Hui Zhao

Lecturer with a research interest in organizational communication in a rapidly evolving media landscape and amidst complex social situations like crises. Key research areas include organizational communication with external stakeholders and cultural and political aspects of digital media.

Background

I received my Ph.D. in Media and Communication (Strategic Communication) at Lund University in 2020 and M.A. in Communication (Media Studies) at Hong Kong Baptist University in 2010. Prior to joining Lund University, I have been continuously engaging in rich media-related activities and practices, first as a journalist in media agencies in the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong and then as a researcher for e-governance. Meanwhile, I have also devoted myself to the teaching side of my career as an external lecturer in the bachelor’s degree programme of Communication and Journalism.

Area of Research

My research interests lie at the intersection of communication, management, and business, with attention to the communicative activities of organizations in global environments. More specifically, I situate organizational communication in a rapidly evolving media landscape and amidst complex social situations like crises so as to interrogate the interactions and interdependencies of business, society, and government. Thus far, my research has focused on organizational communication with external stakeholders, including strategic communication, public relations, and corporate communication, from both theoretical and empirical perspectives.

Theoretically, my research aims to advance the context-sensitive approach in organizational communication. I advance theoretical frameworks for contextual analyses of organizational communication, ranging from cultural to political to technological contexts. Methodologically, my research employs diverse textual analytical approaches, including discourse analysis, content analysis, thematic analysis, and computer-assisted semantic network analysis, to uncover the meaning of various forms of communication related to organizations.

My research entails the following two characteristics:

• A societal perspective. My research addresses how organizations’ communicative behaviors and strategic goals are shaped by the social context in which they reside. My doctoral dissertation, for instance, investigates how the politized society in China influences the communicative practices of multinational corporations during crises in the digital age. Several of my conceptual works provide culturally, politically, and technologically sensitive analytical frameworks for understanding the communicative activities of organizations in crises. 
• A co-creational perspective. Drawing upon the social constructionist perspective, my research pays special attention to examining various social actors and their co-construction of organizations and organizational surroundings. Several of my empirical studies disclose the multiplicity of meanings by various social actors and further problematize their diversity, variability, and inconsistency.

Some of my publications have appeared in the Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Review, Business Horizon, International Communication Gazette, International Journal of Communication, International Journal of Strategic Communication, Journal of Communication Management, and Public Relations Inquiry, among others. I also serve on the editorial board of the Journal of Public Relations Research. 

I have received several awards from internationally renowned academies, including the best paper award from European Public Relations Education and Research Association 2021 Congress; 2020 Karen Russel Award for Most-Downloaded Article from the Journal of Public Relations Research; the Top Student Paper Awards from both Organizational Communication Division and the Public Relations Division at the International Communication Association’s 67th annual conference. I have also received several grants and scholarships from national and international organizations and foundations, including Landshövding Per Westlings Fund in 2017 and the Chinese government award for outstanding self-financed students abroad in 2018.

Teaching

I have been teaching on broad organization-related communication topics, including strategic communication, public relations, and media studies in the contexts of market, culture, and society. More specifically, I teach crisis communication, issue management, risk management, stakeholder communication (public relations and media relations), and strategic communication planning.