Rate My Professor Yan Wu

Professor Yan Wu holds the position of Professor in Media within the School of Culture and Communication at Swansea University, part of the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. She leads the Centre on Digital Arts and Humanities and holds fellowships from the Higher Education Academy (since 2017) and the Learned Society of Wales (elected 2025). Possessing a PhD in Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Professor Wu has built a distinguished career spanning higher education in the United Kingdom and China, joining Swansea University in 2007. Her teaching portfolio includes undergraduate modules such as Theorizing the Media and Media Gender and Sexuality, as well as postgraduate offerings like Global Media. She is available for postgraduate supervision.

Professor Wu's research interests center on Chinese media and communication, encompassing topics such as online communities, citizen journalism, social media in China, China’s soft power communication, the use of social media by Chinese elderly, media and public diplomacy in China, and the Chinese diaspora. She also investigates digital inclusivity, focusing on communicative rights for individuals with sensory impairments in the digital era and digital media access in Wales. Notable contributions include her role on the editorial board of Journalism Practice (Routledge) and membership in the Wales Vision Strategy committee representing Swansea University. Key publications feature "COVID-19 and viral anti-Asian racism: A multimodal critical discourse analysis of memes and the racialization of the COVID-19 pandemic" (Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, 2020, co-authored with Matthew Wall), "Collective memory and digital surrealist solidarity: Shanghai elderly on social media during 2022 COVID lockdowns" (Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art, 2024), "Dissecting the Advocacy Discourse Behind the #StopAsianHate Movement on X/Twitter" (2024), "Glocalization, Marketization and Politicisation: Femvertising at a Crossroad in China" (2022), and reports such as "Enabling Digital First: A Case Study of Sight-Impaired Users in Wales" (2019). Her scholarship has informed policy on digital inclusivity and garnered media attention through interviews with BBC, Radio France International, and others, underscoring her influence in media studies and digital humanities.