Rate My Professor Yungi Liu

Dr. Yungi Liu is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at California State University, East Bay, where she serves as the PRSSA Faculty Advisor. She holds a Ph.D. in Communication from The Ohio State University (2008) and an M.A. in Journalism from the same university (1998). Liu's research interests encompass political campaign communication, strategic communication including advertising, public relations, and marketing communication, quantitative and statistical research methods, communication geography, media effects on different ethnic groups, social science research, survey research, and experimentation. Her work employs multilevel modeling and geospatial analysis to explore how campaign strategies, media use, and interpersonal communication influence political knowledge and participation.

Liu joined California State University, East Bay in 2013. Her dissertation, "The Influence of Communication Context on Political Cognition in Presidential Campaigns: A Geospatial Analysis" (2008), examined data from the 2000 U.S. presidential election, finding that campaign ads, candidate appearances, and direct contacts promote political learning via newspapers and discussions, while local TV news hinders it. Key publications include "The Impact of News Use and News Content Characteristics on Knowledge Gaps: The 2008 Presidential Election" (Mass Communication and Society, 2013), which analyzed news effects on knowledge disparities; "Online and Offline Communication and Political Knowledge and Participation in Presidential Campaigns: Effects of Geospatial Context" (International Journal of Communication, 2017); and "Impact of Communication on Political Knowledge and Participation Gaps Among AAPIs in the U.S.: The Roles of Education, Political Interest, and Ethnocultural Identity" (SAGE Open, 2024). With nine research works accumulating 232 citations, her contributions advance understanding of media effects, political engagement among minorities, and geospatial factors in communication. Liu advises students in public relations and teaches in strategic communication.