Research
Dissertation: From Shadows to Spotlight: The Dynamics of Attention to Violence Against Women Incidents in the Chinese Online Public Sphere.
Abstract: Violence against women (VAW) remains a pressing global issue. In the digital era, social media has become a vital space where survivors and allies disclose harm, mobilize attention, and challenge silence. Yet not all disclosures gain traction. While existing research has focused on virality and high-profile cases that gain widespread attention, far less is known about the many disclosures that go unheard. Why do some incidents spark public outcry while others fade without notice? What shapes who gets heard in digital spaces—and under what conditions do personal stories become public grievances? My dissertation investigates the dynamics of online (in)visibility surrounding VAW in China. I ask two core questions: (1) Why do some VAW incidents shared online garner widespread attention while others remain overlooked? (2) How does public discourse on VAW evolve through the contestation of attention? To answer these questions, I draw on a multi-method approach that combines an original dataset tracing the online trajectories of over 20,000 VAW incidents, qualitative case studies, and in-depth interviews with survivors and online participants. This research advances theory on how public attention is structured in the digital era and sheds light on the intersection of everyday experience and contentious politics.
Peer-reviewed Publications
Chen, Zhaodi and Junghun Han. (2024). “Her Lips Are Sealed: Effects of Negative Feedback on Women’s Participation in Online Political Discussions. Socius: Sociological Research for a Dynamic World, 10. (Paper, Code and Data)
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Chen, Zhaodi and Dali L. Yang. (2023). “Governing Generation Z in China: Bilibili, Bidirectional Mediation, and Online Community Governance.” The Information Society, 29:1, 1-16. (Paper)
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​Zhao, Andy and Zhaodi Chen. (2023). “Let’s Report Our Rivals: How Chinese Fandom Game Content Moderation System to Restrain Opposing Voices.” Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media, 3. [*co-first author] (Paper)
Works In Progress
Chen, Zhaodi and Byungkyu Lee. “Crowdsourced Moderation Without Representation: How In-Group Bias Drives Disparities in Toxicity Exposure.” (Draft available upon request)
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Chen, Zhaodi. “Private Harms, Public Silence: The Private/Public Divide in the Online Visibility of Violence Against Women Incidents in China.” (Draft available upon request)
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Allendorf, Keera, Emily Meanwell, and Zhaodi Chen. “Ambivalent Arrangements: Narratives of (Asian) Indian Marriages in American Media” (Draft available upon request)​​
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​Chen, Zhaodi. "Making Grassroots Heard: Bridging the Digital Attention Gap in Violence Against Women Disclosures in China."
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Chen, Zhaodi and Andy Zhao. “Gender and the Construction of ‘Credible’ Threat in Online Content Moderation.”
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Lee, Byungkyu, Zhaodi Chen, and Peter Bearman. “The Role of Social Tie Activation in the Formation of Relational Trust.”
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