Yunwen Wang

Yunwen Wang
  • Assistant Professor

Contact Info

Biography —

Yunwen Wang joined the University of Kansas as an assistant professor in August 2024. With a background in health journalism and media production, she studies health communication, user experience (UX), and the impact of media and emerging technologies on consumer health and wellbeing. Wang uses a multidisciplinary approach to promote empathy and inclusivity in public communication. She combines computational, quantitative, and qualitative methods including natural language processing and recently computer vision. Her work seeks to support vulnerable and marginalized communities.

Before KU, Wang taught at Purdue University and the University of Southern California during her graduate studies. She completed her postdoctoral training at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. In her free time, Wang enjoys digital and analogue photography, plants, nature, and volunteer activities.

Education —

Ph.D. in Communication, University of Southern California
M.S. in Communication, Purdue University
B.S. in Communication, University of Macau
Semester Exchange, Nanyang Technological University

Research —

Research interests:

  • Health Communication
  • Misinformation and Disinformation
  • Computational Social Science
  • Emerging Media Technology
  • User Experience (UX)
  • Media Psychology
  • Human-Computer Interaction

Selected Publications —

Wang, O’Connor, K., Flores, I., Berdahl, C. T., Urbanowicz, R. J., Stevens, R., Bauermeister, J. A., & Gonzalez-Hernandez, G. (2024). Mpox discourse on Twitter by sexual minority men and gender-diverse individuals: Infodemiological study using BERTopic. JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, 10, e59193. https://doi.org/10.2196/59193

Wang, Y., Bannon, J. A., Roszkowska, N., Wilson, E. L., Bonett, S., Lazarus, E., Dowshen, N., & Stevens, R. (2024). From virus to viral: content analysis of HIV-related Twitter messages among young men in the U.S. BMC Digital Health, 2(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s44247-024-00102-y

Hong, T., Lu, M., Tang, Z., Wang, Y., Wu, J., & Wijaya, D. (2023). Effects of #coronavirus content moderation on misinformation and anti-Asian hate on Instagram. New Media & Society. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448231187529  

Wang, Y., Wu, J., & Hong, T. (2023). Advertising: Tobacco. In E. Ho, C. Bylund, J. van Weert, I. Basnyat, N. Bol, & M. Dean Kruzel (Eds.), The International Encyclopedia of Health Communication. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781119678816.iehc0751 

Xu, Y. A., Wang, Y., Kim, S. Y., Kim, D. O., Sun, Y., & McLaughlin, M. L. (2023). Safe at home: Acceptance of surveillance technology among caregivers for persons with dementia. Health Informatics Journal, 29(1), 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1177/14604582231152188   

Wu, J., Wang, Y., Xu, Y. A., Fetterman, J. L., & Hong, T. (2023). Morally driven and emotionally fueled: The interactive effects of values and emotions in the social transmission of information endorsing e-cigarettes. International Journal of Communication, 17(2023), 1190– 1210. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/19860

Wang, Y., Xu, Y. A., Wu, J., Kim, H. M., Fetterman, J. L., Hong, T., & McLaughlin, M. L. (2022). Moralization of e-cigarette use and regulation: A mixed-method computational analysis of opinion polarization. Health Communication, 38(8), 1666–1676. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2022.2027640

Kim, H. M., Xu, Y. A., & Wang, Y. (2022). Overcoming the mental health stigma through mHealth apps: Results from the Healthy Minds Study. Telemedicine and e-Health, 20(10), 1534-1540. https://doi.org/10.1089/tmj.2021.0418  

Hoffman, B. L., Sidani, J. E., Wang, Y., Chang, J., & Burke, J. G. (2022). “It encourages family discussion”: A mixed-methods examination of the This Is Us Alzheimer’s disease & caregiving storyline. Journal of Health Communication, 27(6), 382–393. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2022.2111620

Golder, S., O'Connor, K. Wang, Y., Stevens, R., & Gonzalez-Hernandez, G. (2022). Best practices on big data analytics to address sex-specific biases in our understanding of the etiology, diagnosis and prognosis of diseases. Annual Review of Biomedical Data Science, 5(1), 251–267. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-biodatasci-122120-025806

Wang, Y., & Collins, W. B. (2021). Systematic evaluation of mobile fitness apps: Apps as the Tutor, Recorder, Game Companion, and Cheerleader. Telematics and Informatics, 59, 101552. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2020.101552  

Wang, Y. (2020). Humor and camera view on mobile short-form video apps influence user experience and technology-adoption intent, an example of TikTok (DouYin). Computers in Human Behavior, 110, 106373. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2020.106373