New Year, New-sletter
Hello again, old friends, it's been a while
It’s been just past six years since I last wrote a letter to you all via my newsletter, and I send this with a bit of hessitancy: will folks still want to hear from me, I wondered, or worst still, do they even remember who I am? The latter question is only a half-joke; for a while now, whenever friends talk about my notorious history working in the media all those years ago, I often referred to that period as my past life.
If the first question is true, however, I apologise for intruding into your inbox all these years later (just click the unsubscribe button in this email). If you’re new here, welcome and please click the button below for updates!
Several things have triggered the revival of this newsletter (on a new platform, Substack, no less) but I have to admit that one of the major catalyst is the disaster that is Elon Musk’s Twitter and worries about what might happen if it crashes. Much of my annual leave has been spent setting up new accounts (hello, this is me on Mastodon), archiving old material and fixing my website (it now works). Part of this include figuring out how to still be found and contactable, and how best to keep in touch with people. An irregular newsletter, I believe, might be one way.
My work has changed fundamentally since I used to update this newsletter (although, I did write a piece for The Star in 2022 to mark the death of my friend, the playwright, Jit Murad). I do different kinds of writing these days so I don’t see this version taking the same form. What I’d like to do, however, is still keep in touch, connect and update you on projects I am working on and publications I have produced. In that sense, I suspect that you’d hear from me quarterly (or perhap, at most, once every couple of months). There will more updates from me, and less stories about me.
That being said, I probably should update you on what I’ve been up to since I last wrote. In short, the PhD was completed in 2020 (my thesis won the Best Dissertation Award from the Association of Internet Researchers!) and I’m now currently based in the UK as Lecturer in Digital Culture and Society at the Department of Digital Humanities, King’s College London.
Most of my work these days revolve around mis/disinformation studies (think cybertroopers, “fake news” and conspiracy theories), and I’m very much interested in studying how people navigate (political) information in their every day lives on social media and chat apps. In 2022, some colleagues and myself also conducted a study for UNESCO/UNDP looking at online resources for LGBTQ+ youth and young key populations in the AIDS response. I also study news coverage (print and online) of the Paralympics Games, working with researchers from almost 20 countries.
I’ve still been appearing in some media over the past few years, talking about politics, communication and digital culture. There is this article in Logically AI on AI biases and the Global South, and one in The Star on online anonymity. On BFM radio, I’ve spoken about politicians on social media, cybertroopers and troll farms, and doxxing, among other topics.
And that’s us all caught up, I think, so enough about me for now. Thank you for having been around all this time (and for staying, if you decide to). As always, the easiest way to get in touch with me is just to click the reply button although I am on regularly on the “socials”: Facebook, Twitter, Mastodon, Instagram and my professional website. During lockdown, I even ressurected Niki the blogger and now occasionally post things on here. Or you can just leave a comment on this post!
Before I sign off, as a nod to newsletters past, this is what I’ve been (re)reading this Christmas and New Year break — Syed Hussein Alatas’ Intellectuals in Developing Societies. An oldie for sure.
Signing off for now with much affection (and a Happy New Year to you!),
Niki
If you’re interested in some of my publications from the research I mentioned above, here are the links (some are behind a paywall but let me know if you’d like to read a version):
Feeling the Chill: Bersih 2.0, State Censorship, and “Networked Affect” on Malaysian Social Media 2012–2018
The affective pressures of WhatsApp: from safe spaces to conspiratorial publics
Disinformation as a response to the 'opposition playground' in Malaysia
An 11-country analysis of newspaper coverage of the 2016 Rio Paralympic Games
Internet-led political journalism: Challenging hybrid regime resilience in Malaysia
Great to hear from you, Niki! Now, I have the same question for u - I wondered, or worst still, do you even remember who I am? :P