Kecheng Fang Wins Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation Doctoral Fellowship
The fellowship will support Fang's dissertation on the ideological and structural biases of Chinese news media.
Last week, the Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange awarded Annenberg Doctoral Candidate Kecheng Fang one of its prestigious doctoral fellowships. The award of $18,000 is designed to support doctoral candidates as they complete their dissertations.
Chiang Ching-kuo doctoral fellowships are open to Ph.D. candidates in the humanities and social sciences who are writing dissertations on China. They are open to non-Taiwanese citizens studying at an accredited university in the United States, Canada, Mexico, Central America, or South America. At the end of the one-year grant period, students are expected to complete their dissertations.
Fang’s dissertation, “Mapping Media Bias in China,” aims at providing a systematic analysis of the ideological and structural biases of Chinese news media. It challenges the conventional view that Chinese media is homogenous in ideological orientations or only has a pro/anti party-state bias.
Using both computational methods and in-depth interviews, Fang’s project offers a nuanced perspective on news media under an authoritarian regime. His dissertation committee members are Michael X. Delli Carpini (Chair), Guobin Yang, Diana C. Mutz, and Sandra González-Bailón.
Annenberg students in good standing receive five years of funding, a period that for Fang will end in August. This grant gives him additional time to pursue and write up his research.
The Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange was established in 1989. It is committed to encouraging scholars at academic institutions throughout the world to undertake research projects in the humanities and social sciences that can shed new light on Chinese culture and society, as well as engage in international cooperation and exchange.
“The Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation is the most prominent grant-giving organization among scholars who study China,” says Fang. “Many important China scholars have received grants from the foundation, and I am honored to be among them.”
