NEWS & EVENTS

The Department of Communication Studies, in collaboration with HKBU Fact Check, and the Centre for Media and Communication Research (CMCR), successfully hosted an international conference on health communication on Tuesday, May 27, 2025. The conference, titled "Health Communication in the Digital Era: Information, Trust, and Strategies," featured a series of discussions across a broad range of topics, bringing together leading scholars and industry practitioners to discuss and address challenges and opportunities in health communication. The conference was organised by Professor Stephanie Jean Tsang from the Department of Communication Studies.

Professor Yi-Ru Regina Chen, Head of the Department of Communication Studies at Hong Kong Baptist University, said in her opening remark for the conference: “This conference is made possible through our Initiation Grant for Faculty Niche Research Areas. Our objective is to integrate interdisciplinary insights from communication and linguistics to explore health communication, with a focus on understanding and addressing health-related issues from a cross-cultural perspective. I am honoured to organize this event in collaboration with esteemed scholars from Hong Kong Baptist University and the University of Minnesota.”

Professor Chen added: “We are delighted to gather here for a comprehensive exploration of how to communicate health information in today’s complex digital landscape. The event is set to foster an interdisciplinary discussion and collaboration among scholars, researchers, and practitioners in health communication and intercultural communication with a focus on combating misinformation and building trust—These two are very important issues for us to handle today for various scholars and practitioners in various fields.”

Professor Chen delivers the opening remark for the conference.

Distinguished International Faculty Delivered Cutting-Edge Research

The conference featured research panels involving renowned scholars from universities and institutions across the globe, including Professor Elaine Hsieh and Professor Eric Kramer from University of Minnesota, Professor Edson C. Tandoc Jr. from Nanyang Technological University Singapore, Professor Vivien Shuo Zhou from Hong Kong Baptist University, and Professor Xiaohui Wang from City University of Hong Kong. Sessions focused on the role of technology and AI in health communication, cross-cultural communication, multimodalities of healthcare interpreting, healthcare quality and trust, trust-building in healthcare, healthcare norms and policies, and expertise and authority in healthcare. Other key topics included health embodied self-verification in health communication, the relationship between health information scanning and misinformation sharing, and dynamics of information overload, news avoidance and susceptibility to misinformation.

Professor Min-hua Liu, Hong Kong Baptist University, moderates the research panel.

The conference's keynote speech, "Trust Dynamics and Risk Management in the Age of Digital Health Communication," was delivered by Distinguished Professor Anthony Pym from Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain. In his keynote address, he examined how different appeals to trustworthiness correspond to different positions in healthcare hierarchies, and how translation technologies impact institutionalized trust relationships.

Drawing from his research projects on COVID and post-COVID messaging in Melbourne's superdiverse communities, particularly regarding vaccination, Professor Pym demonstrated that effective health communication extends beyond clear texts and certified translations to encompass community-based communication and virtues of thick trust.

Industry-Academia Collaboration Highlighted Through Roundtable Discussion

The conference culminated with a roundtable discussion "Fact-Checking Health Misinformation: An Industry Perspective." This session brought together fact-checking practitioners from Hong Kong’s local fact-checking organizations, including Ms. Purple Romero and Ms. Sophia Xu from AFP Fact Check, Mr. Kayue Cheng from Factcheck Lab, Professor Masato Kajimoto and Ms. Cherry Lai from HKU Annie Lab, and Ms. Lin Zhou from HKBU Fact Check, to provide practical insights into combating health misinformation.

The discussion covered a wide range of topics, including vaccine misinformation, homeopathy trends online, misinterpreted scientific evidence in health misinformation, and teaching infodemic management. The conference concluded with a closing remark from Professor Stephanie Jean Tsang at Hong Kong Baptist University.

Roundtable discussants at the conference.

The event advanced several emerging areas of inquiry that integrate technology, culture, and healthcare communication, including AI-assisted healthcare interpreting, embodied self-verification in health communication, and the psychological mechanisms of believing fake news, allowing for informed strategies and broader engagement in addressing universal health communication challenges and enriching dialogue with viewpoints spanning a variety of cultural contexts.

Illuminating discussion among scholars and practitioners presented excellent opportunities to exchange ideas and insights from academia and the industry, highlighting the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in addressing health communication issues. The event bridged the gap between theoretical health communication research and real-world healthcare application, providing industry stakeholders with evidence-based strategies for enhancing healthcare quality and trust as well as combating health misinformation in digital environments. Healthcare institutions and fact-checking organizations gained access to cutting-edge research findings that can directly inform their communication strategies and intervention approaches. The event demonstrated how academic insights can be translated into practical solutions for combating health misinformation, while industry expertise can inform more relevant and applicable research questions.