Q. (Qinfeng) Zhu, PhD

I am an Assistant Professor in the Center for Media and Journalism Studies at the University of Groningen (the Netherlands). Previously, I held the positions as Fulbright fellow at the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor, United States), visiting researcher at the Centre for E-Governance at the Danube University Krems (Austria), and Research Associate at the Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. I received my PhD degree from the City University of Hong Kong and Master's degree from the National University of Singapore. 

My research and teaching focuses on the social and political implications of digital media. I study how emerging technologies reconfigure citizens’ social relations and information environments, and its implications for citizen (dis)engagement and the functioning of democracy at large. My ongoing projects examine the political implications of disconnection on social media, 'safe spaces' in everyday political interactions, alternative media news consumptions, and misinformation resilience. Using quantitative, qualitative, and computational methods and often a cross-country comparative design, I seek to understand the 'what', 'why', and 'how' in various contexts, examine the implications for political participation, polarization and radicalization, and identitfy the underlying mechanisms and boundary conditions at both the individual and societal levels.

My work has been published in top journals in the fileds of political communication and media studies, such as Political Communication, New Media & Society, Mass Communication & Society, International Journal of Politics/Press, International Journal of Public Opinion Research, and American Behavioural Scientist. I have received grants and funds from the Fulbright Scholar Program, the Ernst Mach Grant (Funded by Eurasia-Pacific Uninet on behalf of the Austrian Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy), the University Grants Council (Hong Kong), and the National University of Singapore.