Yuan Zhang

Associate Professor

Yuan Zhang teaches Writing for the Media as a COMM major core course, as well as required courses in the Journalism Concentration including Journalism I, Journalism and Society, Broadcast Journalism, and Multimedia Journalism. Before joining the academia, she was an award-winning journalist, news anchor, and editor for CCTV News at China Central Television, China’s largest broadcast TV network. Her professional experience also includes reporting and writing for China Daily, China’s largest English-language daily newspaper, doing public relations work for the Asian Games, and teaching English to underserved students in rural China.

Yuan’s research interests are primarily in the areas of mental health communication, international communication, and new media studies, with a focus on health message framing content and effects in myriad cultural and media contexts. Her work has been published in peer-reviewed venues such as Asian Journal of Communication, Athens Journal of Mass Media and Communications, Communication Studies, Electronic Journal of Communication, Health Communication, Journal of Applied Communication Research, Journal of Healthcare Communications, Journal of International Communication, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Public Relations Review, and Zhejiang Journal of Communication, among others.

Yuan is passionate about assisting students in their academic and professional pursuits. Over the years, she has worked with numerous students on independent studies, theses and dissertations, and collaborative research projects. She has helped many students obtain scholarships, internships, graduate fellowships, industry and academic jobs, as well as international career opportunities. She encourages and welcomes interested students to explore these opportunities with her.

• Yuan Zhang holds a B.A. in English from the Beijing Foreign Studies University, an M.A. in Broadcast Journalism from the Communication University of China, an M.A. in Communication from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, and a Ph.D. in Mass Communication from the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.