Enjoyed being a part of this enriching workshop in @au.dk, thoughtfully curated and well organized by @rsenninger.bsky.social @winniexia.bsky.social @muzhou-zhang.bsky.social! It brought many sub-disciplines together under the theme of 'Information from Abroad' and I learned so much from all
Excited to be part of this virtual event organised by APSG and the APSA Democracy & Autocracy section! I'll be sharing my work on global media and authoritarian regimes alongside fantastic panellists. Join us Thu, 9 April, at 18:30 CET / 12:30 EST. Register here: calendar.google.com/calendar/u/0...
Congrats! 🫡 In our joint nomination, @jhlee1596.bsky.social & I detailed how @alexdukalskis.bsky.social combines rigorous academic guidance with genuine support for student well-being. Such a well deserved win (one of just two awardees) for the best mentor an early career scholar can wish for! 💐
Wrapped up grading & my Media Politics under Authoritarianism module! Although we focused on autocracies, we discussed threats in democracies, like news avoidance & platform capture. Part of the solution lies in questioning our biases & resisting essentialism - traits I felt many students embodied 🙏
New paper out!
Using a text scaling approach on 17,000+ Chinese state media articles (2014–2023), I examine how authoritarian regimes portray international media as external threats - and when this hostility intensifies.
doi.org/10.1080/1356...
Free (first 50): www.tandfonline.com/eprint/2MNPV...
this is authoritarianism.
"Beijing's insistence that sovereignty cannot be challenged has reshaped even the vocabulary of disaster. A call for answers can be reframed as agitation. Grief can be interpreted as defiance. Volunteerism can be treated as "gathering"."
www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12...
Watching this play out in HK is a shock to the system, but to anyone who’s seen it happen time and again in the mainland, it’s also all too familiar and predictable.
After any disaster, “stability maintenance” (維穩) and “stabilising public sentiment” (穩定社會情緒) are always foremost official priorities.
Shanghai friends: very special Concert Alert!
Perhaps you already know that all our concerts with Japanese musicians in China were cancelled.
But nobody has cancelled this Shanghai performance with the legendary Japanese Jazz drummer Toshio Osumi.
So we are taking a chance.
As part of a special issue of @iojournal.bsky.social w/ an amazing cast of scholars, Rebecca Cordell & I wrote a piece on the future of human rights given the rise of authoritarian powers and alliances.
Check out "Authoritarianism, Global Politics, and the Future of Human Rights" open access here:
Applications are now open for the UCD Iseult Honohan Doctoral Scholarship 2026.
Closing Date: 30 January 2026
✔️Covers full fees (EU and Non-EU)
✔️Provides a living stipend of €25,000 per year for up to four years
✔️Is open to EU and non-EU applicants
👇
www.ucd.ie/spire/study/...
Applications are open for two UCD Ad Astra Doctoral Scholarships💫
It covers:
☑️ Tuition fees (up to the non-EU rate)
☑️ A yearly stipend of €25,000
☑️ An annual research budget of €4,000
Deadline: 6 February 2026
@elisaadamico.bsky.social
www.ucd.ie/spire/study/...
supplied!
None bar one student (who watched it 15 times) had heard of the show, but we ended up having a robust and fun discussion on whether it was better for the work to gain mainstream visibility or to stay obscure, and whether clever adaptation to bypass censorship is dilution and compromise (Fin)
And elsewhere, instead of confessing their love, they confess to being ‘lifelong confidants’. Plus! Under the pretext of paying respects to ancestors, they (sort of) went through traditional wedding rites
Elsewhere in the show, they raise rabbits together (Rabbits are a gay symbol in China), and they also (sort of) raise an orphaned child together
4. Signs of devotion / loyalty to one another during the vandalism scene (there is plausible deniability because platonic friends can also be loyal to each other)
3. Gifting of chickens is a courtship / wedding tradition in some parts of China (and there is plausible deniability because the giver is drunk)
2. Instead of direct intimacy, there is a lot of wordless gazing
Among the ways it's queer-coded whilst maintaining plausible deniability - 1. Physical contact – Holding, wrist grabbing
After some contextualization (on the Boys Love genre, on regulations around depicting same-sex relationships in CN mass media, on the basic storyline), the class (3rd- and 4th-year undergrads) watched this clip where a drunk Lan Wangji steals chickens for Wei Wuxian www.youtube.com/watch?v=KUrY...
In my Media Politics under Authoritarianism class this week, we explored how to adapt a gay romance for Chinese TV whilst maintaining plausible deniability. We also discussed queer representation, feminism, & creative freedom. Showed students a clip of The Untamed. Their engagement made my week!
The findings carry implications for the integrity of global media in authoritarian contexts. Journalists broadly respond by concealing their activities or by conforming to localized restrictions, contributing to our understanding of how state power is quietly contested or reproduced. (3/3)
Particularly notable are indirect channeling tactics, such as legal ambiguity that deter reporting by creating an atmosphere of uncertainty for both journalists and their sources. Also significant is the role of mobilized citizens in obstructing journalistic activity. (2/3)
My first solo-authored publication is out in The International Journal of Press/Politics! journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
Based on 50+ interviews with foreign correspondents in China, it explores how authoritarian media control operates and the responses it provokes. (1/3)
“I tried to use purchase of a panda as a means of getting to China in 1963-4 while in Hong Kong. My wife’s uncle was chairman of the St. Louis Zoo and authorized me to spend US$25K if I could bring one back. As the NYTimes reported, the effort failed.”
Had a great first APSA conference! Vancouver was a superb host city with amazing natural beauty & food. I learnt lots from all the panels I went to, made new connections, & caught up with old ones. Am particularly inspired by novel approaches to researching hard-to-study contexts
In #Vancouver for #APSA today? David & I will present our paper which uses Taiwan as a case & examines the efficacy of misinformation frames there without exposing human subjects to harmful content. Ours is the Political Information & Communication in Taiwan panel, 4pm at West Level 2, West 217
For my American comrades:
Dictating the Agenda: The Authoritarian Resurgence in World Politics
Is on sale at Amazon for 22 bucks for hardcover. That’s a pretty good deal!
European release in a couple weeks.
Teaching my own module this term: Media Politics under Authoritarianism. In our first class, we examined media’s role in society. Applying Hanitzsch's journalistic roles, students assessed that there aren't watchdogs and change agents in Irish media! Perhaps this is symptomatic of democracies?
