Social media as public pedagogy: The development of news literacy of Chinese international students in the United States

• In Event: International Students and Social Media and Digital Learning

Proposal

Introduction

Research on Chinese international students has been extensive, investigating various dimensions of their experiences in the context of globalization, migration, and geopolitics (C. L. Xu, 2022). Within this research field, a small and growing body of literature examines how these students use social media (Forbush & Foucault-Welles, 2016; Li & Chen, 2014; Q. Xu & Mocarski, 2014).

Such a research interest is spurred by the extensive use of social media by young people (Swart, 2023), and social media for Chinese international students are of particular importance because they play significant roles in the students’ adaptation and acculturation (Forbush & Foucault-Welles, 2016) and career development (Li & Chen, 2014).

Nevertheless, the role of social media in the lives of Chinese international students remains under-explored. Drawing on data from a project focused on the media use of Chinese international students in the United States during COVID, this presentation will discuss the educative role of social media for the students. Social media were educative because they served as a platform where the students could access and critically evaluate news sources that represented diverse and contrasting perspectives. By engaging with such diversity, the students developed news literacy, an ability to recognize potential biases in news (Swart, 2023). This skill proved crucial during the pandemic when fake news and misinformation spread rapidly (Rocha et al., 2023).

Theorical framework

To make sense of the spontaneous development of news literacy among these students, this research drew on the emergent literature surrounding social media and public pedagogy (Karsgaard, 2023; Sandlin et al., 2010).

Public pedagogy provides an inclusive notion of education, suggesting that “schools are not the sole sites of teaching, learning, or curricula” (Sandlin et al., 2010, p. 2). In this framework, educational activities could take place in much wider, and in many cases informal, spaces such as popular culture, and the Internet (Sandlin et al., 2011).

Traditionally, mass media have been viewed as a public pedagogy that provides learning opportunities through informal educational spaces such as TV channels (Reid, 2010). With technological advancements, social media have also emerged as a form of public pedagogy where learning occurs through interactions with others (Dennis, 2015; Rich, 2019).

Methods

The data used for this paper came from 30 semi-structured interviews with Chinese international students in the United States conducted between June and July, 2022. Interviewees included 14 undergraduate students, 11 Master’s students, and five PhD students. These numbers matched official statistics on the composition of Chinese students in the US (Wang et al., 2022). Among the interviewees, 16 were female and 14 were male, ranging in age from 18 to 33. Their length of stay in the US varied from one to nine years, and they were enrolled in five different higher education institutions across the country.

The interviews typically lasted between 40 minutes and an hour and centered around three key themes, including social media use patterns, news consumption on social media, and understanding of divergent perspectives evident in news.

The data were analyzed using NVivo using thematic analysis (W. Xu & Zammit, 2020). The analysis was reiterative and generally involved three steps: open coding, the development of sub-themes, and the synthesis of themes.

Findings

It was found that social media, including platforms native to China such as WeChat and those more commonly used in the US such as Twitter and Facebook, functioned as a public pedagogy. Through these channels, students had access to a wide range of news sources representing diverse perspectives. This diversity encouraged students to compare and contrast, actively reflecting on differences in perspectives, which helped them recognize potential biases in the reporting.

This contrast occurred in two ways: first, by comparing news to their personal experiences, and second, by contrasting different news reports of the same event.

The contrast with personal experience became evident when students encountered news shared by their parents on Chinese social media (primarily WeChat) about topics such as safety in the US. The students' own experiences living in the US often conflicted with such news, and they were prompted to reflect on why these differences existed.

For events beyond the students' personal experience, contrast emerged as they noticed differences in how news outlets reported on the same major social events. For topics of particular significance, students might take the initiative to verify the news through various methods, such as consulting media coverage from other countries, to gain a broader range of perspectives and develop a more balanced understanding.

Conclusion and contribution

This research explored the under-studied domain of social media use by Chinese international students and identified the educative role of social media in fostering news literacy development. This educative role and the resulting news literacy were especially important during the COVID pandemic amid the surge of fake news and misinformation.

In addition, this research employed the "social media as public pedagogy" framework, which, to the best of the authors' knowledge, had not yet been applied to international students research. By introducing this framework, the research provides a novel theoretical perspective for understanding the experiences of international students more broadly, extending beyond those from China.

Relevance

Based on the discussions above, the relevance of this research to CIES 2025 is clear. Social media are digital spaces, and by exploring their educative potential, this research aligns closely with the conference theme. Furthermore, by focusing on the experiences of international students, the study is highly relevant to the Study Abroad and International Students SIG.

Authors

• Baiwen Peng, University of Minnesota

• Jiawen Yang, University of Texas at Austin