Jingbo Meng Ph.D.

Dr. Jingbo Meng joined the Department of Communication at MSU in fall 2014. She is affiliated with the Health and Risk Communication Center and Trifecta initiative that encourages interdisciplinary collaboration between College of Communication, Engineering and Nursing.  

Jingbo's research interest focuses on social networks mediated via communication technologies for health behavior change and mental health. Her recent research also involves using artificial intelligent chatbots for mental health applications. She is particularly interested in the effects and processes of social networks that can facilitate exchanges of social support, foster the emergence of social norms, broaden the spread of health information and enhance social influence on health behaviors of individuals who are embedded in those social networks. The social networks may appear on various forms of media such as social networking sites, online health communities and smartphones. Jingbo's work has been published in Journal of Communication, Communication Research, Journal of Health Communication, Health Communication, and Computers in Human Behavior etc. She is also a receipt of a $1 million NSF project that aims to help universities combat depression using mobile and wearable technology. 

Jingbo received her Ph.D. in Communication in 2014 from Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at University of Southern California (USC). Prior to USC, Jingbo received her Masters' degree in mass communication from the Ohio State University and her Bachelor's degrees in journalism and economics from Peking University in China. 

Health communication technology, Social networks, Computational communication science

Selected Recent Publications

• Meng, J., Shin, S. Y., Bae, A., & Van Der Heide, B. (2020). Time-Dependent Effects of Relational Composition on the Success of Online Wellness Challenge Groups. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 25(2), 147-162.
• Meng, J., *Chung, M., & *Cox, J. (2017). Social networks and social support: Linking network structures to support messages in an online health social network. Journal of Communication, 66(6), 982-1006.
• Meng, J., Martinez, L., Holmstrom, A., *Chung, M., & *Cox, J. (2016) A review of research on social networking sites and social support from 2004-2015. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking.
• Meng, J. (2016). Your health buddies matter: Preferential and social influence on weight management in an online health social network. Health Communication, 31, 1460-1471.

Research Centers and Labs

Health and Risk Communication Center