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Yiyuan came to Loughborough University's School of Social Sciences and Humanities in 2023 to pursue a PhD after graduating from the University of Leeds. Her PhD thesis studies the social, political, cultural and technological impacts of digital media and its technologies, with a particular focus on TikTok and its algorithms.
Her research is interdisciplinary, integrating socio-technical, political and cultural analysis. She received research funding from the China Scholarship Coucil and the Loughborough University Collaboration Scholarship, and also participated in the Data Governance project funded by the European Research Council. Her current research interests include the impact of digital media platforms and their technologies on political communication, user-algorithm interaction research and the impact on society and culture.
TikTok imaginaries: public discourse about algorithmic imaginaries affordances and governance
Supervisors: Prof John Downey
Yiyuan’s research focuses on exploring the power and impact of the TikTok platform and its technologies, particularly on news media, users, and policymakers, using both quantitative and qualitative research methods through theories of sociotechnical imaginaries, affordances, and governance.