FORT KENT, Maine — The University of Maine at Fort Kent will host Dr. Fanbin Zeng, who will give the presentation “The Relationship Between Social Media Use and Citizen Participation in the United States” in Fox Auditorium at 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 19.
This event is free to the public.
Fanbin Zeng, Ph. D, a Fulbright Scholar from China, is the associate professor in the School of Journalism and Communication at Jinan University in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China. Since 2004, he has specialized in the research of new media and political communication.
His bachelor’s degree in finance is from Shanghai University of Finance and Economic and his master’s degree in communication is from the Graduate School of Chinese Academic of Social Science. Zeng earned his doctoral degree in communication from the college of Journalism and Communication at Renmin University of China.
Zeng has been awarded several research grants on the relationship between internet use and political participation in China and he has published two books. His lecture at UMFK will explore issues around fake news in social media. Zeng has spent the past academic year at the Department of Communication Arts at the University of Wisconsin-Madison working on his research project of the same theme.
As well as possessing the world’s biggest internet user base (649 million), China also has the world’s most active environment for social media. Of the online population of China, 91 percent have a social media account and the Chinese social media landscape has been formed as a result of a dynamic movement. This lecture will introduce the main platforms and history of social media in China, the censorship of social media in China, social media and social relationships in China, as well as social media in China and citizen participation.
“No matter our personal and/or political beliefs, the correlation between social media and civic engagement is of the upmost importance and is most apropos,” said UMFK Associate Professor of History and Education, Dr. Paul Buck. “We at UMFK are extremely fortunate to have a top-level international scholar, such as Dr. Fanbin Zeng, to present under the Fulbright Outreach Lecture program.”
For more information, please contact Dr. Paul Buck, UMFK Fulbright campus liaison, at 207-834-7563 or Shawn Graham, UMFK Assistant Professor of Human Services and Coordinator of Behavioral and Social Science Programs, at 207-834-8627.
This presentation is conducted through the Fulbright Scholar Program’s Outreach Lecturing Fund (OLF). OLF enables Visiting Scholars to share their research interests, speak about their home country, and exchange ideas with U.S. students, faculty, and community organizations. Through these lectures, universities forge relationships with the Fulbright Scholar Program, Visiting Scholars, and the Visiting Scholar’s home and host institutions.
