What does a lack of IRL interaction mean for virtual communities? Can influencers remain apolitical? How can Big Tech firms win back people’s trust? In this part of the 2021 Expert Outlook, we speak to three experts about how communications are shifting in the wake of a crisis-filled year.
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Dr. Stephanie Alice Baker is a senior lecturer in sociology at City University, London. Her work focuses on how we connect and communicate online, especially around issues of health. She is the author of Social Tragedy and Lifestyle Gurus: Constructing Authority and Influence Online.
Dr. Crystal Abidin is an anthropologist and ethnographer of internet cultures, specialising in influencer cultures, internet celebrity, online visibility, and social media pop cultures. She has authored several books, including Internet Celebrity, Microcelebrity Around the Globe, and Mediated Interfaces.
Dr. Xinyuan Wang is a postdoctoral research fellow at UCL’s Department of Anthropology. She is the author of Social Media in Industrial China, co-author of How the World Changed Social Media, and is currently one of the researchers on the 'Anthropology of Smartphone and Smart Ageing' project.
Isabel Evans is a behavioural analyst at Canvas8. Fascinated by how and why people do things, she has an MSc in cognitive and decision sciences from UCL. You can often find her drinking endless coffees, running around Regent’s Park, or delving into a book.
