Alice Cheng
Professor
Communication
College of Humanities and Social Sciences
Winston Hall 102
919-515-1294 [email protected]Bio
Alice Cheng (Ph.D., MBA) received a Ph.D. degree from the Missouri School of Journalism, which is one of the oldest formal journalism schools in the world. She also graduated with an outstanding academic award from the nationally recognized Crosby MBA program. She is also the founder and director of the AI for Communication Hub, where she leads interdisciplinary initiatives that integrate AI, strategic communication, and social science to advance AI literacy, research, and real-world applications.
Dr. Cheng is a full professor in the Department of Communication and an adjunct professor in the Poole College of Management at NCSU, as well as an associate editor for the Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management. She has taught many courses, such as AI & strategic management, research methods, public relations, conflict management, and crisis communication. She has demonstrated a long-term commitment to research involving global public relations management, social media, and artificial intelligence, and crisis communication. She has published more than 200 journal articles, conference papers, and book chapters. Some of her publications have appeared in top journals such as The New Media & Society, American Behavioral Scientist, Social Science Computer Review, Computers in Human Behavior, Journal of Public Relations Research, Journal of Product & Brand Management, Telematics and Informatics, Mass Communication & Society, International Journal of Communication, Public Relations Review, and Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management. Recently, Dr. Cheng co-edited a book about AI and strategic communication and she has extensively served as a guest speaker or keynote speaker for international institutions such as U of Technology Sydney, MIT, Peking University, Fudan U, Zhejiang U, Vienna University of Economics and Business, and IULM University in Italy. Dr. Cheng has achieved global reach and influence, with recognition as one of Stanford University’s Top 2% Most Cited Scientists. For the past several years, she has been ranked among the Top 1% of scholars in Communication & Media Studies worldwide. She has also been recognized as a top five contributor to crisis communication research in Public Relations Review, reflecting her major impact on the field over the past two decades.
Acting as the Principal Investigator (PI) or senior researcher, her research has been funded by many global prestigious institutions (more than 2 million), such as the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Humanities Center (NEH), Arthur Page Center (USA), Caterpiller Foundation ($86,500), North Carolina State University (USA), and the Chinese University of Hong Kong (Hong Kong). Especially, the Arthur Page Johnson Legacy Scholar Grant is awarded to support scholars and professionals making important contributions to knowledge, practice, or public understanding of ethics and responsibility in public communication. The funded study that examines mobile CSR activities in crises has been accepted in the 68th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (2018) and won the Top Faculty Paper Award. In addition to her research leadership, she has been selected for the 2026 Scripps Howard Leadership Academy. Through her scholarship, leadership, and the AI for Communication Hub, Dr. Cheng continues to shape the future of AI literacy, ethical communication, and interdisciplinary collaboration at both national and global levels.
Her research has been internationally and domestically recognized via various awards, for its originality, quality, and productivity. The received honors and awards included the University Faculty Scholar (2023-2024), Top Faculty Paper (Open competition), Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, 2024; the Best Paper Award, Public Relations Division, International Communication Association Conference, 2013, 2014, and 2018; Top Paper Award in Mass Communication Division in 2014 and 2016, awarded by the International Communication Association Conference; Grunig PRIME Research Fellowship from Institute of Public Relations and PRIME research in 2015; and Peter Debreceny Corporate Award in the 18th International Public Relations Research Conference in 2015. Additionally, She has received the Hong Kong Government Reaching Out Award and the extremely competitive Extraordinary Potential Prize of the 2016 Chinese Government Award.
Due to her expertise in Communication, especially in AI and public relations, she serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Review, and Public Relations Inquiry. Currently, she is an associate editor of the Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management and an advisory committee member for the International Public Relations Research Conference (IPRRC). She has edited multiple special issues from prestigious journals such as Internet Research, Journal of Communication Management, and Public Relations Review.
Education
Ph.D. Journalism University of Missouri Columbia
MBA Business Administration University of Missouri Columbia
M.A. Global Communication Chinese University of Hong Kong
Area(s) of Expertise
- Crisis/Disaster Communication
- Social Impact Assessment
- Artificial Intelligence
- Public Engagement
Teaching and Research Interests
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Public Relations
- Quantitative Methods
- Crisis Communication
- Conflict Management
- Relationship Management
Projects
- Chatbot and Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Ethics and AI
- Crisis and Public Emergencies
- Digital Mental Health Messages
- Social Media Influencer and trust relationships
Publications
- Advancing theory in social media-mediated crisis communication research in China: A mixed-method review , Public Relations Review (2026)
- Building a Contextual READINESS Model for AI‐Triggered Crises: Global Lessons From Algorithmic Exploitation in China's Food‐Delivery Platforms , Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management (2026)
- Citation Choices in AI-Generated Fact-Checking: Perceptual Outcomes and Corrective Effectiveness in Political Fake News , Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media (2026)
-
Humanlike
AI for Corporate Social Responsibility Communication: How Perceived Anthropomorphism Shapes Stakeholder Acceptance of Chatbots , Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management (2026) - Navigating ethical waters: The impact of ethical judgment, norms, and CSR skepticism on CSR engagement and purchasing intention in a breast cancer campaign , PLoS ONE (2026)
- Students’ engagement with AI-supported learning and its association with academic interest and career intentions in business analytics education , PLoS ONE (2026)
- A Review of Artificial Intelligence Research in Peer-Reviewed Communication Journals , Applied Sciences (2025)
- Building Corporate Reputation Resilience in Crises: Exploring the Role of Employees’ CSR Engagement in China , International Journal of Business Communication (2025)
- Combating Dark-side of Computing - Exploring Perceptions of AI-augmented Mis/disinformation among Higher Education Students , (2025)
- How is artificial intelligence shaping crisis communication? A systematic review and future research agenda , Journal of Risk Research (2025)
Grants
With people������������������s heavy use of mobile phones, social media on mobile devices successfully get users to adopt their different features for the various gratifications and provide corporations an interactive and effective platform to engage their publics for corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and relationship management. However, in current literature of public relations, little research ever focused on mobile communication or analyzed media stakeholders and publics on mobile devices (Vercic, Vercic, & Sriramesh, 2015). This study aims to address the gap in mobile communication and public relations areas by integrating uses and gratification theory and organization-public relationship (OPR) theory and examining the relationships among mobile corporate social responsibility (mCSR) activities, gratifications, social media engagement, and the organization-public relationship. By employing a mixed research method in collecting data from both United States (U.S.) and China, this research not only conducts survey research of 1,500 participants, but also generates in-depth information about how mCSR can best be practiced in the online environments of two nations. The U.S. and China were selected for two main reasons. First, they represent the largest markets in, respectively, North America and the Asia-Pacific region (Hung-Baesecke, Chen, & Boyd, 2016). Second, these two largest markets worldwide are different from each other in the local market conditions such as economic, social, cultural, media, and political contexts, and the relationship among the central government, corporations, and publics (Bortree, 2014; Hung-Baesecke, et al., 2016). Findings will present the role of mobile-based communication in engaging the publics on CSR activities. This comparative study will also illustrate the impact of contextual factors on mCSR engagement and relationship outcomes. Theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.