About
Yeqing Kong is an Assistant Professor of Technical Communication in the School of Literature, Media, and Communication at Georgia Tech. Her research focuses on the communication of scientific, technological, health, and environmental risks in the global context, with particular attention to the communication strategies employed by vulnerable communities for self-advocacy. She has published in various academic journals including Technical Communication Quarterly, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, and the Journal of Business and Technical Communication, among others. Her educational background includes a Ph.D. in Communication, Rhetoric, and Digital Media from North Carolina State University, an M.A. in Language and Linguistics from Lancaster University, and a B.A. in English from Hunan University, China. Her teaching interests encompass technical and scientific communication, digital and visual rhetorics, responsible AI, social media, information design, user experience, and design thinking. Her research interests include risk and crisis communication, technology-mediated communication, science and health communication, and cross-cultural communication, with a focus on issues related to inequality and social justice, digital communication, and international communication, especially in Asia and the United States.
Research topics
- Computer Science
- Political Science
- Knowledge management
- Social Science
- Sociology
- Artificial Intelligence
- Data science
- Public relations
- World Wide Web
- Engineering
- Engineering ethics
- Multimedia
Selected publications
Communication Design Quarterly · 2026-03-01
article1st authorCorrespondingThis article examines how digital contact tracing technologies for COVID-19 in Ghana, the US, China, and India function as persuasive technologies. Through comparative analysis, we investigate how each context emphasizes persuasive design strategies and how these align with national public health objectives. We propose an extended Common Interpretive Framework for Design Analysis (eCIFDA), which integrates Persuasive Systems Design with Interaction Design to map persuasive techniques to touchpoints within apps and a website. This study offers insights for technical communication scholars and practitioners seeking to strengthen the persuasive effectiveness of digital health interventions across diverse geopolitical contexts.
Technical Communication Quarterly · 2025-10-22
article1st authorCorrespondingThis study examines the rhetorical endeavors of a grassroots citizen and a youth activist in addressing official ignorance and denial surrounding the Flint water crisis. These civic participants engaged in extensive communicative, interactive, and affective labor to assess and communicate risks, raising public awareness and pushing for policy change. This article theorizes an extended materialist social justice framework by illustrating the complex interactions between immaterial labor and different types of social justice.
IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication · 2025-10-31
articleSenior author<italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><b>Background:</b></i> During two major rainstorm disasters in Henan and Shanxi provinces in 2021, digital volunteer groups in China used cloud-based technologies to facilitate rescue and relief efforts. <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><b>Literature review:</b></i> In technical and professional communication (TPC), crisis and disaster communication has been studied extensively in contexts such as public health emergencies, terrorist attacks and war, and natural disasters. However, less attention has been given to grassroots, digitally mediated volunteer networks, particularly through the lens of Actor-Network Theory (ANT). <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><b>Research question:</b></i> How did volunteer groups mobilize information through an expanded process of translation for disaster relief during the Henan and Shanxi rainstorm calamities? <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><b>Research methodology:</b></i> We conducted virtual, multisited ethnography by joining volunteer social media groups during the disasters. We also interviewed documentation creators and analyzed media coverage to understand the practices and infrastructures that supported their work. <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><b>Results:</b></i> We introduce a five-phase model of disaster communication: Problematization, Initiation, Launch, Optimization, and Transfer (PILOT). This ANT-informed model theorizes how distributed digital volunteer groups mobilized, stabilized, and transferred actor networks during crisis response, offering a more granular account of their emergent, decentralized, affective work than previous TPC scholarship. <italic xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><b>Conclusions:</b></i> TPC professionals can (re)design adaptive communication infrastructures that support rapid response in digital environments, particularly in terms of organizational coordination, knowledge flow, and technological integration.
Communication Design Quarterly · 2025-12-01
article1st authorCorrespondingThis study examines the role of risk visualizations in public health communication through an analysis of the MyWater-Flint Map and Flint Service Line Map , developed during the Flint water crisis. Applying a newly proposed social justice-oriented framework for risk visual design, the study evaluates these maps' effectiveness in communicating risk through dimensions of accessibility, accountability, ethics, productive usability, hybrid collectivity, open systems, and circulation. Findings highlight the importance of community participation in the production and dissemination of risk visualizations. This work sheds light on visual risk communication theory, professional practice, and technical communication instruction.
IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication · 2024-05-01 · 2 citations
articleSenior author<bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><i>Background:</i></b> Technologies are increasingly being deployed in facilitating participatory healthcare. Global governments developed a variety of digital platforms, such as mobile contact tracing apps, to help the public navigate risks and uncertainties during the COVID-19 pandemic. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><i>Literature review:</i></b> Contrary to normative approaches to information design (IxD), the global spread of COVID-19 revealed the need for an alternative design framework (i.e., concept-driven design) to help develop mobile health (mHealth) apps that can support a broader portrayal of information value in IxD. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><i>Research questions:</i></b> 1. In response to COVID-19, what affordances are prioritized by the designers of these global mHealth apps? What do these priorities tell us about design intents and information value? 2. What interpretive framework can we use to understand mHealth designers’ intent across different geopolitical contexts? <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><i>Research methodology:</i></b> We captured screenshots of the three apps in the US, India, and China, as well as a website in Ghana. Using touchpoints as the unit of analysis, we conducted an inventory and affinity mapping to visualize the architecture of each app and categorize touchpoints based on their affordances. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><i>Results:</i></b> The comparison of apps across countries displays shared and divergent priorities in their touchpoints, affordances, and information depth. We developed an interpretive framework for understanding mHealth design intent across numerous contexts—Common Interpretive Framework for Design Analysis (CIFDA)—incorporating both linear analysis and recursive analysis of touchpoints, affordances, and depth. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><i>Conclusions:</i></b> Touchpoints in mHealth applications can be designed, but they can also be measured and analyzed, and they can in return help us understand the designer's intent and expected user experience.
Global Media and Communication · 2024-03-18 · 1 citations
articleSenior authorAs a global technoscientific form involving various forces and stakeholders, research and development (R&D) in artificial intelligence (AI) transcends corporate, national and institutional boundaries. Incorporating transnational rhetorical analysis and corpus-assisted discourse analysis, this article examines the global cultural flows surrounding AI constructed in official and media discourses in the US and China. We propose a new theoretical concept of knowledgescape that expands the toolkits of global flows and provides new explanatory power about global innovation and competition. This concept sheds light on the global processes, mechanisms and power dynamics of the production, dissemination, consumption and contestation of cutting-edge knowledge.
Journal of Business and Technical Communication · 2023 · 22 citations
1st authorCorresponding- Computer Science
- Political Science
- Public relations
Employers are increasingly turning to innovative artificial intelligence recruiting technologies to evaluate candidates’ online presence and make hiring decisions. Such social media screening, or social profiling, is an emerging approach to assessing candidates’ social influence, personalities, and workplace behaviors through their publicly shared data on social networking sites. This article introduces the processes, benefits, and risks of social profiling in employment decision making. The authors provide important guidance for job applicants, technical and professional communication instructors, and hiring professionals on how to strategically respond to the opportunities and challenges of automated social profiling technologies.
A Corpus-Assisted Critical Discourse Analysis of News Construction of the Flint Water Crisis
IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication · 2022-10-03 · 7 citations
article1st authorCorresponding<bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Background:</b> News media play a critical role in communicating risks and shaping public perceptions of social issues. Covering a multilayered disaster that grew from a local story to a national one, the ways that news media at different levels construct the Flint water crisis have not been previously explored. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Literature review:</b> Despite the well-established role of journalism as a government watchdog, news media do not neutrally mirror every social event. Instead, news reporting, highly mediated by language, is filled with political interests, values, and attitudes. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Research questions:</b> 1. How did local/regional and national newspapers construct the Flint water crisis? 2. Are there any similarities and/or differences in local/regional and national news construction of the Flint water crisis? 3. What are the practical implications for media coverage of risks, emergencies, or crises? 4. What are the methodological implications of this study for professional communication research? <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Methodology:</b> This study integrates corpus linguistics and critical discourse analysis to analyze 1858 news reports about the Flint water crisis published between 2014 and 2018. I use keywords as a core analytical technique to compare the local/regional and national news coverage. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Results:</b> The results show that both local and national news reports overemphasized government activities while downplaying the unofficial voices of Flint residents and community activists. In addition, national newspapers were more likely than local newspapers to use racial cues in describing the Flint community and to associate the crisis with other social problems. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Conclusions:</b> This study suggests that news media should provide wide coverage of the affected community's efforts in risk/crisis communication rather than reproducing official messages. News representations should be cautious of strengthening stereotypes or forming negative conceptual associations of traditionally disenfranchised communities.
Public Relations Review · 2022 · 43 citations
Senior authorCorresponding- Political Science
- Political Science
- Public relations
AI-Assisted Recruiting Technologies: Tools, Challenges, and Opportunities
2021 · 7 citations
1st authorCorresponding- Computer Science
- Computer Science
- Artificial Intelligence
This article introduces the tools, processes, and challenges of AI-assisted recruiting technologies, including video interviews, social media screening, LinkedIn recruiting, and neuroscience games. This study provides important guidance for hiring professionals, job applicants, and technical and professional communication classrooms regarding ways to effectively respond to the potential and pitfalls of automated recruiting technologies.
Frequent coauthors
- 5 shared
Nupoor Ranade
George Mason University
- 3 shared
Huiling Ding
North Carolina State University
- 1 shared
G. Edzordzi Agbozo
University of North Carolina Wilmington
- 1 shared
Chenxing Xie
North Carolina State University
- 1 shared
Yang Cheng
North Carolina State University
- 1 shared
Hunter Jones
NOAA Oceanic and Atmospheric Research
- 1 shared
Jiacheng Wang
Huazhong University of Science and Technology
- 1 shared
Anirban Ray
University of North Carolina Wilmington
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