Specializations: Health Campaigns and Messaging; Intercultural Communication and Acculturation
Yadong Ji (M.A., Zhejiang University) is a Ph.D. candidate of Health Communication in the School of Communication Studies. He also serves as an instructor in the School of Communication Studies for a variety of undergraduate courses.
Yadong’s research is in communication efforts to promote health behaviors. He believes that persuasive communication should be based on our ability to understand and predict health behaviors. He uses behavior theories/models to explore the mechanism of health behaviors and creates persuasive communication efforts that target on the key determinants of the behavior. His recent research has focused on promoting prevention behaviors, such as air pollution prevention in China, PrEP (Pre-exposure prophylaxis) use for HIV prevention in MSM (men who have sex with men) communities, and lowering risk compensation.
Yadong’s research agenda also covers intercultural communication. Health is cultural, and our health behaviors are often a result of cultural influences. The progress of globalization has positioned individuals in a hegemonic structure where health behaviors are valued and ranked by neoliberalism. Yadong has studied minority groups’ health choices as a result of global neoliberalism, such as Chinese women’s birth tourism to the U.S., international students’ medical acculturation, and disadvantaged groups’ outgroup favoritism.
Yadong uses mixed methods to investigate health and intercultural communication. Although first trained as a quantitative scholar, Yadong appreciates and has diversified his approaches in critical, qualitative, and quantitative inquiries. He has published journal articles using a variety of methods such as critical discourse analysis, interviews, experimental design, and surveys.
Yadong Ji’s work is published in the field of communication studies. His works appear in outlets such as Health Communication, Journal of Intercultural and International Communication, and Journal of Intercultural Communication Research. He presents research at scholarly conferences, including the International Communication Association, the National Communication Association, and the Eastern Communication Association.
Yadong teaches a variety of communication courses at Ohio University. Some of his teaching experiences include Public Speech, Communication among Cultures, Persuasive Communication, Argumentative Analysis and Advocacy, and Qualitative Research Methods.