Cheng-Jun Wang

Cheng-Jun Wang

Professor

Nanjing University

Biography

Cheng-Jun Wang is currently a full professor in the School of Journalism and Communication, Nanjing University. He serves as the director of Computational Communication Collaboratory and the Socrates Lab. He is also a research member of Web Mining Lab, City University of Hong Kong. His research interest focuses on employing big data, computational methods, and social theories to study human communication behaviors, including but not limited to information diffusion, attention flow, and computational narrative. His research on computational communication appears in both SSCI and SCI indexed journals. His book Jumping over the network threshold: Information diffusion on social media (in Chinese) has been published by the Science Press in July 2022. You can find his CV here.

Interests
  • Information Diffusion
  • Attention Flow
  • Computational Narrative
  • Computational Communication
Education

  • Ph.D in Communication, 2014

    City University of Hong Kong

  • MA in Communication, 2010

    Peking University

  • BS in Journalism, 2008

    Lanzhou University

News


  • [2025-03-24] Our manuscript entitled “Let us not wallow in the valley of despair: The role of emotion, panic, and sympathy discourses in promoting productive actions” has been accepted for publication in International Journal of Business Communication.
  • [2025-03-22] Our article “Unraveling the Shape of Social Media Narratives: Analyzing the Effects of Online Interaction and Narrative Structure on Attention to Digital Asset Transactions” has been accepted for publication in Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media.
  • [2025-03-19] Our article “The dark side of the Internet: Fueling misinformation in the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2020 US Presidential Election” is now published and is available at https://doi.org/10.1177/20570473251323752
  • [2024-09-18] Our research on collective storytelling is online! Cheng-Jun Wang, Xinzhi Zhang *, Zepeng Gou, Youqing Wu (2024) Yesterday Once More: Collective Storytelling Constitutes the Success of Digital Cultural Products on Music Streaming Platforms. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. 11:1173. doi: 10.1057/s41599-024-03636-8. Data & Code: https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/MTASG
  • I am recruiting well motivated and dedicated Ph.D. and master students. Undergraduate students are also encouraged to contact me by my email. The application materials should include your CV, transcript, writing sample, and personal statement.
  • 招收明年入学的博士生和硕士生。请将申请材料发送到我的邮箱📮，申请材料包括：个人简历、成绩单、代表性论文或手稿、个人传记。其中，个人传记除了描述个人经历之外，还需要介绍：编程能力和作品（尽量详细）、数学或物理学建模能力和作品（尽量详细）、如何分享知识和技能、为什么要读研（想要研究什么困惑）、为什么选择我的课题组、将来的职业规划、个人最大的优点和缺点等。
  • 欢迎南京大学的本科生加入我的课题组“苏格拉底实验室”。感兴趣者欢迎发邮件📮，申请材料包括：个人简历、研究兴趣简介。申请者需要通过论文复刻考核；入选者需要参加每周的组会。

My book Jumping over the network threshold: Information diffusion on social media (in Chinese 《跨越网络的门槛：社交媒体上的信息扩散》) has been published by the Science Press in July 2022. Inspired by this book, I am working on writing another book titled Computational Narrative.

Teaching

Courses

I am teaching the following courses:

My Home Education Course Explaining the world to kids! (2021-Now)

Causal Inference

I finished reading the book 「原因と結果」の経済学―――データから真実を見抜く思考法 and I think it is very useful as the textbook for the class of Causal Inference 101. Check the Slides and Notebook.

Other Activites

  1. My ebook Elements of Computational Communication (In Chinese 《计算传播学网络讲义》）is now available online, enjoy! https://chengjun.github.io/mybook.
  2. Excited to announce that our Group Dynamics Podcast is online!
  3. I am organizing a Douban group to discuss computational communication research.
  4. I am organizing the Socrates Reading Club to discuss the computational social science biweekly at room 307. You can learn about our past activies by watching the videos on Bilibili.com.

Contact

  • wangchengjun@nju.edu.cn
  • 163 Xianlin Street, Nanjing, Jiangsu Province 210023
  • Room 450, School of Journalism and Communication, Nanjing University (Xianlin Campus)

We know that people often desire something but do not really want it. Don’t be afraid to really want what you desire. – Slavoj Žižek 🚀