Wesley Wang

Wesley Wang

PhD Student in Sociology and Gerontology

Publications

You can also find my articles on my Google Scholar profile.

Journal Articles

‘Hopefully this will be a wake-up call on how we treat migrant workers’: National wokeness in press reports during the Covid-19 pandemic

Published in Discourse and Society, 2025

This study examines how Singapore’s flagship newspaper, The Straits Times (ST), framed relationships between migrant workers (MWs) and non-state actors (NGOs, companies and individuals) during the Covid-19 pandemic. We propose the conceptual lens of national wokeness as a mediatisation strategy of positive self-presentation to overcome international criticisms concerning the outbreak of the Covid-19 virus amidst neglected MW dormitories, and to repair the nation’s reputational damage. The study identifies five key discursive themes: Provision, Participation, Awareness, Inclusiveness and Humanisation; the analysis of which shows different shades of wokeness in narrativising Singaporeans’ emergent social consciousness and benevolent efforts to address unmet health and social needs arising from the marginalised status of MWs in Singapore. This study shows how the pandemic offered a rare moment for a nation to pause and potentially reset its apathetic, racist and classist attitudes towards its MWs, and raises for reflection Singaporeans’ longer-term commitment to social change concerning MWs’ welfare after the pandemic passes.

Recommended citation: Lazar, M. M., Wang, W., & Tham, A. (2025). ‘Hopefully this will be a wake-up call on how we treat migrant workers’: National wokeness in press reports during the Covid-19 pandemic. Discourse & Society, 0(0). https://doi.org/10.1177/09579265241313061.

Restoration of positive self-image: Ideological circles in the mediatization of government-migrant worker relations during Covid 19

Published in Discourse & Communication, 2023

This article focuses on migrant workers (MWs) during Covid-19 in Singapore. A second wave of Covid-19 transmissions in MW dormitories in 2020 had cast a spotlight on this vulnerable population, amidst inter/national criticisms of the national government for oversight. From a critical discourse studies perspective, we examine how the national newspaper attempted to restore a positive self-image of the Singapore government, through the discursive mobilization of ‘ideological circles’. These ideological circles involve, variously, positive and negative discursive presentational strategies of the Singapore government, its MWs, selected regional governments, and their MWs. The study unpacks the ideological mechanisms at work in the restoration of the government’s reputation as well as examines the implications for MWs in Singapore as perpetual ‘others’.

Recommended citation: Lazar, M. M., Tham, A., & Wang, W. (2023). Restoration of positive self-image: Ideological circles in the mediatization of government-migrant worker relations during Covid 19. Discourse & Communication, 18(2), 244-265. https://doi.org/10.1177/17504813231205823 (Original work published 2024)