Press Kit
Media resources and project information for journalists and media professionals
Project Summaries
200-Word Summary
Silent Forums Initiative (SFI) is a digital media research project founded at King's College London that documents and amplifies conversations from underrepresented online communities. We map discussions from rural forums, regional boards, and local spaces that typically fall outside mainstream data collection. Using ethical data collection and NLP analysis, we identify themes like food security, education access, and local governance across 450+ forum nodes in 12+ regions. Our interactive visualization platform makes these marginalized digital voices accessible to researchers, journalists, and policymakers, challenging algorithmic bias and ensuring diverse perspectives shape our understanding of the digital age.
500-Word Summary
Silent Forums Initiative (SFI) is a student-led digital media research project founded at King's College London that addresses a critical gap in digital discourse: the systematic invisibility of marginalized online communities. While mainstream platforms and media focus on viral, universal content, countless conversations in rural forums, diaspora spaces, and local community boards go undocumented and unanalyzed. Founded in October 2025 by digital media researcher Hongjin Guo (Hunter), SFI employs a three-stage methodology combining ethical data collection, natural language processing, and interactive visualization. We gather publicly accessible posts from niche community forums and subreddits in underrepresented regions, using protocols that respect community guidelines and protect individual privacy through anonymization. Our NLP analysis, powered by GPT-based semantic clustering, has identified 28 thematic clusters across 450+ forum nodes spanning 12+ regions on three continents. These themes include food security strategies, education access barriers, local governance discussions, community resilience patterns, migration experiences, healthcare navigation, and informal economy practices—topics that reflect locally specific concerns often invisible to national discourse. The project's interactive Map of Ignored Conversations transforms these findings into an accessible visualization where each node represents a digital community, revealing connections and patterns invisible to traditional media. This tool serves researchers studying digital anthropology and platform studies, journalists seeking authentic community voices, policymakers requiring ground-level insights, and educators teaching digital methods. SFI maintains strict ethical standards: all content is anonymized, personally identifying information is redacted, and we provide takedown mechanisms for communities wishing to withdraw. We publish aggregated data, thematic analyses, and policy briefs rather than raw posts, prioritizing community agency over data persistence. The initiative challenges the assumption that digital visibility equals digital importance. By preserving and amplifying these conversations, SFI ensures that marginalized communities' digital narratives contribute to academic research, policy formation, and public understanding of our increasingly connected world.
Visual Assets
High-resolution logos and visual assets are available upon request for approved media use. Please contact our media team to request access to our complete visual asset library.
Request Media AssetsTeam Photos
High-resolution photos of core team members available upon request
Media Contact
Hongjin Guo (Hunter)
Project Lead & Founder
King's College London, Digital Media & Culture
Media Coverage
Press coverage coming soon as the project launches publicly
Check back for updates on media mentions and press coverage
Last Updated: November 2025