Undiscovered - Boss Hua and the Black Box
A team of social scientists stumbles onto a cache of censored Chinese social media posts—and decides to find out what the Chinese government wants wiped from the internet.
On China’s most influential microblogging platform, a wristwatch aficionado named Boss Hua accuses a government official of corruption. But, his posts aren’t censored. So what disappears into the black box of Chinese censorship...and what stays online? A team of social scientists cracked this question—by mistake—with big data.
(Original art by Claire Merchlinsky)
FOOTNOTES
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See the picture that got ‘Smiling Official’ Yang Dacai fired.
Read Gary, Jen, and Margaret’s first study on Chinese government censorship (American Political Science Review).
Read the results of Gary, Jen, and Margaret’s social media experiment (Science).
Read Gary, Jen, and Margaret’s latest study, about what the Chinese government secretly posts to the internet.
Hear Gary King on Science Friday.
CREDITS
This episode of Undiscovered was reported and produced by Annie Minoff and Elah Feder. Editing by Christopher Intagliata. Fact-checking help from Michelle Harris. Original music by Daniel Peterschmidt. Our theme music is by I am Robot and Proud. Art for this episode by Claire Merchlinsky. Story consulting by Ari Daniel. Translations and voicing by Isabelle. Thanks to Science Friday’s Danielle Dana, Christian Skotte, Brandon Echter, and Rachel Bouton.
Crimetown - S1 E18: The Prince of Providence
Buddy Cianci was once a crusading prosecutor who took on the mob. Now, he’s behind bars. For the mayor of any other city, this would be the end of the road. But Buddy isn’t any other mayor. And Providence isn’t any other city.
For a full list of credits, and more information about this episode, visit crimetownshow.com.
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Undiscovered - Hi! We are Undiscovered.
We're a podcast about the left turns, false starts, and lucky breaks that move science forward.
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For a full list of credits, and more information about this episode, visit our website at crimetownshow.com.
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For a full list of credits, and for more information about this episode, visit our website at crimetownshow.com.
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