Web Mining Lab

Jonathan keynoted at the largest communication conference in mainland China. goo.gl/5Y4Mc2

Jonathan Keynoted at the largest Communication Conference in mainland China : Web Mining Lab

BDSC2017 Concluded in Lanzhou. Jonathan served a co-chair of the conference and gave a keynote speech. goo.gl/6MQ3df

BDSC2017 Concluded in Lanzhou : Web Mining Lab The 2017 China National Conference on Big Data and Social Computing (BDSC2017) concluded on Aug 13 in Lanzhou. The 2-day conference was co-organized by School of Computer Science at Northwestern Normal University, School of Information Science at Renmin University of China, and Web Mining lab/Centr...

Jonathan Talked about Time Mining at CityU DSAIG Seminar. See more at https://goo.gl/bUE9J1

Jonathan Talked about Time Mining at CityU DSAIG Seminar : Web Mining Lab The seminar is a monthly event organized by the newly formed Data Science Applications Interest Group (DSAIG) at City University of Hong Kong, of which Jonathan Zhu and Zhenzhen Wang of Web Mining Lab are members. Jonathan gave a talk on “mining time information from digital data” on July 18, which...

Call for Papers:
A Special Issue of Asian Journal of Communication on Introducing Computational Social Science for Asia-Pacific Communication Research.

Guest Editors:
1.Prof. Jonathan Zhu, City University of Hong Kong (Email: [email protected])
2.Dr. Taiquan “Winson” Peng, Michigan State University (Email: [email protected])
3.Dr. Hai Liang, Chinese University of Hong Kong (Email: [email protected]).

Computational social science (CSS), an emerging paradigm of research, has penetrated into communication research largely due to two intertwined technological advancements: the widely available human behavioral data and the increasingly sophisticated as well as accessible computational methods (Lazar et al., 2009). To respond to the emerging trends, several influential journals have recently published special issues on challenges and opportunities that CSS has brought to social sciences in general and communication in particular, for example, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science’s special issue on “Toward computational social science: big data in digital environments” in 2015 and Journal of Communication’s special issue on “Big data in communication research” in 2014.

While pioneering, these publications did not directly address the specific conceptual, methodological, and technological challenges and opportunities in the application of CSS methods in Asia-Pacific communication research. Such challenges and opportunities are deeply rooted in the linguistic, cultural, and political diversity in Asia-Pacific societies. To fill the gap, the current special issue brings together a community of active researchers to introduce CSS for Asia-Pacific communication research. We aim to focus on the following questions:

1. What are CSS methods that are particularly relevant to and useful for Asia-Pacific communication research?
2. How can the CSS methods identified above be correctly and efficiently applied to address communication phenomena in Asia-Pacific societies?
3. What are the major strengths and limitations of the above CSS methods in Asia-Pacific communication research?
4. How can we blend the above CSS methods with traditional social science methods in Asia-Pacific communication research?

Scope of the Special Issue

We do not intend to make the special issue as a comprehensive reference of CSS. Instead, our focus is to introduce and demonstrate a carefully selected set of CSS methods that are particularly relevant to Asia-Pacific communication research. The methods of interest for this special issue may include, but are not limited to:

• Data collection methods: server log analytics, web scraping, online experiment, and use of online archiving/indexing data (e.g., Google Trends, Google ngrams, etc.). Combined use of CSS method(s) and traditional method(s) (e.g., survey, content analysis, experiment, etc.) are welcome and appreciated.
• Data analysis methods: temporal analysis, spatial analysis, network analysis, text analysis, and visual analysis. These are broad categories, each consisting of many specific methods or algorithms. For example, text analysis includes sentiment analysis, topic modeling, deep learning, among others. We prefer focusing on specific and relevant methods to general or broad ones.
• Data visualization methods: static infographics, interactive visualization, etc. Works that demonstrate how visualization assists, enhances, and even revolutionizes data analysis and interpretation are particularly welcome. If necessary, author(s) of such paper(s) will be required to provide online supplements of interactive visualizations.

No matter which method(s) the author(s) of each submission choose(s) to focus on, all submitted papers should address at least the following three points:

1. Description of the specific methods in a clear, precise, but non-technical style. In addition, the author(s) should provide a (brief) review of how the method(s) have been used in social science research in general and communication research in particular.
2. Evaluation of the merits and limitations of the method(s) in comparison with the corresponding traditional method(s). The evaluation of the chosen method(s) should be empirically-based and the comparison with traditional method(s) be as concrete as possible.
3. Application of the method(s) to a non-trivial conceptual question in Asia-Pacific communication research. Authors are encouraged to apply the method(s) in a comparative context, either within Asia-Pacific or with counterpart(s) elsewhere, to ensure the generalizability of the study. For the same purpose, authors should avoid a “single-event” approach that focuses on a breaking event in a particular location.

Submission of Extended Abstracts and Full Papers:

All authors are required to submit an extended abstract of their paper by May 15, 2017. Extended abstracts should have a length of 500-800 words (excluding tables, figures, and references). Extended abstracts should be submitted in a pdf format through email to [email protected].

The special issue editors will screen the extended abstracts for fit with the above descriptions. Authors will be informed about acceptance or rejection of the extended abstracts by the end of May 2017. Authors who are invited to submit full papers will need to submit their full papers by August 1st, 2017. Each full paper of the special issue should not exceed 5,000 words (excluding tables, figures, endnotes, and references). Full papers should be submitted following the Asian Journal of Communication standard submission process (see http://www.tandfonline.com/action/authorSubmission?journalCode=rajc20&page=instructions).

Important Dates:

Extended abstract submission deadline May 15, 2017
Full paper submission deadline August 1st, 2017
First round review decisions September 1st, 2017
First round revisions due October 1st, 2017
Second round review decisions November 1th, 2017
Second round revisions due January 1st, 2018
Final editorial decision February 1st, 2018

Asian Journal of Communication : Asian Journal of Communication is an international, peer reviewed journal, publishing high-quality, original research. Please see the journal’s Aims & Scope for information about its focus and peer-review policy.

2017 Annual Conference and Workshop of Computational Communication will be held on 23-25th Sept. in Nanjing University, co-holded by Web Mining Lab, Nanjing University, Baidu and Social Media Processing Committee. Application information can be found http://t.cn/R6YZ6rh

2017年计算传播学年会暨工作坊：南京大学 计算社会科学研究范式对传播学研究产生了重要影响。在线人类行为踪迹（DigitalTraces）以及计算方法的广泛应用，为传播学探索人类信息传播行为模式提供了重要契机，也催生了“计算传播学”这一新兴研究领域。该领域主要关注人类传播行为的可计算性基础，以传播网络分析、传播文本挖掘、数据科学等为主要分析工具，（以非介入的方式）大规模地收集并分析人类传播行为数据，挖掘人类传播行为背后的模式和法则，分析模式背后的生成机制与基本原理，可以被广泛地应用于数据新闻、计算广告、新闻推荐系统等场景。

Department of Media and Communication in City University of Hong Kong is hiring an open rank faculty on computational social science, social media data analytics. The Department has a strong international team of scholars at the forefront of research and publication in International Communication, Media Effects, New/Social Media, Computational Communication Research, Communication for Social Change, and Political Economy of the Media.

Duties
The appointees will work in one or more of the following areas: (1) Text Mining/Natural Language Processing, (2) Machine Learning, (3) Social Network Analysis, (4) Computer Programming (e.g. R, Python), (5) Infographics/Data Visualization, (6) Mobile Application Design, (7) Data-Driven Journalism, and (8) Computational Humanities; and teach both theoretical content and hands-on skills (i.e. coding for some of the above areas is highly desirable).

Requirements
A PhD in Communication/Media Studies/Computer Science/Information Science/Network Science or related disciplines. Candidates for Chair Professor/Professor/ Associate Professor should have an outstanding record of scholarly achievements in both teaching and research, a strong record in research grant coordination and/or academic management expertise. Candidates for Assistant Professor should have a solid and promising record of scholarly achievements in both teaching and research. The appointees are expected to work well with colleagues.

Further information is available at http://www.cityu.edu.hk/hro/en/job/current/academic.asp?ref=uac-c400.

Human Resources Office - City University of Hong Kong Website descripion.

Jonathan Zhu gave a talk at the 15th CityU Seminar (城大席明纳) on Network thinking: 10 ways to see how the world is connected, Nov 3

A new project kicks off to study public sentiment toward emerging diseases

Winson Peng was recently awarded a pilot research grant by Trifecta which is an interdisciplinary research initiative at Michigan State University (MSU, http://trifecta.msu.edu/). In collaboration with colleagues from the College of Engineering at MSU, Winson will employ voluminous user-generated data on Twitter and integrate sentiment mining, network analysis, and time series modeling to examine how individual sentiment toward emerging diseases would evolve and diffuse.

After three-year work at Nanyang Technological University of Singapore, Winson has started his new job as Associate Professor (with tenure) at the Department of Communication of MSU in August, 2016.

Trifecta Michigan State University | Trifecta - Communication, Engineering and Nursing