Fan Liang, Assistant Professor of Media, Duke Kunshan University

 

This talk examines citizen scoring in and public support for China’s Social Credit System (SCS). Dr. Fan analyzed the mechanism of credit scoring embedded in the SCS and show two facets of the SCS: a normative apparatus fostering “good” citizens and a regulative apparatus normalizing “deviant” behaviors. He also used a survey experiment to test how types of monitored behaviors and different information exposure explain public support for the SCS. The findings suggest that citizens are more likely to support monitoring financial behaviors. More importantly, exposure to Western media increases public support for monitoring non-financial behaviors in the SCS. Fan Liang (PhD, University of Michigan) is an Assistant Professor of Media at Duke Kunshan University. His research examines how new communication technologies construct social and political changes, and how social and political powers shape and regulate the design and operation of such technologies.