Vietnam demonstrates advanced levels of digital media use. Online content creators have adapted to thrive within a media ecology against non-authentic media by evolving towards experience translators. Through interviews with Vietnamese creative industry experts, online content creators and young users, this article articulates how Vietnamese digital media is similar to outside models but has its own distinctiveness, rewarding its users by providing a generally positive space for online communication. Through a de-Westernised lens, it is possible to observe Vietnamese digital media is broadly progressive, inclusive, and at an arms-length from hate speech, misinformation and vitriol content. Vietnam’s focus on positivity and support for communities over individuals has provided a burgeoning digital media market for a variety of industries. Vietnamese digital media demonstrates a pushback against commercially oriented individuals that use their platformed affordances for capital gain, in preference for content from what can be described as online experience intermediators.

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The University of Sydney
‘I don’t want to live
their lives!’
The dynamics of
Vietnamese digital media
Dr Jonathon Hutchinson
Chair of Discipline, Media &
Communication
University of Sydney

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The University of Sydney
De-Westernizing Digital
Media: Prosperous
Vietnam
• Hallin and Mancini (2004) approach Western media
ecologies through three perspectives: the North
Atlantic or Liberal model (including nations such as
the UK, US, Canada), the Mediterranean or Polarised
Pluralist (Italy, Greece, France, Spain), and the
Democratic Corporatist or North/Central European
models (Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden).
• Yet, in the context of Vietnam, this seems to fall short
in identifying and then understanding the media
ecology differences correctly.
• In fact, through a de-Westernized lens, it is possible to
understand that Vietnamese digital media is broadly
progressive, inclusive, at an arms-length from hate
speech and vitriol and is providing a burgeoning digital
media market for a broad range of industries.

3. The University of Sydney
Digital intermediation - Unseen infrastructures

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The University of Sydney
Digital intermediation – Vietnamese Social
Media
– 76.1 million active users of social media in
Vietnam
– Average spend about 2.47 hours on social
media
– Across 7.4 platforms
– Rejection of influencers, key uses include
keeping in touch with others, reading news,
watching live streams.
– Changing attitudes/TikTok rising in use and
popularity

5. The University of Sydney
The University of Sydney
As of last year, I decided to leave my post as a chef and restaurateur and go 100% all in as a
content creator. I'm able to do it because I've built a brand of myself. But I believe that there are
stories to be told all around this beautiful country of small noodle carts, of women who are making
wontons still by hand, dining establishments that are located in people's homes. There are stories
to be told there. And I think that with social media, it's a great. It's a great medium to tell that story
(Calvin Bui, 7 February 2023).

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The University of Sydney
A key moment of this research has enabled a contribution to
the ever-evolving influencer literature. My hope as a
researcher is to not simply add another term to the
epistemology of influencers through experience
intermediators, but to add a nuance of how the role
continues to change and reflect the industry in which theses
online content creators operate. In the Vietnamese context,
it is obvious that social media users engage with lifestyle
type content but are clear that they do not use influencers
as their cultural intermediaries. They are helpful for travel,
fashion and other creative industries, but they engage with
these content creators roles for education, information,
experiences, and leadership for a broad variety of social
aspects of Vietnam. This would not have been obvious in a
Western setting or with Western-based influencers.

7. The University of Sydney
‘I don’t want to live
their lives!’
The dynamics of
Vietnamese digital media
Dr Jonathon Hutchinson
Chair of Discipline, Media &
Communication
University of Sydney