:35 pm: Opening remarks by Dr. Maria Repnikova

Event Announcement: Chinese Politics & Society Book Talk Series Featuring Dr. Brantly Womack's RECENTERING PACIFIC ASIA, hosted by the Carter Center China Focus, Sept 7, 2023

Wed, 16 Aug 2023 14:57:38 +0000

I am excited to share an upcoming event on September 7, 2023: The Carter Center China Focus will be hosting Dr. Brantly Womack for its Chinese Politics & Society Book Talk Series: of the Chinese Politics & Society book talk series, in collaboration with the China Research Center, East Asia Collective, and the Department of Russia and East Asian Languages and Cultures at Emory University.

This session will feature a talk by Dr. Brantly Womack, Professor Emeritus of Foreign Affairs at the University of Virginia, on his new book “Recentering Pacific Asia: Regional China and World Order” (Cambridge University Press, 2023).

Vulnerability Theory and Digital Intimacy: 'Pillars of Shame' in the Age of Big Data

Thu, 13 Jul 2023 18:25:17 +0000

I am excited to share with you a recap of my recent presentation titled “Vulnerability Theory and Digital Intimacy: ‘Pillars of Shame’ in the Age of Big Data.” This thought-provoking session took place at the Vulnerability Theory and Digital Intimacy Workshop, hosted by convened by Professor Martha Albertson Fineman and The Vulnerability and the Human Condition Initiative at Emory University School of Law on March 24, 2023.

During the presentation, I delved into the fascinating field of digital governance technologies and their role as modern public shaming rituals. I explored the impact of these technologies on individuals’ vulnerability in the digital age and drew connections to Martha Fineman’s vulnerability theory of law.

Upcoming Emory REALC Faculty Spotlight Series lecture on Feb. 6

Wed, 01 Feb 2023 15:03:02 +0000

Upcoming Feb. 6 public lecture: "Social and Moral Engineering in the Age of Big Data: Personalized 'Pillars of Shame' and the Chinese Social Credit System"

Hosted by REALC Faculty Spotlight Series, Emory University

Format: Online

Time: Monday evening, Feb 6, 2023, 7:00 PM - 8:00 PM (US Eastern Standard Time)

Event link https://emory.zoom.us/j/94409772969

For my upcoming Feb. 6 public lecture hosted by Emory REALC Faculty Spotlight Series, I will be discussing the legal and rhetorical dynamics of public shaming policy experiments in China, as a part of their ongoing Social Credit System project.

The construction of the Chinese Social Credit System (SCS) represents one of the most ambitious social engineering projects in post-Mao China. It is also arguably the most significant governance-by-data experiment thus far the 21st century. This lecture explores the ways in which the SCS project was prompted by a ritual impulse to inculcate Chinese societal moral character in the big data age.

Persuasion and Propaganda new digital text case study draft - Bureaucratic Rhetoric and Institutions of Involuntary Labor in Early Imperial China

Tue, 25 Jan 2022 10:18:06 +0000

American economist Alan Blinder famously characterized the rhetorical style of bureaucrats – an umbrella term denoting unelected officials holding administrative, technical, and managerial positions – as “secretive, cryptic, [sic] using numerous and complicated words to convey little of any meaning.” Think of a career government worker who talks in jargon-filled canned statements with little substance. While it may be counterintuitive to associate bureaucracy with the art of persuasion, history tells us quite a different story. Not only did bureaucracy itself emerge as a rhetorical response to the exigencies of record-keeping and resolving disputes, but it also provides a powerful platform for propaganda, sometimes making unpalatable measures appear proper and necessary. In this case study, we will examine official narratives on involuntary servitude (slavery) in Early Imperial China, and focus on how the imperial bureaucracy justified its institutions of forced labor despite having officially abolished slavery. We approach this through a historical lens, the role of bureaucracy in persuasion and propaganda, and reflect on how authorities of power would employ subtle rhetorical strategies to make dehumanizing, exploitative structures appear legitimate and necessary.

Persuasion and Propaganda in Ancient China (textbook chapter draft), part 3

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 17:37:21 +0000

Confucian Rhetoric:

Among the Hundred Schools of Thought, Confucianism, also known as Ru xue (lit. “humanism”) or Ruism, arguably played the most significant role in shaping the Chinese rhetorical tradition. This is in part due to the fact that Confucianism was established as the official state ideology throughout most of Imperial Chinese history.

Originated from the writings and teaching of Confucius and his disciples, most notably Mencius (Mengzi) Xun Kuang (Xunzi), its philosophy can be characterized as humanistic and rationalistic, and a tendency to emphasize the importance of ritual and upholding traditions. After multiple centuries of continuous development and official endorsement, Confucianism expanded into an umbrella that covers a range of philosophical, moral, literary, religious, and legal traditions. To this day, Confucian ethics remains a defining element of Chinese culture.

Persuasion and Propaganda Ancient China (chapter draft), part 2: the Hundred Schools of Thought

Fri, 03 Dec 2021 14:30:03 +0000

The Warring States and the Hundred Schools of Thought

The core of classical Chinese philosophical tradition emerged during a tumultuous period of ancient Chinese history, during which the civilization transitioned from a decentralized feudal system into a unified empire. We begin this section with a brief and high-altitude overview of the historical background for those who are not familiar with ancient Chinese history. The time frame would be the Chunqiu-Zhanguo era (lit., “Periods of Spring and Autumn and the Warring States”) which lasted from c.770 to 221 BCE The Spring and Autumn period of Classical Chinese history, from approximately 771 to 476 BCE. The nominal seat of dynastic power, Zhou Tianzi (lit “Son of Heaven”) had rapidly declined, and in Confucious’ own words, that the “ancient feudal rite and hymns have crumbled （禮樂崩壞）.” It was a time when former Zhou feudal domains became de-facto independent sovereign states. Larger states swallow smaller ones. Rapid land reforms and power restructurings took place across major Chinese states in order to claim economic and military supremacy over their peers. Various great powers rose and fell throughout this period, constantly at war against one other for achieving hegemony over Tianxia. The Warring States period is also when the coin-based cash economy rapidly took off throughout China-proper. Of course this did not happen overnight, but based on ample material evidence, the cash economy did intensify within a relatively short period, as major states began to implement similar types of sweeping bureaucratic governance reforms and centrally managed crop buy-out policies to remain competitive. By the time of the late Warring States era, your “average” peasant say in the state of Wei or Zhao or any major power, not only was paid by the central government, in cash, to purchase his grains for strategic reserve, he is also likely to be drafted every so often, for a fixed term, to perform infrastructure labor or serve in the military, and paid a stipend at least in part in the form of cash coins. Consequently, old feudal aristocratic powers were displaced by an emerging class of scholar-officials, many of whom came from humble, non-noble backgrounds including Confucious and his disciples. Members of this new literati class often traveled throughout China and offered their knowledge and service to the most promising state sponsor. Because of the intense interstate competition and the increasing demand for scholar-officials, philosophies flourished throughout the Chunqiu-Zhanguo era. Early Han historian Sima Qian used the term zhūzǐ bǎijiā (諸子百家), or “Hundred Schools of Thought” to describe this unprecedented expansion and diversification of Chinese intellectual outputs. Many philosophical texts from this historical moment – such as the Analects, Tao Te Ching, and Sun Tzu’s Art of War have become widely known outside of China. See the timeline in figure 2 below for a partial list of key figures from the Hundred Schools of Thought (top row). The timeline also includes contemporaneous Indo-European thinkers at the bottom row for clearer time reference:

Persuasion and Propaganda Ancient China (chapter draft), part 1: Pyromancy and the Invention of the Chinese Writing System

Fri, 01 Oct 2021 17:14:32 +0000

Persuasion and Propaganda Ancient China

（chapter draft, part 1）

by Keren Wang, kwang35@gsu.edu

There are increasing calls to give rhetorics that are historically overlooked within Western academia their overdue consideration.[1] Despite growing interest in comparative and alternative rhetorics, insufficient attention has been paid to one category of crucial contribution to the intellectual history of persuasion and propaganda: the study of nonwestern ancient rhetorical traditions.[2] This chapter provides a sneak preview of the intellectual history of persuasion and propaganda in Ancient China, where a rich and distinct rhetorical tradition flourished for more than three millennia. We begin this chapter by addressing the question of why it is necessary to examine comparative perspectives, followed by looking briefly into the historical origin of Chinese characters – the oldest writing system still in use. Our discussion then proceeds to a high-altitude overview of the hundred schools of thought that emerged during a pivotal moment of Chinese intellectual history and profoundly shaped the arc of Sinic civilizational development.

Qu Yuan and Duanwu "Dragon Boat" Festival

Mon, 14 Jun 2021 15:17:54 +0000

Happy 端午節 Duanwu / Dragon Boat Festival!

Duanwu is one of the four most important traditional holidays (the other three being Qingming, Mid Autumn Festival and the Spring Festival/Chinese New Year) celebrated by Chinese people throughout the world. It is celebrated on the 5th day of the 5th month of traditional Chinese calendar, which for 2021 falls on June 14th of the Gregorian calendar. The two calendars are not perfectly synched, so the Gregorian calendar date for Duanwu would change from year to year (FYI it will be on June 3rd for 2022, and June 22nd for 2023).

The Duanwu festival is primarily for commemorating the tragic death of Warring States era poet and statesman Qu Yuan (c. 243-348 BC). Qu Yuan is one of the most celebrated literary figure in Chinese history, whose poems are known for their highly expressive lyrical style, imbibed with intoxicating mythos and broiling pathos. Qu Yuan is also among those historical figures became widely celebrated by the contemporary Chinese LGBTQ community, as Qu frequently (also quite explicitly) writes about his romantic passions towards his lover and patron King Huai of Chu, whom Qu Yuan refers to as “my beautiful one.”

New Publication Announcement: The Legitimation Crisis of the Japanese Constitution - Communication Law Review

Thu, 25 Feb 2021 12:05:16 +0000

Happy to announce the publication of my co-authored article with Dr. Tomonori Teraoka - “The Legitimation Crisis of the Japanese Constitution: Reflections on Japan’s Judicial Rhetoric and Its Post-WWII Constitutionalization Process” - on the latest issue of Communication Law Review. Our article presents an interdisciplinary, multilingual collaborative effort to critically examine Japanese constitutional discourse at both domestic and transnational levels.

Abstract: Our article examines the issue of constitutional legitimacy in the post-WWII Japanese legal system. Our analysis proceeds from the judicial rhetoric of postwar Japan, focusing primarily on the state of judicial review and executive legislative practices throughout the Japanese postwar constitutionalization process. The aim of our rhetorical analysis is to identify the main points of discursive tensions as manifested in Japanese judiciary and legislative norms. Although the postwar Japanese constitution provides a judicial review process and separation of powers like its American counterpart, their implementation is constrained by the legislative usurpation of the executive branch and judicial passivity of the Japanese Supreme Court. Whereas the written language in the postwar Japanese constitution adheres to the prevailing transnational dóxa for a democratic rule-of-law society, we find many key constitutional elements are not internationalized within the operational modality of Japanese judicial rhetoric.

NCA 2020 Virtual Convention Presentation: Logographic Inventions of Violent Rituals

Sat, 31 Oct 2020 20:52:00 +0000

The ritual taking of things that are of human value, including the ritual killing of humans, has been continuously practiced for as long as human civilization itself has existed. In my presentation for the upcoming virtual 2020 National Communication Association's Annual Convention, I will highlight key findings from one of my ongoing historical archival projects, focusing on the rhetoric of human sacrifice as represented in Early Bronze Age China oracle bone scripts (c.1250 BC - 1046 BC). It will be delivered at the virtual paper session, "GPS: Changing Routes in Rhetoric's History" sponsored by the American Society for the History of Rhetoric on November 1st, 2020.

My recent interview for the "Coronavirus and International Affairs" Webinar

Fri, 17 Apr 2020 12:44:27 +0000

My recent interview for the "Coronavirus and International Affairs" Webinar, hosted by Penn State International Affairs and Penn State Law, Coalition for Peace & Ethics:

(Originally posted by Larry Catá Backer at 4/14/2020 11:28:00 AM)

Interview: Keren Wang on Comparing US and Chinese Responses to the Pandemic, for Upcoming Webinar "COVID-19 and International Affairs" (17 April 2020)

In the run up to the Webinar Conference Roundtable, Coronavirus and International Relations, a number of participants and contributors agreed to give short interviews around the conference themes and their own interventions. All Zoom interviews will be posted to the Coalition for Peace and Ethics You Tube Channel COVID-19 Conference Playlist. For our first interview, Flora Sapio spoke to the issues of COVID-19 in Italy and its wider implication. For our second interview, Larry Catá Backer spoke of COVID-19 and meaning making. Yuri Gonzalez was interviewed about COVID-19 and the developing situation in Cuba, which has been able to project medical assistance outward even as it faces the challenges of a developing state. Alice Hong provided insight on COVID-19 from the perspective of a foreign student in the US. And GAO Shan spoke to the way that the COVID-19 pandemic from a comparative context of Wuhan (where his family lives) and the US Midwest (where he now resides).

For our next interview Keren Wang speaks to the issues of the way that the Pandemic was framed and experienced in the US and China. He considers the ways in which each system framed the pandemic in ways that could be understood. He noted how differences in those understandings could produce very different responses. Dr. Wang also considered the ways in which the official and popular discourse about the pandemic sometimes aligned and sometimes deviated in some substantial respects. The effects on both the internal organization of national responses, and on their international relations of states, have been both profound and to some extent quite different.

The interview may be accessed HERE: Keren Wang interview here.

Conference Concept Note HERE

Presentation at the 48th Annual Conference of the Society of Australasian Social Psychologists (SASP) at the University of New South Wales, Sydney

Sun, 30 Jun 2019 21:09:13 +0000

"Reexamining Ritual Sacrifice in Late-Capitalism"

Presentation at the 48th Annual Conference of the Society of Australasian Social Psychologists (SASP) at the University of New South Wales, Sydney

Building on my doctoral dissertation, I have been exploring the rhetorical inventions of "sacrifice" in the construction and ordering of societal institutions. The rhetoric of sacrifice, and its public rituals, form a core practice of all social orders. Though the practices have become substantially more subtle and even more deeply embedded in everyday social practices and expectations, this research project explores the underlying local and trans-cultural reflexes inherent in the performance of social, political, and economic sacrifices, and their connections to the organization of public institutions. Indeed, the fundamental presumption of sacrifice - the bargaining between unequal powers for the purchase of objectives by the offering of items precious to the giver - has often become so embedded to tacit social norms as to become effectively invisible. Though this project focuses on its connection to the organization of what is termed "late capitalism," its insinuation in all social orderings is hard to ignore. "Civilized" societies and economic relations are ordered through the rituals of sacrifice - propitiation for whatever totems and taboos are set above the governance orders around which collectives coalesce.

New Book: "Legal and Rhetorical Foundations of Economic Globalization: An Atlas of Ritual Sacrifice in Late-Capitalism" (Routledge, 2020)

Sat, 03 Nov 2018 14:57:12 +0000

(December 2nd, 2019)

I am very pleased to announce that my academic monograph with Routledge | Taylor & Francis Group has now been published: Keren Wang, Legal and Rhetorical Foundations of Economic Globalization: An Atlas of Ritual Sacrifice in Late-Capitalism. It is available in both hardback and digital formats.

This book was developed from my doctoral dissertation, “Three Studies of Ritual Sacrifice in Late Capitalism.” I would like to extend my special thanks to Stephen H. Browne, my dissertation supervisor, and to members of my dissertation advising committee: Larry Catá Backer, Kirt H. Wilson, and Jeremy David Engels. This project would not have been possible without their guidance and mentorship. I would also like to express my gratitude to members of the Department of Communication Arts and Sciences at Penn State University for their generous, ongoing support of my Ph.D. study and related postdoctoral research.

New Publication: "The Rhetorical Invention of Laws of Sacrifice" (Communication Law Review)

Thu, 18 Oct 2018 11:42:35 +0000

I am happy to report that my recent article, “The Rhetorical Invention of Laws of Sacrifice: Kelo v. New London,” has just been published and appears in Communication Law Review, Volume 18, Issue 2 (2018): 58-94. My thanks to Dr. Pat Arneson (Chief Editor) for her valuable editorial contribution towards this publication.

The article continues my broader work exploring the concept of sacrifice as a useful concept for thinking about how violent transactions are rhetorically justified. The abstract follows. An online version of the article may be accessed HERE.

Presentation at 2018 PSU Social Thought Conference - "Three studies of ritual sacrifice in late-capitalism"

Tue, 01 May 2018 20:43:53 +0000

This presentation highlights a few key excerpts from my doctoral dissertation research:

“The ritual taking of things that are of human value, including the ritual killing of humans, has been continuously practiced for as long as human civilization itself has existed. Sacrifices in the form of state-organized rituals have been observed in many societies throughout history. Existing scholarship also observed an interdependent relationship between ritual sacrifice and the maintenance of political power in a broad set of historical cases, ranging from Shang dynasty China in 10th century BCE to the witch-hunts in early modern Europe. Sacrificial rituals of the past should not be considered fundamentally divorced from our modern world: whereas the formal elements of sacrifice of the past may no longer be recognizable, their substantive political functions do remain, with rhetorical overtones that carry into the politics of the present time. The goal for this project is to give due consideration to the politics of sacrificial rites across a broad set of political-theological traditions, hopefully paving the way to a new unifying understanding of sacrificial rhetorics. This research goal revolves around two primary research tasks that are intimately connected. The first is to provide a working interpretative framework for understanding the politics of ritual sacrifice – one that not only accommodates multidisciplinary, intersectional knowledge of ritual practices, but that can also be usefully employed in the integrated analysis of sacrificial rituals as political rhetoric under divergent historical and societal contexts. The second conducts a series of case studies that cuts across the wide variability of ritual public takings in late-capitalism.”

A Survey of the "Apologetics" for the 2018 PRC Constitutional Revision (WIP research)

Wed, 21 Mar 2018 10:31:18 +0000

Thirteenth Amendment and the “Slaughter-House”

Thu, 14 Sep 2017 17:26:07 +0000

by Keren Wang

This essay was originally featured on the Penn State Civic & Community Engagement (CIVCOM) website, responding to this year's Constitution Day theme: "The U.S. Constitution & 'The Dangerous Thirteenth Amendment'." Please visit and share with your students this link http://civcm.psu.edu/constitution-day/, where you'll also find essays by Lauren Camacci, Jeremy Cox, Michele Kennerly, Veena Raman, John Rountree, Mary Stuckey, and Kirt Wilson. Last year's resources on "The Spaces Between the First and Second Amendments" can still be found here: http://civcm.psu.edu/constitution-day/past-constitution-days/2016-2/

The Constitution of the United States – Article XIII (Amendment 13 – Slavery and Involuntary Servitude)
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Combing through historical records, it appears that Robert E. Lee himself also opposed the erection of Confederate monuments...

Tue, 15 Aug 2017 19:18:32 +0000

“As regards the erection of such a monument as is contemplated, my conviction is, that, however grateful it would be to the feelings of the South, the attempt, in the present condition of the country, would have the effect of retarding instead of accelerating its accomplishment, and of continuing if not adding to the difficulties under which the Southern people labor.” (R. E. Lee, 1866)

Source: Jones, J. William 1836-1909. Personal Reminiscences, Anecdotes, and Letters of Gen. Robert E. Lee. United States: 1875, p.257

Ritualism and the Ethos of Chinese Legal Order: presentation at Penn State Law

Sat, 10 Jun 2017 16:39:47 +0000

“Ritualism and the Ethos of Chinese Legal Order,” presented at International Conference: New International Trade and Investment Rules between Globalization and Anti-Globalization, Penn State University, University Park, PA (April 22, 2017)

倬彼雲漢昭回于天

王曰於乎何辜今之人

天降喪亂饑饉薦臻

靡神不舉靡愛斯牲

圭璧既卒寧莫我聽

Majestic is that Milky Way, brightly afloat in the firmament of the heaven.

The King said, O! What crime is chargeable on us now?

That Heaven thus sends down death and disorder, unrelenting famine and hunger grapple us!

Harvard East Asia Society 2017 Conference presentation: Legitimation Crisis of the Japanese Constitution (presentation slides and abstract)

Mon, 27 Feb 2017 11:14:50 +0000

The Harvard East Asia Society (HEAS) recently concluded its 20th Annual Conference: Roads through Asia, held this year in Harvard Center for Government and International Studies, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The conference program may be accessed HERE.

For the conference, I presented a paper, along with my co-author Tomonori Teraoka, titled: Legitimation Crisis of the Japanese Constitution: Reflections on Japan’s post-WWII Constitutionalization Process. Below are Powerpoint slides and working abstract for our HEAS presentation:

Postscript on the "Elephant" in "Phenomenology"

Fri, 03 Feb 2017 20:24:01 +0000

(Posted by Keren Wang | Feb. 3, 2017) Per Dr. Alan Sica’s request, this post is written as a follow-up to a peculiar topic brought up during our Social Thought seminar yesterday – it concerns the “Elephant (象)” glyph in the Chinese term for “Phenomenology (现象学)”. Long story short… During our regular seminar discussion on the writings of Maurice Merleau-Ponty (French phenomenologist) yesterday, Dr. Sica asked what is the Chinese term for “phenomenology”. Luckily, there is an official Chinese translation available for this particular philosophical term – 現象學 (pronounced “hsien-hsiang hsueh”). For easier viewing, please see the enlarged picture-file below, which also includes the standard phonetic notation for each character: The facile explanation of phrase “現象學” is that it combines 现象 (hsien-hsiang, lit. “phenomenon, materialization”) + 學 (hsueh, lit. “study, learning”). By “facile explanation”, I am referring to the fact that the Chinese writing system doesn’t follow an alphabet-word system, so any direct “word-to-word” translation between Chinese and English would be at best a “metaphorical approximation”. Unwilling to settle for the easy explanation, Alan of course pressed for more precise meaning of each individual character in 現象學, and thus going further down the impossible linguistic rabbit hole… So here’s when the “elephant” came in… The Chinese term for phenomenology, 現象學, consists three characters (or more accurately, three logograms). Here is a detailed break-down of the characters in 現象學: Indeed, for a Chinese reader, the term 現象學 does not appear as a singular, self-contained “word” per se. Rather, like most Chinese vocabularies, the nomenclature would appear as a loosely-grouped logographic cluster that reads something like “(the) study (of) manifest shape(s) and symbol(s).” Those parenthetical parts are grammatical features absent in the Chinese writing system. Indeed, concepts such as definitive articles, plurals and grammatical tense may not apply to written Chinese…at all! Chinese characters group together in ways that’s very different from English vocabularies. When used together, they do not form a new “word” in ways English alphabets would. Thus, unlike English “words”, meanings are not “encoded” into Chinese phrases and characters. Each logograph in a phrase or sentence merely defers and refers its signification in terms of its relation with those other characters in the sentence, and the final “meaning” of a phrase or sentence is obtained as the sum aggregate of signification of all the characters in the phrase. This might sound confusing, but it is worthwhile to keep in mind that even the most basic grammatical and syntactical principles in English do not apply in written Chinese. And now I regress… Most notably, the second character of the phrase, 象 (pronounced “hsiang”) , indeed means “elephant” in Chinese. Yes, when used with other characters, 象 can be used broadly to signify ideas relating to “shape”, “symbol” and “representation”. However, those are derivatives or its “ordinary” meaning of “elephant” Indeed, when the character “象” is used alone, it almost always refers to non other than those massive land mammals with long trunk and pillar-like legs. In fact, the “elephant“ in 現象學 is among the oldest Chinese characters still in common use. As shown in the figure below, the glyph “象” first appeared in Oracle bone script (c. 1,200 BCE) as an elephant pictogram. The basic shape and composition of “象” remained surprisingly consistent across its three-thousand-plus years of continuous usage: So what does “elephant” has anything to do with symbol and elephant? While it is impossible to get into the heads of Shang dynasty kings (who first used this letter during sacrificial rites), I did found a compelling explanation by searching around Chinese Classical texts. Han Fei (韓非, c. 280 – 233 BC), an influential political philosopher from the Warring States period (475BC - 221BC), wrote the following in his Han Fei Tzu:

"White/Older/Male" voter groups may not be the ones to blame for electing Donald Trump...

Wed, 09 Nov 2016 18:56:34 +0000

Posted by Keren Wang, 11/9/2016 at 19:00 ET

When comparing current election results with how groups voted back in 2012, it appears that the “White/Older/Male” voter groups may not be the ones to blame for electing Donald Trump. Current data suggest that Trump did not receive significantly higher percentage of “White/Older/Male” votes than the previous GOP candidate.

Of course it is still too early to see the finalized voting data, and early exit poll numbers are not the most accurate. However, it is always a good practice to check our political assumptions with facts on the ground. At minimum, the “White/Older/Male” voter narrative frequently cited by the media might be too easy of an explanation for the election result we’re seeing…

Civic & Community Engagement (CIVCM) Constitution Day 2016 | Written and Unwritten Constitutions

Thu, 08 Sep 2016 15:40:24 +0000

http://civcm.psu.edu/2016/09/06/written-and-unwritten-constitutions/

"Participatory Global Citizenship" Paper Featured on Yale Global

Sun, 13 Mar 2016 18:49:25 +0000

One of my recently published article, “Participatory Global Citizenship: Civic Education Beyond Territoriality”, co-authored with Nabih Haddad of Michigan State University, has been featured on Yale Global’s Academic Papers collection Yale Global is an online publication of Yale University’s MacMillan Center. According to its website, the “Academic Papers” series incorporates “analytical and reflective essays on various aspects of globalization from many sources.” (Available at: http://yaleglobal.yale.edu/academic/papers). The co-authored paper has been previously published on Journal of Self-Governance and Management Economics, 2015. Below is the abstract of the featured essay, the full version of the paper can be accessed here: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2565483

A conversation with Flora Sapio on Chinese politics and the rhetoric of friend/enemy distinction

Sun, 08 Nov 2015 14:55:26 +0000

*Flora Sapio is a China legal scholar currently serving as research fellow at the Australian Centre on China in the World. Her research is focused on criminal justice and legal philosophy. She is the author of Sovereign Power and the Law in China (Brill, 2010); co-editor of The Politics of Law and Stability in China(Edward Elgar, 2014); and, Detention and its Reforms in China (forthcoming, Ashgate, 2016).

The following is a transcription of my conversation with Flora Sapio on the problem of enemyship in contemporary Chinese politics and the rhetorical approach in the investigation of political rhetoric:

Law at the End of the Day: Keren Wang on "Religion in China: Historical and Legal Context" and Chinese-Vatican Relations

Sun, 20 Sep 2015 07:30:05 +0000

[embed]http://imgur.com/XhRs5nT[/embed]

The study of the relationship between the state and religion—especially organized and institutional religion originating in the West and Middle East–is grounded in an important and often overlooked premise. That premise is based on a very specific view of religion and a very historically contextualized understanding of the relationship between the state and religious institutions. Both are grounded in the primacy of the model of religious organization and of state-religion relations developed in the Middle East and Europe (and later spread elsewhere in the globe) centering around Judaism, Jewish state organization and its important evolution under Christianity and Islam, the religions that emerged from it. Much of the national and international discussion of the last several centuries has effectively centered on the way in each of these variants of so-called “Abrahamic” religions (and thier contests for domination within social, cultural and economic space) be manifested, and their relations with states legitimated. Other religious traditions are then folded into the master narrative of law-religion discourse, or treated as exceptions or variations within it.

‘Reading’ the Historical New York Cityscape, part 2: fire, ice, and tensions on the streets

Thu, 10 Sep 2015 21:19:44 +0000

The historic Laki (Lakagígar) eruption that took place in Iceland from June 1783 to February 1784 was so powerful, that the entire European continent plus many parts of North America were blanked with a great “haze” of volcanic gases and particles. The eight-month-long continuous release of toxic gas from Laki not only wiped out roughly one-quarter of Iceland’s population [1], the resulting volcanic haze also led to an exceptionally cool summer followed by a brutal, frigid winter in Europe and North America. The Laki eruption added another layer of frost on top of the frigid climate pattern of thus in turn led to acute food shortages in those regions. Present analysis estimated that the Laki eruption directly caused more than twenty-thousand human mortality in England alone during the “volcanic winter” from August 1783 to February 1784. [2]

‘Reading’ the Historical New York Cityscape, part 1: topography & city-planning before and after the Revolutionary War

Tue, 21 Jul 2015 20:49:50 +0000

originally posted by Keren Wang, July 20th 2015

For this research project, in collaboration with Professor Stephen Browne from Penn State University, we seek to investigate New York City, circa 1789 through the five senses: what did it look like, sound like, smell like, taste like, and feel like? I will be primarily focusing on looking directly into relevant sources from the early years of the Republic: newspapers clippings, personal diaries, musical scores, travelers’ accounts, correspondence, menu offerings, historical art, architecture, music, theater, food, etc. By the end of this project, hopefully we may find ourselves with a collection of blog posts, nicely crammed with contemporary accounts of life in the City as it was lived bodily, publicly, and culturally.

The History and Challenges of Theorizing Human Sacrifice

Thu, 11 Jun 2015 17:08:00 +0000

Fig. 1: Floor mosaic in Beit Alfa Synagogue (c.5th century CE, Israel) depicting the Binding of Issac (public domain art available via Wikimedia Commons)

Human sacrifice refers to the practice of ritual killing of human beings as offerings to divine patrons, ancestors, or other superhuman forces. Early comparative studies on human sacrifice were heavily influenced by theories of historical relativism and social evolutionism. [1] Such theory approach is exemplified by the works of nineteenth century cultural-anthropologists Edward Tylor and Marcel Mauss, both of whom framed practices of human sacrifice as specific iteration of a general social feature, developed relative to various stages of human historical development. [2]

A Brief Note on Human Sacrifice in Classical Mayan Culture

Tue, 02 Jun 2015 22:27:59 +0000

Mayan Moon Goddess with rabbit, Museum of Fine Arts Boston MA

In my previous post “Human Sacrifice during Shang Dynasty”, I examined the historical background of renji (人祭 / ritual human sacrifice) practiced during Shang dynasty China (c. 1600 BC to 1046 BC). It is important to note that the kind of large-scale human sacrifice practiced by Shang rulers, though extraordinary, is not historically idiosyncratic. Human sacrifice rituals similar to that of renji were also found pre-Colombian Mesoamerica, most notably in Mayan and Aztec societies. [1] As scholars have already performed excellent analyses on the political economy of ritual human killings in Aztec empire (see, The Accursed Share by Georges Bataille), this post will focus only on large-scale human sacrifices as practiced in pre-Colombian Mayan society.

Human Sacrifice during Shang Dynasty

Wed, 27 May 2015 20:28:53 +0000

[box type=“note”]Fig.1, Bronze ceremonial axe (Yue / 钺) from middle to late Shang period, c. 1400 BCE ~ 1000 BCE, symbol of state power. Excavated from tomb M1 at the Sufutun site, currently part of the Shandong Museum collection. [/box]

Human sacrifice refers to the practice of ritual killing of human beings as offerings to divine patrons, ancestors, or other superhuman forces. While the phenomenon of ritual human killings have been present in many societies throughout history [1], the types of human sacrifice that were practiced by ancient Chinese and pre-Colombian Mesoamerican cultures, which were exceptional in terms of the sheer number of people sacrificed, the frequency at which it was done, and the high degree of formalization of their sacrificial rituals. Large-scale, systematic human sacrifice functioned as important political and religious spectacles in Shang dynasty.[2]

Curriculum Vitae

Fri, 24 Apr 2015 03:43:27 +0000

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ABOUT ME:

As a scholar, my research and teaching traverse the intersections of rhetorical theory, transnational legal studies, and political communication, interrogating the symbolic and discursive underpinnings of contemporary governance. My monograph, Legal and Rhetorical Foundations of Economic Globalization: An Atlas of Ritual Sacrifice in Late-Capitalism (Routledge, 2020), examines how ritualistic frameworks render exploitative structures of the prevailing political‑economic system inescapable—or even preferable—offering an interdisciplinary critical lens on the architecture of global development.

Keren Wang

SCOM 3050 Lesson 13: Quantitative Methods - Content Analysis

Overview

Why Use Content Analysis?

Manifest vs. Latent Content

Coding

Types of Coding

Coding Process

Sampling

What Is AI? Part 2 – Demystifying AI Through Four Acts

*Continuing from: “What Is AI?” Part 1: A Survey of Imaginaries, Mythologies, and Rhetorical Structures of Thinking Machines

"What Is AI?" Part 1: A Survey of Imaginaries, Mythologies, and Rhetorical Structures of Thinking Machines

Table of Contents

Free Speech and Communication Rights

1) Free Expression: Constitutional and Global Frames

Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Art. 19

2) Free Expression in American History

2.1 Prior Restraint and its Discontents

3) One Man’s Vulgarity is Another’s Lyric

4) Unprotected Speech

4.1 Defamation (libel & slander)

4.2 Fighting Words (rarely applicable today)

4.4 Intellectual Property Violations

4.5 Speech Integral to Criminal Conduct

5) Internet Censorship & Communication Rights

Forms of Internet Censorship:

5.1 VPNs: Benefits and Constraints

Why users adopt VPNs

Secure, nonprofit options

Constraints and Ethical Implications

5.2 The Tor Network and the “Dark Web”

Advantages of using Tor

Constraints & Ethical Concerns

References

Fake News: Concepts, Rhetorical Disruptions, and Policy Implications

Seeing Isn’t Believing

Public Relations: Industry, Practices, and Democratic Implications

1) Public Relations and Propaganda

The Internet - from "Nuclear Hardened" Networks to Algorithmic Governmentality

References

Understanding Advertising through Consumer Psychology and Computational Rhetoric

Table of Contents

What Do You See?

Lesson 7: Rhetorical Artifacts

1. Overview

New Research Project: Artificial Intelligence and Human Sacrifice

Introduction to a Brief History of Media

MEDIA & VIOLENCE - A Transnational Perspective

1. Violence as Ritual & Power: Historical and Global Perspectives

1.1 Rhetorical Artifacts and Human Sacrifice

Rhetorical Methods - Ideological and Psychoanalytic Criticism

Table of Contents

Ideological Criticism - Overview

Evaluating Online Sources

1. OVERVIEW

2. UNDERSTANDING EVIDENCE

Evidence and Values

Lesson on Data Visualization and its Misuses

Posted by Keren Wang, FA 2024

In this session, we aim to achieve several key learning objectives:

Photography and Visual Rhetoric

Argumentation - Language in Argument

Lesson on Statistical Evidence

Lesson on Statistical Evidence - Survey and Opinion Polling

Argumentation - Digital Literacy in Argumentation

Overview

Understanding Evidence

Evidence and Values

General Tests of Evidence

Sources of Evidence

Digital Literacy

Evaluating Websites

Key Considerations for Evaluating Websites

Free City Radio Interview: Exploring the Inherent Sacrifices of Capitalism

New Publication: Legal and Ritological Dynamics of Personalized “Pillars of Shame” in Chinese Social Credit System Construction

"Constitutional Dynamics in China-Taiwan Relations: A Historical and Comparative Analysis" Presentation at Emory International Law Review Symposium on Disputed Territories Across the Globe, 13 April 2024

Dasein, ChatGPT, and the Ritology of AI: Special lecture at East China University of Political Science and Law, Shanghai, June 18 2023 (updated_

Dasein, ChatGPT, and the Ritology of AI:

Special lecture at East China University of Political Science and Law, June 18, 2023

Extended Abstract:

Continuing from: “What Is AI?” Part 1: A Survey of Imaginaries, Mythologies, and Rhetorical Structures of Thinking Machines*