YONG VOLZ’s research interests lie in transcultural and transnational perspectives of journalism history, especially concerning Chinese journalism and Western influences in the 19th and early 20th centuries. Her recent work includes articles on the Protestant missionary press in 19th-century China, the transplantation of the Missouri model of journalism into China in the 1920s and 1930s, British-American press competition in semi-colonial China, and the censorship campaign against the foreign press in early 20th-century China. Also in progress is research on a collective biography of American foreign correspondents in China, and the New York Times’ coverage of Christianity in China from 1949 to 2009.

Volz has earned three top paper awards from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. She also received the Asian Journal of Communication Best Paper Award for International Communication Research, and a Top Paper Award from Chinese Communication Association. Volz has been awarded several research fellowships and grants and was a research fellow at City University of Hong Kong during the summers of 2006 and 2008. Her articles have appeared in a number of refereed journals, including Media, Culture & Society, Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism, Journalism Studies, International Communication Gazette, International Journal of Advertising, and Communication, Politics & Culture.

Volz teaches an undergraduate course in history of American journalism and graduate courses in qualitative research methods. She also developed a course on Chinese media.

Born in Beijing and raised in Shanghai, Volz received bachelor’s and master’s degrees in journalism from Renmin University of China. She also received a master’s degree from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and a doctoral degree in communication with a minor in history from the University of Minnesota.

Selected Publications

Selected Journal Articles

• Yong Z. Volz and Chin-Chuan Lee (in press), “Semi-Colonialism and Journalistic Sphere of Influence: British-American Press Competition in Early Twentieth-Century China,” Journalism Studies 12 (5).
• Yong Z. Volz, Francis Lee, Ge Xiao and Xianglin Liu (2010). “Critical Events and Reception of Foreign Culture: An Examination of Cultural Discount of Foreign-Language Films in the U.S. before and after 9/11,” International Communication Gazette, 72 (2): 131-149.
• Shaoming Zou and Yong Z. Volz (2010). “An Integrated Theory of Global Advertising: An Application of the GMS Theory,” International Journal of Advertising, 29 (1): 57-84.
• Yong Z. Volz and Chin-Chuan Lee (2009). “American Pragmatism and Chinese Modernization: Importing the Missouri Model of Journalism Education to Modern China,” Media, Culture & Society, 31 (5): 711-730.
• *A substantially revised Chinese version of the article was published in Lee, C.C. (ed.), Intellectuals and the Press in Republican China (Guangxi: Guangxi Normal University Press, 2008, pp. 281-309; Taipei: National Chengchi University Press, 2009, pp. 321-351).
• Yong Z. Volz and Chin-Chuan Lee (2009). “From Gospel to News: Evangelism and Secularization of the Protestant Missionary Press in China, 1870s-1900s,” Journalism: Theory, Practice & Criticism, 10 (2): 170-194.
• Yong Z. Volz (2007). “Going Public Through Writing: Women Journalists and Gendered Journalistic Space in China, 1890s-1920s,” Media, Culture & Society 29 (3): 461-481.
• Yong Zhang (2004). “Public Opinion Without Public? State Democracy, Middle-Class Consumerism, and Survey Industry in Reform China,” Communication, Politics & Culture, 37 (2): 4-21.
• Yong Zhang (2000) “From Masses to Audience: Changing Media Ideologies and Practices in Reform China,” Journalism Studies, 1 (4): 617-635.

Selected Book Chapters

• Yong Z. Volz, “China’s Image Management Abroad, 1920s-1940s: Origin, Justification and Institutionalization,” in Jian Wang, ed., Soft Power in China: Public Diplomacy Through Communication (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011), Chapter 9, pp. 157-180.