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

My expertise includes digital journalism, political communication, and computational social science. I study the psychological, political, and institutional consequences of automated decision-making systems and generative AI, especially how citizens, news organizations, and public institutions leverage digital platforms and AI agents across news production, public deliberation, and policymaking. My work seeks to inform communication policy and interventions that advance responsible media innovation while safeguarding epistemic integrity. My research profile is on Google Scholar.

I have authored 60+ peer-reviewed articles in top journals such as Communication Research, Journal of Communication, Human Communication Research, Digital Journalism, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Information Communication & Society, Social Media + Society, and International Journal of Press/Politics. Here is my publication list.

I have been awarded five grants by the Hong Kong Research Grants Council (RGC), including four General Research Fund (GRF) and one Collaborative Research Fund (CRF, Co-PI), as well as one grant from the Public Policy Research Funding Scheme (PPR) of the Hong Kong SAR Government, totaling more than US$1 million. Here are my funded research projects.

Before joining CityUHK in 2024, I was an Associate Professor with tenure in the School of Communication at the Hong Kong Baptist University (HKBU) and the founding Programme Director (2019) of Master of Science in AI and Digital Media, a pioneering postgraduate program of its kind in the Asia-Pacific region. I received the HKBU Award for Outstanding Young Researchers (2021) and the HKBU Award for Outstanding Performance in Teaching (2022).

I currently serve on the Editorial Boards of five top journals in media and communication, i.e., Communication Research, Human Communication Research, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Digital Journalism, and Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media. I was a guest editor for Global Media and China. Currently, I am the Lead Guest Editor of a forthcoming special issue on LLM Sycophancy and Journalism for Digital Journalism.

I actively contribute as a columnist to major media outlets, including Radio Television Hong Kong (RTHK), Hong Kong Economic Journal, and FTChinese (the Chinese edition of the Financial Times (UK)).

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 was a Visiting Scholar at the Department of Communication at University of California, Davis in 2022.

(updated: Sep 2026)