Contact

Email: hailiang AT cuhk.edu.hk
Address: Room 310, Humanities Building, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Shatin, New Territories, HKSAR

Education

Ph.D. in Media and Communication, City University of Hong Kong, 2009-2014.
B.A. in Communication, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 2005-2009.
B.S.(2^nd) in Mathematics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 2006-2009.

Work Experience

The Chinese University of Hong Kong
- School of Journalism and Communication
  - 08/2022 - Present: Associate Professor
  - 08/2016 - 07/2022: Assistant Professor
- Computational Social Science Laboratory
  - 06/2023 - Present: Associate Director
The University of Hong Kong
- Journalism and Media Studies Centre
  - 09/2014 - 07/2016: Postdoctoral Fellow

Grants & Awards

2024-2025 Principal Investigator
Understanding Coordinated Information Operations through Experiments on a Self-developed Social Media Platform
Direct Grant by The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 48,880 HKD
2024-2025 Principal Investigator
Leaderless Organization: A Systematic Examination of the Leaderlessness of Twitter Protests
General Research Fund (GRF) by Hong Kong Government (RGC), 633,100 HKD
2023-2024 Principal Investigator
How do Newsroom Policies Impact Journalists’ Social Media Practices and Audience Engagement?
Direct Grant by The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 49,519 HKD
2021-2023 Co-Principal Investigator
(Mis)communication, Trust, and Information Environments: A Comparative Study of the COVID-19 “Infodemics” in Four Chinese Societies
Collaborative Research Fund (CRF) by Hong Kong Government (RGC), 3,067,301 HKD
2021-2023 Principal Investigator
The Political Consequences of Uncivil Talk on Social Media: Political Emotion, Attitude, and Participation in Hong Kong
General Research Fund (GRF) by Hong Kong Government (RGC), 371,000 HKD
2019-2020 Young Researcher Award 2018
The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 100,000 HKD
2019-2020 Principal Investigator
The Ideological Bias of Perceived Incivility Online: A Survey Experiment in Hong Kong
Direct Grant by The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 86,400 HKD
2018-2019 Co-Investigator Tracking Public Opinion through Real-time Textual Mining: A Public Service Platform with Big Data-based Approach
General Research Fund (GRF) by Hong Kong Government (RGC), 1,124,418 HKD
2016-2017 Principal Investigator
The Impact of Warmth on Altruism
C-Grant by The Chinese University of Hong Kong, 30,000 HKD
2015-2016 Principal Investigator
Collecting Representative Twitter Users Using an Unobtrusive Approach
Small Project Funding by The University of Hong Kong, 48,000 HKD

Editorial

Asian Journal of Communication (Guest editor, 2017-2019)
Computational Communication Research (Editorial board member, 2018-Present)
Communication & Society《傳播與社會學刊》 (Associate editor, 2021-Present)
Communication Theory (Editorial board member, 2024-Present)
Human Communication Research (Editorial board member, 2024-Present)
Journal of Communication (Editorial board member, 2022-Present)

Teaching

COMM3650: Social Media Analytics for Communication Professionals

COMM5520: Applied Communication Research

COMM6320: Digital Research

COMM5631: Digital Humanities: Methods and Tools

Selected Publications

The expression effects of uncivil disagreement

Liang, H. & Ng, Y. M. M. (2023). The expression effects of uncivil disagreement: The mechanisms of cognitive dissonance and self-perception. Human Communication Research, 49(3), 251–259. doi: 10.1093/hcr/hqac032

Partisan bias of perceived incivility and its political consequences

Liang, H., & Zhang, X. (2021). Partisan bias of perceived incivility and its political consequences: Evidence from survey experiments in Hong Kong. Journal of Communication, 71(3), 357–379. doi: 10.1093/joc/jqab008

Network redundancy and information diffusion

Liang, H., & Fu, K. W. (2019). Network redundancy and information diffusion: The impacts of information redundancy, similarity, and tie strength. Communication Research, 46(2), 250-272. doi: 10.1177/0093650216682900

Broadcast versus viral spreading

Liang, H. (2018). Broadcast versus viral spreading: The structure of diffusion cascades and selective sharing on social media. Journal of Communication, 68(3), 525–546. doi: 10.1093/joc/jqy006

Privacy protection and self-disclosure across societies

Liang, H., Shen, F., & Fu, K. W. (2017). Privacy protection and self-disclosure across societies: A study of global Twitter users. New Media & Society, 19(9), 1476-1497. doi: 10.1177/1461444816642210

Information similarity overload and redundancy

Liang, H., & Fu, K. W. (2017). Information similarity, overload, and redundancy: Unsubscribing information sources on Twitter. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 22(1), 1–17. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12178

Testing propositions derived from Twitter studies

Liang, H., & Fu, K. W. (2015). Testing propositions derived from Twitter studies: Generalization and replication in computational social science. PLoS ONE, 10(8), e0134270. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0134270

The organizational principles of online political discussion

Liang, H. (2014). The organizational principles of online political discussion: A relational event stream model for analysis of web forum deliberation. Human Communication Research, 40(4), 483-507. doi: 10.1111/hcre.12034

Coevolution of political discussion and common ground in web discussion forum

Liang, H. (2014). Coevolution of political discussion and common ground in web discussion forum. Social Science Computer Review, 32(2), 155-169. doi: 10.1177/0894439313506844

Hai Liang PhD