Renkai Ma

PhD student

Pennsylvania State University

Biography

I am currently a third-year Ph.D. student, majoring in Human-computer interaction (HCI), at Pennsylvania State University’s College of Information Sciences and Technology, where I am advised by Dr. Yubo Kou.

I am passionate about studying questions regarding HCI, social media content moderation, and video content creator/influencer’s experiences under platform governance through mixed methods.

Recently, I work on projects of investigating how users, including (1) players from online multiplayer games and (2) video content creators from multiple platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Twitch and more, interact with technologies and people, separately.

Interests

• Human-Computer Interaction
• Computer-supported Cooperative Work
• Creator Governance
• Content Moderation

Featured Publications

“I am not a YouTuber who can make whatever video I want. I have to keep appeasing algorithms”: Bureaucracy of Creator Moderation on YouTube

We uncover bureaucratic traits of algorithmic moderation from creators' experiences on YouTube.

Renkai Ma, Yubo Kou

Esports Governance: An Analysis of Rule Enforcement in League of Legends

We uncover esports' rule enforcement and governance in League of Legends.

Renkai Ma, Xinning Gui, Yubo Kou

“I’m not sure what difference is between their content and mine, other than the person itself”: A Study of Fairness Perception of Content Moderation on YouTube

We uncover how YouTubers perceive moderation fairness on YouTube.

Renkai Ma, Yubo Kou

“How advertiser-friendly is my video?”: YouTuber’s Socioeconomic Interactions with Algorithmic Content Moderation

We uncover and discuss the socioeconomic implication of algorithmic content moderation on YouTube.

Renkai Ma, Yubo Kou

Recent News

One first-authored poster is accepted by CSCW 2022

Renkai Ma and Yubo Kou. 2022. “I am not a YouTuber who can make whatever video I want. I have to keep appeasing algorithms”: Bureaucracy of Creator Moderation on YouTube. In Companion Publication of the 2022 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW ’22 Companion), November 8–22, 2022, Virtual Event, Taiwan.

Renkai Ma

Aug 29, 2022 1 min read

Two first-authored papers are accepted by CSCW 2022

[1] Renkai Ma and Yubo Kou. 2022. “I’m not sure what difference is between their content and mine, other than the person itself”: A Study of Fairness Perception of Content Moderation on YouTube (CSCW' 2022)

Renkai Ma

Apr 1, 2022 1 min read

Projects

Mar 27, 2021

Online Community Moderation

A project I facilitate with the PI, Dr. Yubo Kou to understand how esports gamers experience punishments issued by moderation systems, how they reason about moderation mechanisms, and how they adjust their future behaviors.

Oct 20, 2020

Creator Moderation

A project I lead to investigate how creators like YouTubers, while performing profitable content creation on YouTube, experience algorithmic content moderation and handle various algorithmic impacts.

Skills

Semi-structured Interview

100%

R

95%

Statistics

95%

Cognitive walkthrough and Task analysis

90%

Questionnaires

85%

Data Visualization

85%

Text mining

75%

Web scrapping

70%

Python

70%