Jingsi Christina Wu

Associate Professor of Journalism, Media Studies, and Public Relations Hofstra University

  • Hempstead NY

Media studies scholar Jingsi Wu focuses her research on the crossroads of entertainment media, politics, civic engagement, and culture.

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Hofstra University

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Biography

Dr. Wu received her PhD from the joint program of Sociology and Communication at SUNY Albany, and her research focuses on the crossroads of popular culture, politics, new media, and civic engagement. Her dissertation—"Entertainment and the Public Sphere: The Convergence of Popular Culture and Politics in China's Public Sphere and Cyberspace"—won the University Distinguished Doctoral Dissertation Award in any field in the College of Arts and Science at SUNY Albany. She uses a variety of perspectives and research approaches from media studies, cultural sociology, and political communication to study the convergence of popular culture and politics, how entertainment experiences contribute to civic engagement, how people behave in new media environments (such as massive multi-player online games), and how citizens use social media to connect with others and organize their civic voices. Interested in both the U.S. media and the mass media in China, where Dr. Wu is from, she is also delving into cross-cultural comparisons. Dr. Wu has shared her diverse research interests in many conference presentations, peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. Her 2017 book, Entertainment and Politics in Contemporary China, published with Palgrave Macmillan, is a research monograph that investigates the deep linkage between the popular media and civic discourses. An earlier prospectus of the book won an AEJMC Emerging Scholars Program Research Grant as one of four national recipients in 2013. The book also won the Hofstra University Lawrence A. Stessin Prize for Outstanding Scholarly Publication in 2018. Transferring her scholarly expertise into the classroom, Dr. Wu teaches a wide variety of courses in media literacy, media and politics, media technologies and public policy, and global media. Dr. Wu was honored as the School's "Distinguished Teacher of the Year" in May 2019. Having served as a research fellow on a federally funded project that examines behaviors in massive multi-player online games, Dr. Wu is also a faculty fellow at the Center for Cultural Sociology at Yale University.

Industry Expertise

Writing and Editing
Research
Education/Learning
Media - Online

Areas of Expertise

Media Studies
Political Communication and Social Media
Chinese Media
Cultural Sociology
Game Studies
New Technology and Society

Education

SUNY Albany

Ph.D.

Sociology and Communication

2012

SUNY Albany

M.A.

2008

Zhejiang University

B.A.

2005

Languages

  • Chinese

Media Appearances

Feng shui home designs on LI: Living the positive way

Newsday  print

2020-04-08

Jingsi Christina Wu, PhD, associate professor of media studies in the Lawrence Herbert School of Communication, was interviewed for a Newsday article about feng shui, the ancient Chinese art of enhancing energy and flow in one’s home and environment. She noted that elements of feng shui were believed not only to bring good luck, but were also rooted in practical architectural design.

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When Marketing in One Country Backfires Abroad

Bloomberg News  

2017-03-31

Apple didn’t respond to my question about why that’s the case. But my colleague Jingsi Christina Wu, a professor of media studies at Hofstra University, said the Chinese government probably didn’t approve of the (PRODUCT)RED message. Although HIV/AIDS is a major public health challenge for China, she said the government doesn’t generally like to acknowledge it openly. Part of the problem is its association with homosexuality and sexually transmitted diseases in general — subjects the government still considers somewhat taboo. According to Human Rights Watch, the country has threatened and suppressed the work of HIV activists...

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This Is Why China's Online Shoppers Can't See That the Iphone Is Red to Help Fight HIV/AIDS

Mashable  

2017-03-22

"It is a big public health and social issue," said Hofstra University Asst. Professor Christina Wu, Ph.D., an expert on Chinese culture and society. In recent years, local charities and organizations have made progress in addressing the HIV/AIDs epidemic there. But, said Dr. Wu, " Officially and politically the government still has a very cautious approach."...

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Research Focus

Topics of interest:

Dr. Wu's research explores the intersection of entertainment media, politics, civic engagement, and culture.

She is the author of the forthcoming book, "Entertainment and Politics in Contemporary China" (Palgrave Macmillan, September 2017).

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Research Grants

Emerging Scholar

Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication

2013

Awarded grant to develop her manuscript for "Entertainment Media and Politics in Contemporary China."

"Interracial Communication, or Its Lack of, in Post-racial America”

Hofstra University

2017-05-07

In this project, Dr. Wu investigates interracial communications, especially that between Chinese Americans and mainstream political discourses during and following the 2016 presidential election. With Barack Obama’s successful election in 2008 and re-election in 2012, “post-racial America” became a buzzword and diversity seemed to have achieved its landmark victory. However, Dr. Wu argues that disconnects in America’s racial discourses and interracial communications continue to exist and came to stark display during the divisive presidential election of 2016.

Articles

Aesthetic Public Sphere: A Cultural Revision of the Normative Public Sphere Theory

Presented at the 2017 International Communication Association pre-conference

Normative theory revolves around implicit or explicit notions about the role of the media, especially in functioning democracies. Dr. Wu discusses research from her upcoming book, "Entertainment and Politics in Contemporary China," and the cultural revision that an Aesthetic Public Sphere theory introduces to normative theories about media and democracy.

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The Strategic Female: Gender-Switching and Player Behavior in Online Games

Information, Communication and Society

2014

As players craft and enact identities in digital games, the relationship between player and avatar gender remains unclear. This study examines how 11 in-game chat, movement, and appearance behaviors differed by gender and by men who did and did not use a female avatar – or ‘gender-switchers’. Drawing on social role and feminist theories of ...

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Expanding Civic Engagement in China: Super Girl and Entertainment-Based Online Community

Information, Communication and Society

2012

This article pursues a context-rich understanding of how digital media offer unique opportunities for citizens residing in mainland China to participate in civic engagement and organize their civic values. While the Chinese state authority keeps a heavy hand in any form of media, old or new, for use of overt political expressions, I provide empirical ...

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