Welcome! I am Xinzhi Zhang, an Associate Professor with tenure in the Department of Media and Communication (COM) at the City University of Hong Kong (CityUHK).

My research areas include digital journalism, political communication, public health campaigns, and AI policy and regulation. My research aims to advance two lines of intellectual inquiry: (1) how people receive, process, and engage with information on politics and health via digital media and (2) how digital technologies (especially Generative AI and social media) change how news is produced and delivered. I also devote myself to computational social science, using digital data and computational methods for theory-driven human communication research. My research aims to empower ordinary citizens with deliberative dialogues, and help governmental institutions and policymakers, news organizations, technology companies, and start-ups design and evaluate communication campaigns and policies via evidence-based interventions to reduce bias, inequalities, and miscommunication. My research profile is on Google Scholar.

I have published more than 40 peer-reviewed articles in top-tier journals such as Human Communication Research, Journal of Communication, Social Media + Society, Journalism, Social Science Computer Review, Health Communication, and Digital Journalism. I won top paper awards from the International Communication Association (ICA) and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC). [Here is my publication list]

My research has been funded by the General Research Fund (GRF) by the University Grants Committee (UGC), the Hong Kong SAR, a prestigious internationally competitive funding scheme, and the Public Policy Research Funding Scheme (PPR) by the then Policy Innovation and Co-ordination Office (PICO) of the Hong Kong SAR Government. [Here are my funded research projects]

Before joining CityU, I was an Associate Professor with tenure in the Department of Journalism and the Department of Interactive Media in the School of Communication at the Hong Kong Baptist University and the founding Programme Director (2019 - 23) of Master of Science (MSc) in AI and Digital Media, the first postgraduate programme in Hong Kong focusing on AI technologies and their applications in digital media, human communication, and innovation for entrepreneurship.

I am the Editorial Board Member of Human Communication Research, Digital Journalism and Chinese Journal of Communication.

I obtained Ph.D. in Media and Communication (2013) and an M.A. with Distinction in Communication and New Media (2009) from the Department of Media and Communication at City University of Hong Kong. I have been a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Communication at University of California, Davis in fall 2022.

[Updated: Sep 2024]