Di Xu

When I was in my teens, my dad used to watch the national news broadcast every day, which made me curious about why news is so important. So I went to university studying journalism and later started working as a journalist. I often encountered various contradictions in my job.

Pursuing a doctoral degree was a form of self-redemption, helping me to understand myself better and to gain a deeper understanding of the intricacies of the profession. I attended a talk by a journalist from The Guardian, who quoted the editor-in-chief saying, "comments are free, facts are sacred," deeply resonated with me.

The pursuit of truth has always captivated me. During my visiting in UCSD, I proposed a comparative study on how journalists construct truth claims in both the United State and China, recognizing the cultural, political, and contextual differences that shape these narratives. It also intends to investigate the general politics of truth in the digital era, looking at discourses, mechanisms, and procedures accorded something as truth, disentangling various forces in shaping the truth.