Jingshi (Jessie) Kang is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Journalism, School of Communication at Hong Kong Baptist University. Prior to this position, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow at the same school.

She received her PhD from the School of Journalism at Fudan University and was jointly trained at Penn State through the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC) program. Her research lies at the intersection of the psychology of communication technology, human-machine communication, and health communication. Using mixed methods (e.g., experiments, digital trace data, and in-depth interviews), she examines how interactions with various emerging media (particularly AI applications) shape users’ psychological and behavioral outcomes.

More specifically, her recent research focuses on three areas:

1)    the effects of emerging features (e.g., infinite scrolling, AI reasoning) driven by different technological affordances on users’ psychological and behavioral outcomes, particularly in the contexts of information seeking and healthcare.

2)    The design of effective interventions at both the message and technological levels to promote balanced human-AI relationships and collaboration.

3)    Everyday media use (e.g., smartphones) among socially disadvantaged groups, with a critical focus on the relationships among users, technologies, and social power.

Her work has been published in interdisciplinary peer-reviewed journals, including New Media & Society, International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, and Annals of the International Communication Association. She received the Top Paper Award (as first author) from the Communication and Technology Division of the International Communication Association (ICA) in 2024 (Gold Coast). She has also been awarded the Chinese National Scholarship twice and was a recipient of the Outstanding Graduate Award at Fudan University. She serves as a reviewer for journals such as Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Health Communication, Annals of the International Communication Association, and Social Science Computer Review.

Research interests

Psychology of Communication Technology

Human-Machine Communication

Health Communication

Research and Publications

For a full list of publications and conference presentations, please visit her Google Scholar profile.