On November 28th, 2023, at 19:30, Mr. Zhang Zhi'an, Professor of the School of Journalism, Fudan University and Director of the Center for Communication and National Governance of Fudan University, gave a lecture on “Digital Labor Research: Presence and Insight” to the master and doctoral students of Cultural Industry Management, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, City University of Macao, using a combination of online and offline methods. The topic of the lecture was “Digital Labor Research: Presence and Insight”. Mr. Wang Zhong, Vice Dean of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the City University of Macau, hosted the lecture, and Associate Professor Xiao Dai Bai, Director of the Graduate Program in Cultural Industries, and more than 80 students of the program listened to the lecture online and offline.

Prof. Zhang Zhi'an first broke the topic by analyzing two keywords: presence and insight. In his view, presence can be interpreted as being together, including both direct and indirect participation. Insight can be interpreted as in-depth thinking, multi-dimensional mapping, and causal analysis. Prof. Zhang Zhi'an started with a popular article, “Winter 2022, I am Delivering in Linyi City”, which triggered thoughts on digital labor and related issues and shared the differences in observation and analysis between different stances: those who report and those who research. For the observation and research of digital labor, we have the dual identities of being present and insightful. Prof. Zhang shared his achievements and insights in observing, thinking, and researching digital labor and platform economy based on his dual identities and perspectives.

The platform economy is a new type of economy, and digital labor is an emerging form of labor. The “double newness” makes the field become a new “blue ocean” of research, which not only needs deeper thinking but also needs broader vision and deeper excavation. Prof. Zhang Zhian's lecture not only showed us an emerging research field but also a multi-dimensional and overlapping research pattern, which was full of passionate attraction and charming diversity and benefited the listeners a lot.