As the world begins to re-emerge from the pandemic, one should reflect on the lessons learned and consider adapting to a rapidly changing media landscape. To this end, the Department of Media and Communication (COM) of CityU recently organised a one-day conference entitled “Challenge, Opportunities, and Resilience: New Media and Communication in the Post-Pandemic Era”. It was also part of a year-long academic celebration series for the 15th anniversary of COM.
Photo 1: Prof Christine Huang Yi-hui, Associate Dean (Faculty and Research) of CLASS, greeted the guests and participants in the opening remarks.The conference brought together leading scholars worldwide to share their research findings and wisdom on political communication, health communication, misinformation, and the roles of technology and culture in communicative actions.
COM arranged a plenary session, three panel discussions, a poster session, and an open discussion. In the beginning, Professor Christine HUANG Yi-hui, Associate Dean (Faculty and Research) of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences, and Professor LIU Yu-li, Head of COM, gave the opening remarks to welcome all the guests and participants.
Dr LIN Fen, Associate Professor of COM, headed straight to moderate the plenary session featuring three prominent speakers. Professor ANG Peng Hwa from Nanyang Technological University introduced the dangers and ethics in AI with the case of ChatGPT. Professor Huang continued to shed light on trust-related communication and proposed the trust-centred approach as an emerging paradigm in public relations and strategic communication research. Then, Chair Professor Jonathan ZHU Jian-hua of COM reviewed the development of computational communication in COM in the past 15 years.
Researchers from COM and other international universities later led the panel sessions, contributing their scholarly perspectives on political communication, health communication, and misinformation in the pandemic context. A group of PhD students also presented their research outputs in the poster session.
The conference was wrapped up with an open discussion session, which focused on the impacts of new technology on communication and education. The speakers and audience exchanged ideas about ChatGPT and its potential effects on the communication process.
Overall, the event provided a valuable chance for participants to engage in intellectual dialogues and explore fresh ideas, paving the way for cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional collaborations and innovations ahead. As the future of media remains bright in the post-pandemic era, one shall look forward to building a more resilient and connected world.
Photo 2: Around 50 participants, including overseas scholars, COM faculty, alumni, and PhD students, partook in the academic event.
Cover Photo: Prof Liu Yu-li, Head of COM, delivered an opening speech to kick off the conference.
