My name is Huixin Tian, and I will be presenting our research on non-literal communication
in Chinese Internet spaces.
The research involves a case study of the communication practice termed as fishing,
not to be confused with the common Internet scam of phishing starting with PH.
In this short video, I will provide a brief overview of the findings.
Please refer to the paper for a more detailed discussion.
Unlike literal text that can be taken at face value, non-literal text requires interpretation
to decipher the intended meaning.
Some typical types of non-literal communication
are: irony, parody, sarcasm, and satire.
In Chinese Internet spaces, Fishing, i.e., diao yu, is a practice that employs non-literal
rhetorical techniques to lure or bait other users into interaction.
It is important to note that fishing is different
from trolling.
Trolling deliberately vandalizes online communities by provoking and baiting people into meaningless
conversation.
In contrast, fishing is a lighthearted attempt to engage the audience in a discussion of
topics that are often a subject of debate and controversy.
Our research aimed to understand the nature and the context of the interactive practices
connected to fishing.
To that end, we addressed three research questions.
First, we sought to analyze the linguistic content of fishing text.
Second, we wished to examine the community interaction connected to fishing, i.e., the
interaction between the authors of fishing content and their audience as well as that
among the audience members.
Third, we wanted to understand how fishing is shaped by the larger context of the online
platform and the regulatory environment within which it is embedded.
To answer the research questions, we began by systematically selecting a set of fishing
articles and associated comments.
We then analyzed the text of the articles and the audience interaction in the comments.
We connected the analysis to the evolution of the content-moderation policies of the
communication platform and to the larger sociopolitical context of Internet governance in China.
We selected a cohesive set of fishing articles for the study from the Chinese Q&A platform
Zhihu.
During the 2016 U.S presidential election,
Zhihu became one of the major online spaces for Chinese-speaking supporters of then presidential
candidate Donald Trump.
In response, some Zhihu users started to use fishing as a strategy to oppose the comments
and point out that many were based on conspiracy theories.
We systematically selected a set of 14 such
articles authored by the same individual during this period.
We examined the fishing content in the selected articles and associated audience comments
with the lens of critical discourse analysis, i.e., CDA.
We examined the text content for its meaning, strategy, and structure based on Bakhtin’s
theory of parody.
In addition, we analyzed the interactive practices
to understand their connection to self-presentation, audience engagement, and characteristics of
the communication platform and context.
This analysis was informed by Goffman’s theory of dramaturgy.
We discovered three rhetorical strategies in the fishing articles.
The author impersonated someone else and wrote as that person might write.
As illustrated in this quote, the author pretends to be a Trump supporter.
Sometimes, the writing was deliberately ambiguous.
For example, in the quoted text, it is unclear whether the author is genuinely supportive
of Trump or being sarcastic.
As the next piece of text shows, hyperbole and contradiction was used to point out logical
issues in reasoning.
When examining the interaction in the comments, we found that literal references to the actual
activity of fishing served to separate the audience into three groups: those who understood
fishing, those who understood the non-literal meaning, but were unfamiliar with fishing
as a communication practice, and those who did not understand fishing and followed the
literal meaning of the text.
For example, in this demonstrated comments:
upon noticing that the first commenter missed the non-literal interpretation, others pointed
it out with literal references to fishing-related artifacts, such as bait and hook.
Fishing practices are embedded in features of the communication platform, i.e., Quihu,
and the larger context of Internet governance by the Chinese state.
Both impacts how fishing is perceived and regulated.
A user on the Quihu platform is assigned points, called Salt Points.
One component of the salt points is the “friendliness” of the user’s practices.
In fact, salt points were originally called “friendly points.”
The evolving policies of the platform that aim to promote friendly interaction increasingly
characterize fishing as being “unfriendly” because of its use of sarcasm and irony.
In China, the Chinese government agencies
tasked with regulating and monitoring Internet activity in China issue “guidance for Internet
ecology governance.”
The operational specifics depend on the interpretation and implementation of the guidance by individual
platforms.
Based on the guidance for “creating a favorable online opinion environment for the building
of a harmonious society,” Zhihu has chosen to deem non-literal communication, including
fishing, as “inappropriate content,” i.e., “yin yan gua qi,” to avoid controversial
or sensitive topics that could cause heated discussion.
By maneuvering the ambiguity of language,
fishing, to some extent, enables users to gain the power to discuss controversial topics
without being sanctioned.
As a counter, the platform wields its power by characterizing certain linguistic choices
as inappropriate and against the values that are shaped by the pressure and demands of
the state.
Our findings underscore that non-literal communication within online communities can be useful for
non-disruptive self-expression and community bonding.
Based on this insight, we offer a few suggestions for platform regulators and policymakers to
support non-disruptive non-literal user engagement that can operate within the parameters of
the regulatory environment.
Any negotiations with and among users regarding boundaries and communication norms must leave
space to deal with the ambiguity inherent in non-literal communication.
Support for friendly and harmonious practices should include respectful and playful debate
and creative discourse, rather than excluding any disagreement altogether.
Judgments of appropriateness should be sufficiently flexible to deal with the irregular and contextually
interpreted nature of non-literal communication.
In conclusion, our findings underscore the need for platform policies to take a more
nuanced approach to the regulation of non-literal interaction by incorporating such content
in community negotiation and governance.