Biography
I am Bingbing Zhang (Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University), an Assistant Professor at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication (SJMC) at the University of Iowa. In 2026 I was awarded the Easton Achievement Award in Research from SJMC. I am also passionate about mentoring graduate and undergraduate students and was honored to receive the 2026 Distinguished Mentor Award from the University of Iowa for my dedication to mentor students in their research journeys.
My research areas include media effects, emerging technologies and journalism, political communication, health/science communication, and strategic communication. My current research examines how emerging technologies—particularly artificial intelligence—shape journalistic practices and news consumption, as well as the effects of AI-generated content (e.g., deepfakes) on people’s beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors, along with potential interventions (e.g., inoculation messages and AI-driven fact-checking) to address misinformation across political, health and science issues. My methodological expertise spans both quantitative and qualitative methods, including experiment, survey, interview, and focus group.
My lead-authored and/or co-authored work has been published in flagship journals, including Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, the International Journal of Press/Politics, Information, Communication & Society, International Journal of Advertising, Health Communication and Environmental Communication, among others. I have also garnered many top paper awards across divisions at ICA, AEJMC, and NCA and received several prestigious awards and external research grants.
For example, I was awarded an Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication grant and selected as a Page/Johnson Legacy Scholar in 2025 to examine transparency’s role in combating AI-generated misinformation. My co-authored paper examining cable news use and conspiracy mentality won the 2025 Outstanding Article published in Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly. I have received the Benjamin Bankson Fellowship in Multimedia Journalism to support my research on exploring the influence of emerging technology, specifically artificial intelligence on the journalism industry in the Global South. Additionally, I am currently a Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) on an NSF-funded project exploring ways to improve weather intelligence and localized climate change assessment and resilience in ag-based communities.