ORCID iD: 0000-0003-3479-9327
Scopus Author ID: 55330999000
Google Scholar Profile: iOFeIDIAAAAJ

Metrics for Academic and Research Impact

I am an Associate Professor and Director of Research in the Department of Media and Communication at the City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK).  My research focuses on digital journalism, political communication, AI policy and global governance, and computational social science. I study how emerging technologies, particularly Generative AI and online platforms, are transforming news production and dissemination, as well as how technology-mediated communication influences citizens’ public engagement and government policymaking. My research seeks to empower citizens by fostering informed and deliberative conversations, and supporting government institutions, news organizations, and technology companies in crafting communication campaigns and intervention policies. 

My research has been supported by several internationally competitive funding schemes, including the General Research Fund (GRF) by the Research Grants Council (RGC) of Hong Kong SAR, and the Public Policy Research Funding Scheme (PPR) from the Hong Kong Government. I have published more than 50 peer-reviewed research articles in leading journals such as Human Communication Research, Journal of Communication, Social Media + Society, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, International Journal of Press/Politics, Information Communication & Society, and Digital Journalism. My contributions have been recognized with Best Paper Awards from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) and the International Communication Association (ICA). 

Before joining CityUHK in 2024, I was a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Journalism and the Department of Interactive Media at Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU), where I founded the Master of Science (MSc) in AI and Digital Media, a pioneering postgraduate program of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region, sponsored under the University Grants Committee’s (UGC) Targeted Taught Postgraduate Programmes Fellowships Scheme. I also spearheaded the establishment of Hong Kong’s first data journalism undergraduate program, the Data and Media Communication Concentration, in collaboration with faculty from Journalism and Computer Science. I was a visiting scholar at the Department of Communication of the University of California at Davis in the US in 2022. 

I currently serve on the Editorial Boards of four top communication journals, i.e., Human Communication Research, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Digital Journalism, and Chinese Journal of Communication. 

I am looking for PhD students and Research Assistants. Please refer to the [Position(s) Available] section for more details. 

• 2024 – 2026. Co-Investigator (Co-I), General Research Fund (GRF), the Research Grants Council (RGC), Hong Kong SAR. How Does Censorship Drive Conspiratorial Beliefs? The Roles of Information Uncertainty and Motivated Reasoning. [411,855 HKD]. On-going.
• 2021 – 2022. Principal Investigator (PI), Public Policy Research Funding Scheme (PPR) of the Government of the Hong Kong SAR, Hong Kong Media’s Coverage of Political Polarization and its Effects on People’s Political Attitudes and Behaviors. [356,972 HKD]. Completed.
• 2020 - 2023. Co-Investigator (Co-I). The Interdisciplinary Research Clusters Matching Scheme (IRCMS) by the University Research Clusters, Hong Kong Baptist University. Engaging the Audience with AI-powered News Chatbots: Developing and Evaluating a Critiquing-oriented Conversational Recommender System for Digital News. [937,500 HKD]. Completed.
• 2020 – 2022. Principal Investigator (PI), General Research Fund (GRF), the Research Grants Council (RGC), Hong Kong SAR. Why Fact-Checking Fails? Factors Influencing the Effectiveness of Corrective Messages Countering Misinformation on Social Media: A Comparison of Hong Kong, the United States, and the Netherlands. [408,256 HKD]. Completed.
• 2019 – 2021. Principal Investigator (PI). General Research Fund (GRF), the Research Grants Council (RGC), Hong Kong SAR. The Making and Unmaking of the Public Sphere: Outcomes of Political Disagreement, Expression Avoidance, and a Filtered Information Repertoire. [445,520 HKD] Completed.

I am looking for PhD students to work on digital journalism, political communication, and the social impacts of tech-enhanced human communication (especially content production and dissemination involving GenAI and social media platforms), using experimental design and computational methods. 

I have supervised eight postgraduate students (as the capstone project supervisor) and four research students, since 2018. Most of them are now continuing doctoral studies (in Hong Kong, Europe, and the US) or working as full-time university faculty members in Hong Kong or mainland China. The students under my supervision have won best paper awards at ICA, presented their papers at major international conferences in media and communication, and published papers in top internationally peer-reviewed journals.  

If you are interested in working under my principal supervision, please email me your CV. You are welcome to apply for the Hong Kong PhD Fellowship Scheme (HKPFS) under my supervision in the 2026/27 entry.   

• Digital journalism
• Political communication
• Computational social science
• The politics of public health 
• Technology and global governance 
• Comparative media studies

• Member, College Research Committee (CRC), College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (CLASS), City University of Hong Kong 
• Director of Research, Department of Media and Communication (COM), City University of Hong Kong