Kristen Jing Zhang

Kristen Jing Zhang

About Me

My name is Jing (Kristen) Zhang. I am a Ph.D. student in the Department of Communication and Media at the University of Michigan. I completed my Bachelor’s degree from the School of Journalism at Fudan University and my Master’s degree from the Department of Communication Studies at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

My research primarily centers around communication technology, science communication, and media effects from the perspective of media psychology. Specifically, I use survey and experimental studies to investigate:

a) How emerging technologies and narratives bring new opportunities and challenges to controversial science topics.

b) How people perceive the connection between extreme weather and anthropogenic climate change from news and social media.

c) How technical affordances influence human behaviors such as media consumption and engagement in the context of science/entertainment.

My research has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Communication, Telematics and Informatics. My research has received one top paper award from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

🔥 News

  • [Aug. 2025] I am elected as the Graduate Student Representative in the Department of Communication and Media at the University of Michigan! Happy to serve all the graduate students in our department.
  • [Jul. 2025] I received the ISR-Rackham Summer Training Award at the University of Michigan. Will be funded to receive training on advanced quantitative methods at the ICPSR in July. Welcome to connect with me in Ann Arbor!
  • [May. 2025] Two papers are accepted to AEJMC 2025. I’ll present my paper in the CommSHER division and the Comm Technology division. One paper won the second-place top research paper award at the CommSHER division! See you in San Francisco this August!
  • [Aug. 2024] I am joining the Department of Communication and Media at the University of Michigan as a Ph.D. student.
  • [Jun. 2024] I am presenting our research report about the media ownership and concentration in China from 2019 to 2021 on Global Media and Internet Concentration Project with Dr. Min Jiang and Xiaofei Han at the 74th ICA.
  • [May. 2024] I graduated with my Master’s degree in Communication Studies from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
  • [Apr. 2024] 🎉 Our paper titled Addressing Whiteness in communication scholar composition and collaboration across Seven Decades of ICA journals (1951–2022) has been accepted to be published in Journal of Communication. [doi]
  • [Mar. 2024] 🎉 Our research report titled Communications, media and internet concentration in China, 2019-2021 has been published. The dataset can also be accessed. [doi]
  • [Nov. 2023] 🎉 Our paper titled Why do Chinese people consume video game live streaming on the platform? An exploratory study linking affordance-based gratifications, user identification, and user engagement has been accepted to be publishd in *Telematics and Informatics. [doi]

📝 Publications

Journal Articles

  • [2](2024) Addressing whiteness in communication scholar composition and collaboration across seven decades of ICA journals (1951-2022).
    Haley R Hatfield, Hongtao Hao, Matthew Klein, Jing Zhang, Yijie Fu, Jaemin Kim, Jongmin Lee, and Sun Joo (Grace) Ahn
    Published in Journal of Communication.
    [doi]|[Data]|[Code]

  • [1](2023) Why do Chinese people consume video game live streaming on the platform? An exploratory study connecting affordance-based gratifications, user identification, and user engagement.
    Jing (Kristen) Zhang, Riwei Liu
    Published in Telematics and Informatics.
    [doi]

Research Reports

📖 Teaching Experiences

Graduate Student Instructor

  • 2025 Fall GSI for COMM343: Public Relations - Principles and Practices at the University of Michigan.

Teaching Assistant

  • 2023 Fall and 2024 SPRING Teaching Assistant for COMM2100: Introduction to Communication Theory at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. [Course Website]
  • 2023 SPRING Teaching Assistant for COMM3100: Communication Research Methods at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
  • 2022 FALL Teaching Assistant for COMM1101: Public Speaking at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
  • 2020 SPRING Teaching Assistant for JOUR120008: Introduction to Journalism Studies at Fudan University.