Encoding and Decoding Cultural Identity: How Diasporic Communities Reinterpret Media Symbols to Negotiate Belonging and Difference

DOI: https://doi.org/10.62517/jnme.202610203

Author(s)

Chenhui Zhang

Affiliation(s)

The University of Queensland, St Lucia Campus, St Lucia, Queensland, 4072, Australia

Abstract

This article discusses how overseas Chinese in Australia build meaning through Chinese digital media such as WeChat and YouTube, and how these practises are related to a sense of belonging and difference. Based on Stuart Hall's coding/decoding model [12] and the study of digital overseas Chinese and platform transnational communication [11], the following core issues are put forward: the most influential "Chineseness" in daily media consumption, "What is the characteristic? How can the audience decode and evaluate these characteristics across platforms? How to relate decoding behaviour to sharing discussion and other re-coding practices. How do platform conditions shape the process of identity negotiation? This study is designed by a mixed research method, with a short questionnaire (N=109) as a quantitative analysis component. The results show that the respondents have high-frequency cross-platform usage behaviour (the average frequency of WeChat use = 3.76; YouTube = 3.52, both using the 1-5-point system), and the contact intensity is significant (49.54% of the respondents are exposed to Chinese content for more than 1 hour a day). Respondents show active interpretation, often judging narratives based on Australian life experience (mean = 3.78), while admitting that such content affects their sense of belonging (mean = 3.54). This article expands the coding/decoding theory of digital transnationalism by highlighting the recoding mechanism under platform conditions (that is, the conventional path of reconstructing cultural identity and differences of overseas Chinese audiences).

Keywords

Chinese Diaspora; Encoding/Decoding; Digital Transnationalism; Platform Governance; Identity Negotiation

References

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