Dr. Lu Tang’s Webpage

 

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Teaching is a main reason I chose this profession. I am a firm believer of student-led learning. I consider it my primary responsibility to nurture students’ critical thinking and analytical skills. Since day one, I have been assessing the characters and needs of my students and constantly adapting the contents and styles of my teaching to meet their needs. I have consistently received excellent teaching evaluations (average=4.78 out of 5 in overall rating).  

 

My undergraduate classes are always centered around discussions, activities, group discussions. Instead of passively listening to lectures, my students take the initiative in group discussions and activities to distill important concepts and issues. In addition, I am always developing my courses by incorporating new materials, activities, and technologies. My classes utilized course blogs, YouTube videos, Facebook and TikTok to engage students and promote student interaction and learning outside of the classroom. During Fall 2020, I organized a COVID-19 Health Messaging Competition among my COMM 305 classes, in which students created theory-based multimedia messages promoting preventative behaviors delivered on social media.  

 

I am passionately devoted to graduate education. Currently, I am advising four doctoral students and am serving on nine committees. My graduate courses are geared toward helping students become independent researchers. My doctoral seminar on Culture and Health Communication (COMM 670) challenged students to think about the complicated relationship between culture and health in terms of not only cultural differences but also the underlying ideologies, power, and disparity about health and illness. Students responded well to the course and awarded me the “Lifesaver’s award.” They even created a logo for my COMM 670 seminar (See right). 

 

I recently developed and taught another doctoral seminar: Social Network Analytics (COMM 616). Even though social media analysis and big data research is heavily focused on mathematics and computer science, I created this course surrounding important theoretical concepts and conceptual issues and introduced students to big data studies and social network analysis through various existing apps. This approach is successful in allowing students from not only postpositive but also interpretive and critical backgrounds to understand social media analysis and conduct independent research projects. 

 

The seminar papers that students wrote for my courses and directed studies have been published in journals such as Health CommunicationJournal of Health CommunicationJournal of Applied Communication Research, and Public Understanding of Science.  Here are some of the journal articles doctoral students published based on their work in my doctoral seminars and directed studies.

 

Students at Texas A&M

 

1.    Wu, Q.* & Tang, L. (2021). What satisfies parents of pediatric patients in China: A grounded theory building analysis of online doctor’s reviews. Health Communication. (Published online first.) https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2021.1888437

2.    Zou, W.*, Zhang, W.J., & Tang, L. (2021). What do social media influencers say about health? A theory-driven content analysis of top ten health influencers on Sina Weibo. Journal of Health Communication, 26(1): 1-11.

https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2020.1865486

3.       York, F.* & Tang, L. (2021). “Picture me heart disease free”: Understand the cardiovascular disease experiences of African Americans through a culture-centered approach. Journal of Applied Communication Research, 49(3): 247-266. https://doi.org/10.1080/00909882.2021.1912377

4.       Zou, W.*, & Tang, L. (2021). Rumors and processing strategies during the COVID-19 outbreak in China. Public Understanding of Science, 30(2): 153-168.  https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662520979459

 

Students at Alabama

 

5.    Park, E. S.*, & Tang, L., Bie, B., & Zhi, D. (2019). All pins are not created equal: Communicating skin cancer visually on Pinterest. Translational Behavioral Medicine, 9(2), 336-346. https://doi.org/10.1093/tbm/iby044

6.    Yang, Y.*, & Tang, L. (2018). Understanding women’s stories about drinking: Implications for health communication. Health Education Research, 33(4): 271-279. https://doi.org/10.1093/her/cyy016

7.    Bie, B.*, & Tang, L. (2015). Representation of autism in leading newspapers in China: A content analysis.  Health Communication, 30(9), 884-893. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2014.889063

 

 

 

 

Undergraduate Courses

 

COMM 305 Theories of Communication is a large lecture course that offers an overview of social scientific theories in communication. [COMM 305 Syllabus]

 

COMM 470 Communication in Health Organizations is an upper level writing course that examines organizational communication issues such as leadership, conflict resolution, burnout, and technology use. [COMM 470 Syllabus]

 

COMM 471 Media, Health and Medicine is a writing course focuses on the analysis of media contents related to health and medicine through either health communication or critical theories. [COMM 471 Syllabus]

 

My students and I created a Course Blog where we post samples of media messages and our analysis. Check it out here.

 

Graduate Courses

 

COMM 616 Social Network Analytics (doctoral seminar) introduces students to the theories and methods of social network analysis in the context of studying media media big data. Students learn how to conduct basic network analysis using UCINET and Gephi and semantic network analysis using Leximancer. They are also introduced to the logic of natural language processing through the use of DiscoverText. [COMM 616 Syllabus]

 

COMM 670  Culture and Health Communication (doctoral seminar) is focused on in-depth discussion of the interaction between culture and health communication. The seminar discusses how cultural differences explain people’s health beliefs and behaviors and how cultural characteristics can be leveraged toward health promotion. In addition, it highlights the Culture-Centered Approach, which questions the structural issues, power, and oppression in health and health communication. [COMM 670 Syllabus]

 

Before I joined Texas A&M University, I taught a large variety of courses at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and the University of Alabama.

 

Department of Communication Studies, University of Alabama, 2009-2017

1. CIS 650 Seminar on Organizational Communication (Doctoral Seminar).

2. CIS 650 Seminar on Health Communication (Doctoral Seminar).

3. COM 595 Special topics on health communication (Graduate seminar).

4. COM 561 Human Communication Theory (Graduate seminar, online/offline).

5. MC 551 Mass Communication Theory (Online graduate course).

6. COM 536 Graduate Independent Study (Graduate Course).

7. COM 500 Introduction to Graduate Studies (Graduate Professional Seminar).

8. COM 499 Capstone Seminar (Undergraduate, online/offline).

9. COM 460/560 Group Leadership (Undergraduate/Graduate).

10. COM 450 Advanced Organizational Communication (Undergraduate).

11. COM 350 Organizational Communication (Undergraduate).

12. COM 300 Human Communication Research (Undergraduate).

 

School of Communication Studies, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2007-2009

1. COMM 540: Organizational and Team Communication (Graduate seminar).

2. COMM 499: Preseminar in Communication Studies (Undergraduate capstone course).

3. COMM 440: Survey of Organizational Communication (Undergraduate).

4. COMM 350: Communication Theory (Undergraduate).