Dechun Zhang, PhD

Dechun Zhang is a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Department of Communication at the University of Copenhagen, working on the ERC Advanced Grant project GREENWATCH – Green Surveillance: Imagining a Sustainable Internet of Things, which examines IoT applications for environmental monitoring and their ethical and political implications across China, Europe, and the U.S. He is the author of Digital Nationalism and Affective Governance: Propaganda, Public Sentiment, and Soft Authoritarianism in China.

His research focuses on digital politics, political communication, state-mediated propaganda, public participation, and the interplay of these phenomena, including digital public opinion, nationalist mobilization, comparative media studies, and international broadcasting strategies, with a focus on China. He has explored online engagement, platform governance, and the role of AI and algorithms in shaping public discourse.

Dechun holds a PhD from Leiden University, an Erasmus Mundus Joint Master’s in Journalism, Media and Globalisation, and a BA (Hons) in International Journalism from Hong Kong Baptist University. He serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia, Asia Pacific Viewpoint, and Global Perspectives in Communication, organizes special issues and workshops on digital governance and media, is an Affiliated Researcher at Leiden Asia Centre, and represents early-career scholars in the ICA Mass Communication Division.