My 2022 keynote delivered to the News and Media Research Centre as part of my University of Canberra Faculty of Arts and Design Distinguished Fellowship.

1. BEYOND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
ALONE IN VIETNAMESE SOCIAL
MEDIA, AND TOWARDS CULTURAL
EXPORT
DR JONATHON HUTCHINSON
DISCIPLINE OF MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION - UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
@DHUTCHMAN
Photo by Chris Slupski on Unsplash

2. Open access article
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author/4PT
RTSIRXHXJMQJCMNTS?target=10.1002/poi3.
325
@dhutchman
www.jonathonhutchinson.com.au
PUBLICATION!
PUBLISHED LAST WEEK IN POLICY & INTERNET

3. Vietnamese Social Media Penetration
rates
Facebook 90%
Zalo 89%
YouTube 74%
TikTok 62%
Instagram 66%
Twitter 21%

4. Government and Facebook engage in discussion
Amnesty International release ‘Let Us Breathe’
report
Digital media industry (creative industries broadly)
are increasing
REGULATORY TENSION

5. DIGITAL MEDIA INVESTMENT
Australian Trade and Investment Commission highlight the sector has grown by 8% each year
between 2016 and 2020 (ATIC, 2020)
The state budget is investing US$415million into ICT sector focussing on four key sections:
• improving policy environment;
• developing IT human resources;
• developing IT enterprise and trademarks, products and markets; and
• attracting investment into build IT zones and open source software.

7. VIETNAMESE SOCIAL MEDIA AND ITS CULTURAL INDUSTRIES
Popular content genres in Vietnam include:
• Gaming
• Music
• Vlogs
• Animation
Rank Platform Percentage of
users
1 Facebook 90%
2 YouTube 89%
3 Zalo 74%
4 Facebook
Messenger
74%
5 Instagram 46%
6 TikTok 39%
7 Skype 26%
8 Viber 25%
9 Pinterest 23%
10 Line 20%

9. VIETNAM MEDIA REGULATION
175 out of 180 on Press Freedom Index
47 Sustainable Development Goals
Article 69 vs. Article 258
Government requests to restrict YouTube
content is increasing
Can Vietnamese users dissent/criticise their
government?
Period Ending Country/Region
CLDR Territory
Code
Requester
Number of
Requests
Items
Requested To
Be Removed
30/6/2021 Vietnam VN
Information and
Communications
Authority
568 3890
30/6/2021 Vietnam VN
Government
Officials
50 1614
30/6/2021 Vietnam VN Other 4 7
31/12/2021 Vietnam VN
Information and
Communications
Authority
534 14243
31/12/2021 Vietnam VN
Government
Officials
10 365
31/12/2021 Vietnam VN Other 5 7

10. HOW DO NON-HUMANS IMPACT CULTURAL PRODUCTION?
DIGITAL INTERMEDIATION

11. VALUE TRANSLATION AND TRANSFER EMERGING FROM CULTURAL INTERMEDIATION
DIGITAL INTERMEDIATION
Cultural
Production
Cultural
Intermediary
Audience

12. THE HUMAN PRESENCE HAS SHIFTED
DIGITAL INTERMEDIATION

13. SHAPING CULTURE
DIGITAL INTERMEDIATION & VIETNAM
Each aspect of digital intermediation appears within Vietnamese cultural production
Regulations are state driven (Institutions) and as discussed, media is the mouthpiece for VCP
The regulatory approach is applied through platforms (Technology) – take downs / throttling /
shadowbanning
These two approaches impact how content is then delivered through automated approaches to
individuals (Automation)

14. LEADING VIETNAMESE INFLUENCERS IN
2022

15. THE OZ INFLUENCER INDEX
MEANWHILE IN OZ…

16. Exploring Vietnam’s Influencer Cultural Exports -
collaboration with A Bowl of Rice
This project seeks to understand the role social media
influencers play on the cultural exports from within Vietnam. In
doing so, it seeks to highlight how Vietnamese content creators
inherently adopt the UNESCO Sustainable Development Goals
in their work, avoiding the low press freedom scores the
country’s other media organisations attract.
NEXT STEPS

17. BEYOND SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT
ALONE IN VIETNAMESE SOCIAL
MEDIA, AND TOWARDS CULTURAL
EXPORT
DR JONATHON HUTCHINSON
DISCIPLINE OF MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION - UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY
@DHUTCHMAN
Photo by Chris Slupski on Unsplash