Welcome to Sisyphus Highway: In Depth.

In the previous episode, we examined the forces that drive rumor and why people are inclined to believe a particular account.

Here we turn our attention to media.

From newspapers, television, and film to social media, short video, and livestreaming platforms, Barbie Hsu’s public career of more than forty years spanned nearly every major transformation in the Chinese-language media environment.Media changed not only the speed of information but also how the public comes to know, understand, and imagine a person.

Beginning with changes in the media environment, this episode discusses how forms of communication alter a person’s public circumstances and why rumor looks different today than it did in the past.

 

- Media transformation, the fragmentation of celebrity images, and the projection of public emotion

- Why deleting rumors and banning accounts do not equal a victory for justice

- The linguistic logic and traps of Weibo’s trending list

- Platform traffic incentives and the dilemma of fact-checking: Weibo, Douyin, and Xiaohongshu

- Trump: how lies become a form of “brainwashing”

- The general components of a rumor

- From Weibo’s seven-person rumor-refutation team to its community council: how do rumors spread, and why are they so hard to dispel?

- Rumor’s new frontiers

 

 

- Hosts: J and Kang

- Production: Arry and Lizi

- Music:

· Where There Is a Will, There Is a Way - Hideshi Segawa

· Creme Brulee - The Soundlings

· Deck The Halls - The Soundlings