Shuning Lu

Dr. Shuning Lu joined the faculty at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism in Fall 2025 as an assistant professor in media, democracy and technology.

Lu came to Merrill College from North Dakota State University, where she was an assistant professor in the Department of Communication. She received her doctoral degree from The University of Texas at Austin’s Moody College of Communication.

Lu’s research revolves around the intersection between journalism and social media. She uses experiments, surveys and computational social science methods to examine the emerging audience behavior and shifting journalistic practices in the digital environment in both the U.S. and China.

At Merrill College, she teaches courses in social media content creation, audience engagement and analytics.

Lu has published more than two dozen peer-reviewed articles in the field of journalism and communication. She has secured grants from Qualtrics, Social Science Research Council, The Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Communication and the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, among others. She has received multiple Top Paper Awards from the International Communication Association, National Communication Association and AEJMC.

Before coming to the U.S., Lu worked as a videographer and photographer for several major events, including the Special Olympics, Shanghai Book Fair and World Expo. Her passion for journalism began in middle school when she started hosting a radio show. Lu was born and raised in Shanghai, China.