Weile (Wendy) Zhou

Bio

Wendy Weile Zhou is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Digital Technology for Democracy Lab at the University of Virginia and a Faculty Associate at the Public Tech Media Lab at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.

As a critical-cultural scholar, she studies digital public spheres and transnational journalism industries amid AI development and geopolitical turbulence, with a focus on Chinese and American contexts. Her current research examines AI adoption in newsrooms, the practices and career trajectories of transnational journalists, and identity-making and information circulation patterns among diaspora publics and international students.

As a freelance writer, editor, and researcher, Wendy has contributed to nonprofits and media outlets including, but not limited to, The New York Times, The Atlantic, Financial Times (Chinese version), Al Jazeera, Foreign Policy, Quartz, the Global Investigative Journalism Network, the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, Caixin Media, Initium Media, and others. She also serves on the leadership team of International Communication Division of Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.

At the Public Tech Media Lab, Wendy plans to collaborate with researchers, journalists, and practitioners to examine how AI and digital infrastructures are reconfiguring the governance, labor, and epistemic authority of newswork across national and transnational media systems. She also hopes to support the development and ethical use of public-interest technologies, contribute to responsible AI training for the next generation of journalism students, and foster public discussion about how AI is unevenly perceived and applied across information environments, with particular attention to its consequences for marginalized communities in the Majority World.