ABOUT

My name is Jiaai Wang. I was born and raised in Beijing, China. I came to the United States four years ago to pursue my undergraduate degree in Communication and Studio Art with the graphic design and mixed media concentration at Boston College. I am now pursuing my master’s in Communication, Culture & Technology at Georgetown University.

My connection with the field of Communication began when I discovered that people’s love for the same book can be different based on its cover design, interior typography, and online marketing strategies. This started my interest in visual communication and social media marketing. I believe the impact of these two on other areas is deep enough to turn them into tools to support people’s daily lives, not only enhancing convenience but also creating greater mental happiness.

Taking this as a starting point, combined with my possitive attitude of exploring different fields, I become a multi-competent worker in the field of social media, visual communication, cultural and creative products, publishing, digital marketing, audio production, and creative activities, with skills and experience in graphic design, photography, video production, social media marketing, copywriting, illustration, and audio post-production.

I previously interned in the culture and creative product department of the Chinese Literature Publishing House as a Marketing and Graphic Design intern, and a Post Production and Graphic Design intern at Leonardo Audio and Nor’Eastern Publishing.

I am interested in opportunities that combine knowledge and skills from different fields, and I would like to focus more on media convergence in my studies at CCT. Currently, I am still pursuing studies in both visual communication and social media marketing, as well as their intersection. In graphic design, I focus more on the “invisible design” in our daily lives and the usefulness that it is associated with. At the same time, I still keep my interest in book design. For social media, as a self-media creator myself, I pay close attention to how media algorithms and shadowbanning restrict the creative freedom of self-media creators, which includes content topics, texts, and photo framing. I will continue to actively explore different fields and find the positive potential for their connection.

Annotated Bibliography

Adekamwa, A. (2025). Book Review: Social Media: The Convergence of Public and Personal Communication by Graham Meikle.

This source is a book review of Graham Meikle’s Social Media: The Convergence of Public and Personal Communication. It summarizes his words, reiterates the concept of convergence, and analyzes its strengths and weaknesses. It provides me with a critical perspective on Meikle's viewpoint and helps me understand the book’s limitations.

Covert, A. (2024). Stuck? Diagrams Help.

This source introduces the purpose, composition, process, and evaluation criteria of diagrams. As a visual communication tool, diagrams represent the convergence of multiple media. It helps me explore the field of diagramming within visual communication, teaches me how to use diagrams to assist thinking, and clearly convey information to others.

Du, X. (2025). Book review: Social Media: The Convergence of Public and Personal Communication by Graham Meikle.

This source is a book review of Graham Meikle’s Social Media: The Convergence of Public and Personal Communication. It extracts and explains his ideas and definitions, and concludes with a short personal review. Along with the previous one, it provides me with diverse perspectives for understanding Meikle’s work.

Esteves, V., & Meikle, G. (2015). ‘Look@ This Fukken Doge': Internet memes and remix cultures. In The Routledge companion to alternative and community media (pp. 561-570). Routledge.

This source defines “internet memes,” illustrating how contemporary digital culture connects the public and private, art and commerce. Memes involve remixing online elements, reflecting users’ shift from passive dissemination to active creation, which is consistent with his definition of media convergence. This deepens my understanding of Meikle’s research model of “mash-up” and “remix,” reinforcing his concept of media convergence.

Guo, J. (2022). The postfeminist entrepreneurial self and the platformisation of labour: A case study of yesheng female lifestyle bloggers on Xiaohongshu. Global Media and China, 7(3), 303-318.

This article examines how women lifestyle creators on RedNote engage in gendered start-up labor. Their identities, self-branding, and commercial collaborations converge. I cite it because it mentions platform restrictions on self-media creators, but lacks analysis of how these restrictions work.

Heljakka, K., & Ihamäki, P. (2020). Toy tourism: From travel bugs to characters with wanderlust. In Locating Imagination in Popular Culture (pp. 183-199). Routledge.

This source discusses how dolls participate in travel and are displayed on digital platforms, forming a “toy tourism” culture. As a creative format, “toy tourism” vlogs add material culture to media convergence based on self-media platforms. This provides theoretical support for my analysis of how “traveling with dolls” changes the relationship between dolls and people and the cultural significance through self-media activities.

Jenkins, H. (2006a). Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York University Press.

This source explores the convergence fostered by “new media” and Jenkins’ emphasis on cultural convergence. It is the core work in which Jenkins proposed and defined the concept of “media convergence,” which serves as the key source for understanding his theory. It is indispensable to my understanding of Henry Jenkins’ definition and his standing.

Jenkins, H. (2006b, June 19). Welcome to Convergence Culture. Henry Jenkins. https://henryjenkins.org/blog/2006/06/welcome_to_convergence_culture.html?rq=convergence

This source briefly introduces the central arguments of the book Convergence Culture. Jenkins reiterates the cultural nature of media convergence. It helped me understand his understanding of the concept of convergence through the interplay of three concepts: media convergence, participatory culture, and collective intelligence.

Jenkins, H. (2006c, June 29). Convergence and Divergence: Two Parts of the Same Process. Henry Jenkins. https://henryjenkins.org/blog/2006/06/convergence_and_divergence_two.html?rq=convergence

In this source, Jenkins addresses and responds to other scholars’ critiques of his definition of media convergence. He articulates his position and assumptions while re-emphasizing his own concept. This provides me with a critical perspective on the Giant’s viewpoint I selected and helps me understand how to evaluate Jenkins’s arguments critically.

Jenkins, H. (2013). Rethinking “Rethinking Convergence/Culture.” Cultural Studies, 28(2), 267–297. https://doi.org/10.1080/09502386.2013.801579

This source is Jenkins’ review and update of Convergence Culture, seven years after its publication. He restates his reasons for introducing the concept of media convergence and moves beyond it to address the more objective challenges of media transformation. It allows me to ensure that Jenkins’ concepts are not significantly outdated and provides deeper insight into his research method.

Jenkins, H. (2018). Convergence culture, revisited. Etkileşim, (2), 10-19.

In this source, Jenkins reflects on his theory of media convergence again. He emphasizes the concepts of transmedia storytelling and collective intelligence, as well as his research direction on media convergence centered on activism. This source adds material to Jenkins’ analysis of political activities and ensures his concept of media convergence continues to evolve with media development.

Meikle, G. (2024). Social Media: The convergence of public and personal communication. Taylor & Francis.

This source explores how social media achieves the convergence of public and personal communication and transforms into a networked data platform. It is one of Graham Meikle’s main works that analyzes media convergence. As a supplement to Media Convergence, it helped me understand the problems Meikle had in mind that media convergence would cause, especially those related to power.

Jowsey, Tanisha, Carolyn Deng, and Jennifer Weller. "General-purpose thematic analysis: a useful qualitative method for anaesthesia research." BJA education 21.12 (2021): 472-478.

This source explains the definition of thematic analysis and content analysis, and how they can be used together. It gives a useful base for my research methodology. I use this article to demonstrate how to use content analysis and thematic frequencies clearly.

Liu, X. (2021). An analysis of digital marketing strategy in the era of social media in China (Doctoral dissertation, Massachusetts Institute of Technology).

This paper examines how digital marketing strategies on Chinese social media push commercialization. These strategies reflect the convergence of content production, commercialization, and the technology of social media platforms. I cite this paper because it highlights existing research that emphasizes the “high conversion rate” advantage of vertical content, helping me identify gaps in current research.

Meikle, G., & Young, S. (2008). Beyond Broadcasting? TV for the Twenty-First Century. Media International Australia, 126(1), 67–70. https://doi.org/10.1177/1329878x0812600108

This source explores television’s transformation in the digital age. Meikle discusses how the convergence of public and personal communication impacts television content and its concept. It deepens my understanding of the problems, the resulting consequences, and the concerns Meikle identifies as a result of media convergence.

Meikle, G. (2010). Intercreativity: Mapping online activism. In International handbook of internet research (pp. 363-377). Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands.

This source analyzes the application of intercreativity in online activism. It discusses the reconfiguration of networked spaces within media convergence and the shift from spectators to agents, which enriches the explanation of convergence. It provided me with a fresh perspective on Meikle’s definition of media convergence, refining both the questions and answers.

Meikle, G., & Young, S. (2017). Media Convergence. Bloomsbury Publishing.

This source explains the media convergence of technology, industry, content, user behavior, and regulation. It is the most significant book in which Meikle defines “media convergence,” establishing his status as a giant in this field. It provided me with a direct understanding of Meikle’s research question, methods, and answers.

Yi, H., & Xian, L. (2024). The Informal Labor of Content Creators: Situating Xiaohongshu's Key Opinion Consumers in Relationships to Marketers, Consumer Brands, and the Platform. arXiv preprint arXiv:2409.08360.

This source discusses the invisible informal labor taken by self-media creators on RedNote. Its relation to media convergence is about creators’ multiple identities, especially across different forms of labor. I cite it because it mentions vertical content for self-media creators, which helps me identify my research gap.

Wan, R., Tong, L., Knearem, T., Li, T. J. J., Huang, T. H. K., & Wu, Q. (2025, April). Hashtag re-appropriation for audience control on recommendation-driven social media Xiaohongshu (rednote). In Proceedings of the 2025 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (pp. 1-25).

This article discusses how women on RedNote use hashtags to control who can see their posts and push back against the platform’s algorithm. It shows that what we see on social media is mainly decided by algorithms in the area of media convergence. I use this article to support the idea that RedNote’s algorithm seriously affects what users see.

Wang, X. (2025). Being independent women in blogs: young Chinese women bloggers’ construction of independent persona and strategic subjectivity on Xiaohongshu. Feminist Media Studies, 1-19.

This article explores how young women creators in China achieve self-empowerment and commercial success on RedNote by cultivating an “independent woman” persona. This self-presentation represents the media convergence of personal identity, commercial marketing, and platform algorithms. I cite this article as existing comparative research and a reference for identifying research gaps.