Studying weChat official accounts with novel ‘backend-in’ and ‘traceback’ methods: Walking through platforms back-to-front and past-to-present Yang, F, Heemsbergen, Luke and Marshall, PD 2022, Studying weChat official accounts with novel ‘backend-in’ and ‘traceback’ methods: Walking through platforms back-to-front and past-to-present, Media International Australia, doi: 10.1177/1329878X221088052. Title Studying weChat official accounts with novel ‘backend-in’ and ‘traceback’ methods: Walking through platforms back-to-front and past-to-present Author(s) Yang, F Heemsbergen, Luke orcid.org/0000-0001-8600-5280 Marshall, PD Journal name Media International Australia Article ID ARTN 1329878X221088052 Total pages 16 Publisher SAGE PUBLICATIONS LTD Publication date 2022-01-01 ISSN 1329-878X 2200-467X Keyword(s) Social Sciences Communication WeChat backend-in method traceback method walkthrough platform governance online ethnography SCROLLING BACK MEDIA ETHNOGRAPHY Summary The paper presents a methodology to understand WeChat Official Accounts (WOAs) from their backend to their frontend, and from tracing the platform's history to its present. Our ‘Backend-in method’ proposes to study platform governance in the meso – between macro political economic concerns and the micro (and usually mobile) user-interface mediation. It shows how including backend platform media practices deepen ethnographic understandings of platform use. The ‘Traceback method’ uses researcher-informant collaboration to document and reflect on the shifts of platform affordances that have reconfigured media practices, organisational structures, and economic incentives over time. We show how these methods proved useful in mapping Chinese-Australian media organisations’ deployment of WOAs for news production. Together these methods contribute ways to understand previously hidden aspects of media practice and platform governance in a novel methodological design, which may have wider application for future research. Language eng DOI 10.1177/1329878X221088052 Indigenous content off Field of Research 16 Studies in Human Society 19 Studies in Creative Arts and Writing 20 Language, Communication and Culture Persistent URL http://hdl.handle.net/10536/DRO/DU:30166569 Document type: Journal Article Collections: Faculty of Arts and Education School of Communication and Creative Arts Related Links Link Description Connect to published version Go to link with your DU access privileges   Author URL Go to link with your DU access privileges   Connect to Elements publication management system Go to link with your DU access privileges     Unless expressly stated otherwise, the copyright for items in DRO is owned by the author, with all rights reserved. Versions Version Filter Type Fri, 08 Apr 2022, 08:50:57 EST Mon, 11 Apr 2022, 15:46:33 EST Thu, 28 Apr 2022, 06:04:19 EST Sun, 01 May 2022, 19:12:18 EST Mon, 02 May 2022, 14:05:55 EST Filtered Full Citation counts:   Cited 0 times in TR Web of Science Cited 0 times in Scopus Search Google Scholar Access Statistics: 13 Abstract Views  -  Detailed Statistics Created: Fri, 08 Apr 2022, 08:50:57 EST