On July 14, 2023, the 5th Public Communication Academic Forum was successfully held at the Kashgar Lening Hotel, organized by the School of Media and International Culture of Zhejiang University, Zhejiang University City College, Zhejiang Communication College, the School of Humanities of Kashgar University, and Zhejiang University Ningbo Institute of Technology. The forum, co-hosted by the School of Humanities at Kashgar University and the International Communication Research Center of Zhejiang University, and co-organized by the International Communication Committee of the China Journalism History Association and the School of Humanities of Zhejiang University of Technology, revolved around the theme Public Communication in the Digital Civilization Era: Globalization and Chineseness, attracting nearly a hundred experts and scholars from universities and research institutions nationwide.

The opening ceremony was presided over by Feng Guanjun, Standing Committee Member of the Party Committee and Vice President of Kashgar University. Vice President Yang Qinghua delivered a speech introducing the basic information and achievements of Kashgar University and its School of Humanities. He highlighted the relevance of the forum's theme to current societal developments and hoped that all experts and scholars could extensively exchange experiences and discuss the current state of public communication in the digital age.

Professor Wu Fei, Deputy Director of the School of Humanities at Zhejiang University and Chairman of the International Communication Committee of the China Journalism History Association, expressed that holding the conference in Kashgar was a long-awaited event. He hoped that the forum would gather experts and scholars to jointly explore the globalization and Chineseness of public communication in the digital era.

Yang Bo, Secretary of the Party Committee of the School of Humanities at Kashgar University, introduced the current development of journalism and communication disciplines in the School of Humanities. He hoped that through high-quality discussions at the forum, the development of journalism and communication disciplines in the new era would be jointly promoted. A group photo was taken after his address.

The keynote speeches commenced at 10:30 AM, moderated by Professor Shen Aiguo, Dean of the School of Journalism and Communication at Zhejiang University City College. Vice President of Zhejiang Communication College, Professor Li Wenbing, delivered a keynote speech titled The Public and Anti-Public Nature of AIGC and Its Transcendence. 

Professor Wei Lu, Dean of the School of Media and International Culture at Zhejiang University, Deputy Secretary of the Party Committee, Director of the Integrated Media Research Center at Zhejiang University, Ministry of Education Youth Yangtze Scholar, and Chief Expert of the National Social Science Fund Major Project, delivered a keynote speech titled New Challenges and Opportunities for International Communication in the AIGC Era.

Professor Liu Hailong, Deputy Director of the School of Journalism and Communication at Renmin University of China and Editor-in-Chief of the International Journalism magazine, delivered a keynote speech titled The Advent of New Ordinary Rule: AIGC and Communicators. 

Professor Wu Fei delivered a keynote speech titled The Underlying Logic of Public Interaction Behavior on Social Media. 

Professor Fang Xingdong from the School of Media and International Culture at Zhejiang University delivered a keynote speech titled The Underlying Logic of Communication Publicness: The Hourglass Model of Internet Architecture. 

Associate Professor Xu Bailing from the School of Humanities at Kashgar University gave a presentation titled Presentation of Xinjiang Public Image in Social Media.

The conference also featured four sub-forums and one panel session on different research directions such as Chinese narrative and news strategy research in public communication, public opinion guidance and computational communication research, social media and media memory research, integrated media strategy and common prosperity research in public communication, and Frontier as Method respectively. Over fifty participating scholars shared their research findings and insights, with lively discussions throughout the sessions.

The closing ceremony of the Public Communication Academic Forum was presided over by Li Xiaoqin, the Vice Dean of the School of Humanities at Kashgar University. Reviewers from each sub-forum reported the discussion situations of each sub-forum to all participants during the closing ceremony, and Professor Wu Fei delivered the concluding remarks for the conference.

The forum was academically enriching, and both participating faculty and students benefited greatly. With the joint efforts of all parties, the 5th Public Communication Academic Forum has provided a high-quality academic exchange platform for the journalism and communication academic community, and has also significantly aided in the talent cultivation and scientific research in related fields of journalism and communication.

Source: School of Humanities, Kashgar University