During the International Communication Association’s recent 74th annual conference in Australia, the association’s Information Systems Division honored University of Washington Center for an Informed Public postdoctoral scholar Yiwei Xu with the organization’s Top Paper Award and the Annie Lang Outstanding Dissertation Award, recognizing Xu’s work on the paper “Communicating Controversial Risk Issues – Effects of Inoculation Messages on Selective Exposure to Counterattitudinal Messages and Subsequent Persuasive Outcomes.”
The paper, which Xu undertook during her doctoral studies at Cornell University and was previously awarded a Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant from the National Science Foundation, provides risk communicators theory-informed guidance on how to better employ an inoculation strategy to communicate with audiences in today’s high-choice media environment.
“This work tests and extends classic theories in persuasion research to help researchers and practitioners better understand how people process messages characterized by competition and controversy,” Xu said. “This dissertation comprises a series of six studies, which span a broad spectrum of methodologies from traditional survey experiments employing self-reported measures to computational survey experiments.“
Xu’s research examines and develops theory-driven communication strategies that address persistent and emergent public health challenges, including racial disparities, vaccine hesitancy, misinformation, and gun violence, with the goal of promoting policy change and health equity. She also researches collective level phenomena in health communication. She conducts experiments, surveys, and content analysis by incorporating computational methods.
In August 2025, following the conclusion of her postdoctoral work at the CIP in Seattle, Xu will start in a tenure track assistant professor position at the University of Maryland College of Information.
“The Center for an Informed Public and UW’s Information School offer outstanding resources and support for postdocs to conduct important research. The intellectual diversity, robust research infrastructure, networking opportunities, and avenues for collaboration and mentorship greatly advanced my research and career development,” Xu said, noting her appreciation for her CIP colleagues and faculty mentor, iSchool associate professor Emma Spiro, plus opportunities for professional development and interdisciplinary research at the iSchool at the intersection of AI, health, and information.
“The CIP has prepared me really well to start a tenure-track faculty position. I’m very excited to begin this new role and continue these important lines of research I started at the CIP,” Xu said.
