Senior Data Scientist
Chartbeat
Sonya Song is a senior media researcher working with the data science team at Chartbeat. As a Ph.D. candidate, she focuses her research on media economics, a field that mainly answers the question how to make money using media content. Her sideline research is to study media control, especially censorship and propaganda. That means she looks at both ends of the media effects spectrum: How to spur people into action or how to rein them in.
Sonya hails from China where she studied computer science at Tsinghua University in Beijing and journalism at the University of Hong Kong and she worked in both media and IT industries. Prior to Chartbeat, Sonya was a 2014 Harvard Berkman Fellow, a 2013 Knight-Mozilla OpenNews Fellow and a 2012 Google Policy Fellow. Sonya is also an avid photographer, a devotee of literature, and a film buff.
Monetisation of news and micro-payments are the main takeaways that Western media can learn from the Chinese model. Can successes in China apply to the rest of the world? GEN invites key Chinese players to share insights with the GEN Summit participants. Wolfgang Blau will be moderating this session.