TOP
Dr. Céline Song Yunya
Prof. Celine Yunya Song

Professor
Director of the AI and Media Research Lab
Chair of the Research Postgraduate Studies Committee

(852) 3411 8151

Prof. Céline Yunya Song’s research cuts across global communication, social computing, computer-mediated networks, social media analytics, cyber-psychology and behaviour. Her scholarship has straddled English, French and Chinese cultures and media. She was a two-time recipient of the prestigious Fulbright award. Her research projects have been awarded a series of internal and external grants, including from the Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship Scheme, General Research Fund, Quality Education Fund, Public Policy Research Fund, as well as an external grant from Ryerson University, Canada, and CONVERGE COVID-19 Working Group Award, USA. She received the HKBU President’s Award for Outstanding Young Researchers in 2017 and HKBU’s Faculty/School/Academy of Visual Arts Performance Award for Scholarly Work in 2021. She was a visiting Fulbright scholar at Cornell University from 2019-2020.

Having studied at Nanjing University, Ecole Supérieure de Journalisme de Lille, Johns Hopkins University-Nanjing University Center for Chinese and American Studies, and University of California at Berkeley on a Fulbright scholarship, she obtained her Ph.D. from the City University of Hong Kong. Before pursuing her Ph.D. studies, she had taught at Nanjing University and reported on various domestic and international issues for several national media organizations including the China Daily and China Central Television. She is the editor of Communication & Society and the associate editor of Quality and Quantity, and Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia. She serves as the Award Chair of Chinese Communication Association (國際中華傳播學會) and the Mass Communication and Society Division of AEJMC. She is the director of the AI and Media Research Lab in the School of Communication.

Classes Taught

Social Media
Social Network Analysis
International Journalism
Both Statistical and Qualitative Modes of Research Methods
Media and Society

Research & Teaching Interests

Journalism Studies
Global Communication
Online Social Networks
Cyberpsychology and Behavior
Social Computing and Computational Social Science

Selected Publications
I. Selected Journal Articles
  • Song, Y., Lin, Q., Kwon, K. H., Choy, C.H.Y., & Xu, R. (accepted). Contagion of Offensive Speech Online: An Interactional Analysis of Political Swearing. Computers in Human Behavior. (SSCI)
  • Wang, X., Song, Y., & Su, Y. (accepted). Less Fragmented but Highly Centralized: A Bibliometric Analysis of Research in Computational Social Science. Social Science Computer Review. (SSCI)
  • Song, Y., Huang, Z., Schuldt, J. P., & Yuan, Y. C. (2021). National Prisms of a Global Phenomenon: A Comparative Study of Press Coverage of Climate Change in the US, UK and China. Journalism: Theory, practice and Criticism. https://doi.org/10.1177/1464884921989124 (SSCI)
  • Song, Y., Kwon, K. H., Lu, Y., Fan, Y., & Li, B. (2021). The “Parallel Pandemic” in the Context of China: The Spread of Rumors and Rumor-corrections during COVID-19 in Chinese Social Media. American Behavioral Scientist, 00027642211003153. (SSCI). 
  • Song, Y., Kwon, K. H., Xu, J., Huang, X., & Li, S. (2021). Curbing Profanity Online: A Network-Based Diffusion Analysis of Profane Speech on Chinese Social Media. New Media & Society, 23 (5), 982-1003. (SSCI)
  • Song, Y., Lee, C. C., & Huang, Z. (2021). The News Prism of Nationalism Versus Globalism: How Does the US, UK and Chinese Elite Press Cover ‘China’s Rise’?. Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, 22 (8), 2071-2090. (SSCI)
  • Xu, Q., Song, Y., Yu, N., & Chen, S. (2021). Are You Passing Along Something True or False? The Dissemination of Social Media Messages about Genetically Modified Organisms. Public Understanding of Science, 30(3), 285-301. (SSCI)
  • Chen, S., Zhou, L., Song, Y., …& Janies, D. (2020). Comparison of Viral COVID-19 Sina Weibo and Twitter Contents: a Novel Feature Extraction and Analytical Workflow. Journal of Medical Internet Research. (SSCI)
  • Wang, X. and Song, Y. (2020), “Viral misinformation and echo chambers: the diffusion of rumors about genetically modified organisms on social media”, Internet Research, 30(5), 1547-1564. (SSCI)
  • Li, Y. T., & Song, Y. (2020). Taiwan as Ghost Island? Ambivalent Articulation of Marginalized Identities in Computer-Mediated Discourses. Discourse & Society, 31(3), 285-306. (SSCI)
  • Ng, Y. L., Song, Y., Kwon, K. H., & Huang, Y. (2019). A Systematic Review and Meta-Synthesis of the Antecedents and Consequences of Online Incivility. Telematics and Informatics, 101323. (SSCI)
  • Schuldt, J. P., Yuan, Y. C., Song, Y., & Liu, K. (2019). Beliefs about Whose Beliefs? Second-Order Beliefs and Support for China’s Coal-to-Gas Policy. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 66, 101367. (SSCI)
  • Ku, K. Y. L., Kong, S. Q., Song, Y., Deng, L. P., Kang, Y., & Hu, A. (2019). What Predicts Adolescents’ Critical Thinking about Real-life News? The Roles of Social Media News Consumption and News Media Literacy. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 33, 100570. (SSCI)
  • Song, Y., & Xu, R. (2019). Affective Ties That Bind: Investigating the Affordances of Social Networking Sites for Commemoration of Traumatic Events. Social Science Computer Review, 37(3), 333-354. (SSCI)
  • Song, Y., & Lee, C.-C. (2019). ‘Collective Memories’ of Global Media Events: Anniversary Journalism of the Berlin Wall and Tiananmen Crackdown in the Anglo-American Elite Press, 1990–2014. Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism. 20 (11), 1460-1479. (SSCI)
  • Xu, Q., Yu, N., & Song, Y. (2018). User Engagement in Public Discourse on Genetically Modified Organisms: The Role of Opinion Leaders on Social Media. Science Communication, 40(6), 691-717. (SSCI)
  • Zeng, Y., & Song, Y. (2018). The Social Foreign Correspondent: Reconfiguring Journalistic Branding Research in the Age of Social Media, Popular Communication, 16(4), 293-308. (SSCI)
  • Song, Y., & Wu, Y. (2018). Tracking the Viral Spread of Incivility on Social Networking Sites: The Case of Cursing in Online Discussions of Hong Kong–Mainland China Conflict. Communication and the Public, 3(1), 46-61.
  • Song, Y., & Chang, T. K. (2017). Managing Impressions Online: Microblogs and the State Media’s Adaptation of Online Logics in China. Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism, 18(8), 1064-1081. (SSCI)
  • Song, Y., Lu, Y., Chang, T. K., & Huang, Y. (2017). Polls in an Authoritarian Space: Reporting and Representing Public Opinion in China. Asian Journal of Communication, 27(4), 339–356. (SSCI)
  • Song, Y., Dai, X.-Y., & Wang, J. (2016). Not All Emotions are Created Equal: Expressive Behavior of the Networked Public on China’s Social Media Site. Computers in Human Behavior, 60, 525-533. (SSCI)
  • Song, Y., & Lee, C.-C. (2016). Perceiving Different Chinas: Paradigm Change in the “Personalized Journalism” of Elite U.S. Journalists, 1976–1989. International Journal of Communication, 10, 4460–4479.(SSCI)
  • Song, Y., & Lee, C.-C. (2015). The Strategic Ritual of Irony: Post-Tiananmen China as seen through “Personalized Journalism” of Elite U.S. Correspondents. Media, Culture & Society, 37(8), 1176–1192.  (SSCI)
  • Song, Y., & Chang, T. K. (2014). A New World of Spectacle in the Post-cold War Era: China’s Central Television and Its Significant Other, 1992–2006. Public Relations Review, 42(3), 465–475. (SSCI)
  • Song, Y., & Lee, C.-C. (2014). Embedded Journalism: Constructing Romanticized Images of China by U.S. Journalists in the 1970s. Chinese Journal of Communication, 7(2), 174-190.  (SSCI)
  • Song, Y., & Chang, T. K. (2013). The News and Local Production of the Global: Regional Press Revisited in Post-WTO China. International Communication Gazette, 75(7), 619–635.  (SSCI)
  • Song, Y., & Chang, T. K. (2012). Legitimizing Ruptures of Development Trajectories: Party Press Discourse on Rural Society in Transitional China (1997-2006). International Journal of Press/Politics, 17, 316–340.  (SSCI)
  • Song, Y. (2012). Shifting Journalistic Paradigms of American Correspondents on Contemporary China: The Case of Orville Schell. Public Relations Review, 38(5), 796–798.  (SSCI)
  • Song, Y., & Chang, T. K. (2011). Selecting Daily Newspapers for Content Analysis in China. Journalism Studies, 13, 356–369.  (SSCI)

II. Books

  • Huang, Y. & Song, Y. (Eds.) (2018). The Evolving Landscapes of Media and Communications in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong Press.
  • Xiao, X., Huang, Y. H. C., & Song, Y. (Eds.) (2016). Communication & Society in Perspective. Hong Kong: Chinese University of Hong Kong Press. (in Chinese)
  • Song, Y., & Wang, L. (2010). Media in American Politics: Contents and Consequences, 2nd Edition (Translation). By David Paletz. Nanjing: Nanjing University Press.

III. Selected Book Chapter

  • Zhang, K., & Song, Y. (2018). Social Media Use in Hong Kong. In Y. Huang & Y. Song (eds.) The Evolving Landscapes of Media and Communications in Hong Kong. Hong Kong: City University of Hong Kong Press.
  • Song, Y., Lu, Y., & Chang, T. K. (2016). CCTV 24-Hour Chinese-Language News: From Offline to Online. In: Sambrook, R. & Cushion, S. eds., The Future of 24-Hour News: New Directions, New Challenges. New York: Peter Lang.
  • Song, Y. (2015). Decoding Chinese Media in Flux: American Correspondents as Interpretive Community. In: Rawnsley, G. & Rawnsley, M., ed., Routledge Handbook of Chinese Media. London: Routledge.
IV. Selected Conference Papers
  • Fighting Misinformation on Social Media: The Roles of Evidence Type and Presentation Mode, accepted for presentation at AEJMC 2021.
  • The “Parallel Pandemic” in the Context of China: The Spread of Rumors and Rumor-corrections during COVID-19 in Chinese Social Media, accepted for presentation at ICA 2021.
  • Localization as Negotiation: Practicing Solutions Journalism in Hong Kong, accepted for presentation at ICA 2021.
  • Different Dimensions of Fairness Concern in Climate Change Discourse on Twitter, accepted for presentation at ICA 2021.
  • A Dual System Theory Approach: What Shapes Pro- and Anti-Social Behavior in an Online Discussion Forum, accepted for presentation at AEJMC 2020.  
  • How Rational and Emotional Expression Intertwine? Exploring Public Discussion of China’s Vaccine-Scandal Event on Weibo, accepted for presentation at AEJMC 2020.  
  • National Prisms of a Global Phenomenon: A Comparative Study of Press Coverage of Climate Change in the US, UK and China, accepted for presentation at AEJMC 2020. 
  • Are You Passing Along Something True or False? Dissemination of GMO Messages on Social Media, accepted for presentation at AEJMC 2020. 
  • The Mechanisms of Profanity Diffusion in Online Discussion: The Context of Hong Kong”. In 2020 International Communication Association Annual Convention. (ICA Mass Communication Division’s Top Faculty Paper Award).
  • Oasis: Online Analytic System for Incivility Detection and Sentiment Classification. In 2019 International Conference on Data Mining Workshops (ICDMW) (pp. 1098-1101). IEEE.
  • PP-DBLP: Modeling and Generating Attributed Public-Private Networks with DBLP. In 2018 IEEE International Conference on Data Mining Workshops (ICDMW) (pp. 986-989). IEEE.
  • What Can Software Tell Us About Media Coverage and Public Opinion? An Analysis of Political News Posts and Audience Comments on Facebook by Computerised Method. In International Conference on Social Informatics (pp. 230-241). Springer, Cham.
  • Virality of Swearing Utterance Online: The Case of Mainland-Hong Kong Controversial Issue on Weibo, accepted for presentation at ICA 2018.
  • Social Features of Online Discussion Networks: Exploring the Formation of the Cyber-crowd in Chinese Social Media, accepted for presentation at SocInfo Annual Convention.
  • An Interdisciplinary Approach to Studying Hong Kong News Organizations’ Facebook Sites, accepted for presentation at the SMP 2016 Conference.
  • Emotion Homophily in Online Discussion Networks: A Networked Approach to Studying the Expressive Behaviors of Social Media Users in China, accepted for presentation at the INSNA 2016 Sunbelt conference.
  • Political and Media Systems Matter: U.S., Chinese and British Press Coverage of China’s Rise, 2008-2014, accepted for presentation at ICA 2016.
  • Inferring Latent Co-activation Patterns for Information Diffusion, accepted for presentation at the 2015 IEEE/WIC/ACM International Conference on Web Intelligence and Intelligent Agent Technology.
  • A Synthetic Approach for Recommendation: Combining Ratings, Social Relations, and Reviews, accepted for presentation at IJCAI 2015 (International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence).
  • Participatory Journalism in an Authoritarian Space: How Chinese Media Use Opinion Polls Online and Offline, accepted for presentation at ICA 2015.
  • Anniversary Coverage of Tiananmen and the Berlin Wall in UK and U.S. Press, 1990-2013, accepted for presentation at ICA 2015.
  • A New World of Spectacle: China’s Central Television and Its Significant Other, 1992-2006, accepted for presentation at ICA 2013.
  • The Heroic Journalist: Memoirs of First-Wave U.S. Correspondents in Post-Mao China, accepted for presentation at AEJMC 2012.
  • Framing China under Global Financial Crisis: Projection of Power in U.S. Elite Media Discourse accepted for presentation at ICA 2010.
  • Selecting Daily Newspapers in China for Content Analysis: A Comparison of Sampling Methods and Sample Sizes, accepted for presentation at AEJMC 2010.
  • Legitimizing Ruptures of Development Trajectories: Party Press Discourse on Rural Society in Transitional China (1997-2006), accepted for presentation at ICA 2009.
Selected Grants
  • Humanities and Social Sciences Prestigious Fellowship Scheme (HSSPFS), Research Grants Council of Hong Kong: “Networked Framing in the Age of Hybrid Media” (Role: Principal Investigator)
  • Policy Research Funding Scheme (PPR), HKSAR Policy Innovation and Coordination Office: “Building Resilience to Information Disorder in Hong Kong: An Investigation of Rumor Exposure and Dissemination in Times of Public Crisis” (Role: Principal Investigator)
  • General Research Fund (GRF), Research Grants Council of Hong Kong: “Mapping the Status of Political Incivility in Hong Kong’s Digital Space” (Role: Principal Investigator)
  • Fulbright Senior Scholar Programme, Research Grants Council of Hong Kong: “Tracking Online Public Views of Climate Change in China and the U.S.” (Role: Principal Investigator)
  • Quality Education Fund (QEF), Education Bureau: “Promoting Smart and Positive News Engagement: News Literacy Education in the Digital Age” (Role: Co-Investigator)
  • General Research Fund (GRF), Research Grants Council of Hong Kong: “Gauging Public Sentiment and Mutual Misperception through Online Discussion Forums” (Role: Principal Investigator)
  • Policy Research Funding Scheme (PPR), HKSAR Policy Innovation and Coordination Office: “Investigating Hong Kong Students’ Critical News Literacy in the Age of Social Media” (Role: Co-Investigator)
  • General Research Fund (GRF), Research Grants Council of Hong Kong: “Framing the Rise of China: How States, Markets, and Globalization Shape Foreign News in the U.S., French and British Press” (Role: Principal Investigator)
  • Faculty Research Grant (FRG), Hong Kong Baptist University: “Audience Interactivity in A Social-Media Era: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Studying Hong Kong News Organizations’ Facebook Sites” (Role: Principal Investigator)
  • Faculty Research Grant (FRG), Hong Kong Baptist University: “Microblogging the Food Safety: How People Engage with Social Media to Support Health Information Needs in Hong Kong, Taiwan and Mainland China?” (Role: Principal Investigator)