Four decades of scholarship on news flow, national image, press differences, Asian journalism, Chinese media narratives, and geopolitical communication — bridging theory and practice across Asia, Africa, and beyond.
Compiled by Prof. Xiaoge Xu, Ph.D., in collaboration with Manus
"To follow and to be followed has become the new normal in news communication in the age of social media. News audiences follow news via social media while they are being followed by news anytime anywhere — creating a pressing need to investigate whether social media have brought any changes to both party-controlled and market-oriented media."
Xu & Chen, Global Media and China (2021)
Prof. Xu's global communication scholarship spans seven interconnected themes — from foundational news flow theory to contemporary geopolitical media analysis. Select any theme to explore its key findings, methods, and representative publications.
International Information Imbalance
Prof. Xu's earliest work examined the asymmetric flow of news between nations — particularly the image-making dynamics between China and the United States. Drawing on MacBride Commission debates and NWICO discourse, this research maps how news selection, framing, and volume shape national images in international communication.
"The image-making news flow between China and the United States" (Mass Communication Review, 1997)
News flow between major powers is structurally asymmetric, with Western agencies setting the agenda for global coverage of China.
Image-making is embedded in routine news selection — not only in editorial commentary — making it a systemic rather than individual phenomenon.
Cross-national comparisons reveal how domestic media systems translate foreign events through their own ideological and cultural filters.
The MacBride Report's call for a New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) remains relevant in the age of social media and platform capitalism.
Chinese Media Narratives and Geopolitical Significance
IGI Global
COVID-19 news reporting and engaging in the age of social media: Comparing Xinhua News Agency and The Paper
Global Media and China, 6(2), 152–170
Zwischen Ying und Yang (Between Ying and Yang)
MedienJournal
Mobile news use among college students in four Asian cities
New Media & Society
Mapping and Measuring Press Differences
International Journal of the Humanities, Annual Review
Mapping, Measuring and Modeling Press Differences in Asia
ICA Annual Conference, Montreal
MacBride Report 25 Years After: An Asian Review
Media Asia
News framing of the Chinese embassy bombing by the People's Daily and the New York Times
Asian Journal of Communication
Asian values revisited: In the context of intercultural news communication
Media Asia, 25(1), 37–41
The image-making news flow between China and the United States
Mass Communication Review, 24(3–4), 57–70
Exploring between two worlds: China's journalism education
Journalism & Mass Communication Educator
Prof. Xu is currently editing a landmark volume for IGI Global (2026) that examines how Chinese media narratives shape — and are shaped by — the geopolitical landscape of the 21st century. The volume invites scholars from communication studies, political science, and area studies to analyse Chinese media's role in global discourse on trade, technology, security, and cultural diplomacy.
"Chinese media narratives have become a significant variable in global geopolitical discourse — no longer merely reactive to Western framing, but actively constructing alternative frames on trade, technology, security, and cultural diplomacy."
Prof. Xiaoge Xu, Call for Chapters (2025)
Media narratives of China's flagship connectivity project across 140+ countries
Chinese tech narratives in Western media: security framing vs. innovation framing
Competing narratives on pandemic origins and China's global communication strategy
Military spectacle as geopolitical communication: decoding China's 2025 parade coverage
Confucius Institutes, Chinese cinema, and cultural diplomacy in global media
TikTok, WeChat, and the geopolitics of Chinese social media platforms
Global Communication intersects with Mobile Studies, CICI Studies, Branding Studies, and Experience Studies — all developed by Prof. Xu at the intersection of communication, technology, and human experience.