Assistant Professor msui@uab.edu
Heritage Hall 341
(205) 934-8915

Research and Teaching Interests: Digital and mobile news technology, gender and race in media, transnational political participation

Office Hours: By appointment

Education:

• B.A., Hunan University, China, Journalism & Mass Communication
• M.A., Hunan University, China, Science Communication
• Ph.D., Louisiana State University, Media & Public Affairs

Starting with an ambition to become a journalist that speaks up for the underrepresented groups in the society, I chose to major in journalism (with an emphasis on print media) during my undergraduate years. Yet news reporting is far from sufficient to get people’s voice heard. The many intended effects the mass media seek to achieve are contingent on a plethora of factors, including who the primary consumers are, in what situations they consume the information, how a message is presented in the media, and so on. In my pursuit of answers to these questions, I finally found my interest in media effects research and became a teacher-scholar in areas including diversity and difference in communication, digital and mobile news technology, and transnational political participation, etc.