Yu Xu

(He/Him/His)

Associate Professor

Phone:847-491-2200Email:yu.xu@northwestern.eduOffice: MFC 3-133

Yu Xu is an Associate Professor of Integrated Marketing Communications at Medill. His research interests include media industries and analytics, social and communication networks, organizational change, ecology and evolution, and computational social science. His work has been published in leading academic journals such as the Journal of Communication, Communication Research, Human Communication Research, Communication Monographs, New Media & Society, the Journal of Business Research, the Journal of Service Management, Political Communication, and Information, Communication & Society. He serves on Northwestern’s Standing Research Integrity Committee, is an editorial board member of the Journal of Communication, Human Communication Research, and the Journal of Service Management, and is an Associate Editor of Communication and Change. At Medill, he teaches courses on digital media strategies and social networks and is a recipient of the IMC Teacher of the Year award.

Education

PhD in communication, University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
MA in journalism and communication, Tsinghua University School of Journalism and Communication
BA in communication, Fudan University School of Journalism

Authored Works

Li, X., Xu, Y., Zhang, Y., & Malthouse, E. C. (2026). Large language model-driven multi-agent simulation for fake news diffusion under different network structures. Computational Communication Research, 8(2), 1–29. https://doi.org/10.5117/CCR2026.2.8.LI
Fu, J. S., Xu, Y., & Cooper, K. (2026). Hybrid institutional messages and organizational legitimacy across disparate stakeholders. Management Communication Quarterly. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/08933189261422705
Xu, Y. (2025). The network mechanisms behind the sharing of online traffic among three platforms in two different categories: A longitudinal analysis of audience overlap among social and communication platforms. Information, Communication & Society. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2025.2506142
Xu, Y. (2025). Mechanisms for employee mobility between organizations: A network analysis of faculty turnover in communication, 2013 to 2022. Communication Research, 52(2), 233–261. https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502231190950

Xu, Y. (2024). Formation mechanisms of intra-organizational membership overlap: A longitudinal network analysis of membership data from the International Communication Association. Journal of Communication, 74(4), 333–345. https://doi.org/10.1093/joc/jqae021
Edgerly, E., Xu, Y., & Franklin, T. (2024). The Medill survey: How the Chicago area gets its news. https://doi.org/10.21985/n2-xzyj-es06
Marti, C., Liu, H., Kour, G., Bilgihan, A., & Xu, Y. (2024). Leveraging artificial intelligence in firm-generated online customer communities: A framework and future research agenda. Journal of Service Management, 35(3), 438–458. https://doi.org/10.1108/JOSM-10-2023-0443
Xu, Y., & Peng, T. (2024). Ecological constraints on audience size in the digital media system: Evidence from the longitudinal tracking data from 2019 to 2022. Human Communication Research, 50(1), 14–26. https://doi.org/10.1093/hcr/hqad028
Edgerly, S. & Xu, Y. (2023). Local-level information-seeking in the COVID-19 pandemic: A repertoire approach. The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 707(1), 172–188. https://doi.org/10.1177/00027162231216812
Xu, Y. (2023). A dynamic network perspective on the evolution of the use of multiple mobile instant messaging apps. Communication Monographs, 90(1), 25–45. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2022.2040739
Xu, Y., Sun, Y., Hagen, L., Patel, M., & Falling, M. (2023). Evolution of the plandemic communication network among serial participants on Twitter. New Media & Society, 25(12), 3676–3695. https://doi.org/10.1177/14614448211050928
Lane, D., Thorson, K., & Xu, Y. (2023). Uninterested and unequal?: Examining SES-based gaps in youth political behavior on social media. Information, Communication & Society, 26(4), 663–681. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2021.1968923
Xu, Y. (2022). Ecological influences on the formation of the hiring network in the communication job market, 2015 to 2019. Communication Research, 49(5), 649–674. https://doi.org/10.1177/00936502211034687
Xu, L. Z., Sargent, M., Xu, Y., Sun, J., Li, Y., & Fulk, J. (2022). The emergence of core (hash)tags and its effects on performance. Telematics & Informatics, 72, 101854. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2022.101854
Xu, Y. (2022). Evolution of audience duplication networks among social networking sites: Exploring the influences of preferential attachment, audience size, and niche width. New Media & Society, 24(9), 2068–2087. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444821993048
Xu, Y., Hazée, S., So, K. K. F., Li, D. K., & Malthouse, E. C. (2021). An evolutionary perspective on the dynamics of service platform ecosystems for the sharing economy. Journal of Business Research, 135, 127– https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2021.05.056
Xu, Y., Fulk, J., & Monge, P. (2021). Ecological influences on network tie dissolution in the evolution of affiliation networks in the International Communication Association, 2009–2015. Human Communication Research, 47(1), 75– https://doi.org/10.1093/hcr/hqaa009
Xu, Y., Sun, Y., Cruz, I., & Fulk, J. (2021). Creating the path to success: The impact of crowdsourced exploratory and exploitative activities of expert graphic designers on creativity performance. Telematics and Informatics, 58, 101520. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2020.101520
Xu, Y. (2021). The formation mechanism of the player transfer network among football clubs. Soccer & Society, 22(7), 704– https://doi.org/10.1080/14660970.2020.1835651
Xu, Y. (2018). The ecological dynamics of organizational change: Density dependence in the rate of Weibo adoption by populations of news organizations. International Journal of Communication, 12, 1612– https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/8437/2317
Walter, N., Ball-Rokeach, S., Xu, Y., & Broad, G. M. (2018). Communication ecologies: Analyzing adoption of false beliefs in an information-rich environment. Science Communication, 48(5), 650– https://doi.org/10.1177/1075547018793427
Thorson, K., Xu, Y., Edgerly, S. (2018). Political inequalities start at home: Parents, children and the socialization of civic infrastructure online. Political Communication, 35(2), 178– https://doi.org/10.1080/10584609.2017.1333550
Xu, Y. (2017). Modeling the adoption of social media by newspaper organizations: An organizational ecology approach. Telematics and Informatics, 34(1), 151–163. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tele.2016.05.002
Xu, Y., & Jin, J. (2017). Hierarchy of influences on professional role perceptions among Chinese online journalists: A multilevel analysis. Digital Journalism, 5(2), 194–212. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2016.1162662
Thorson, K., Edgerly, S., Kligler-Vilenchik, N., Xu, Y., & Wang, L. (2016). Seeking visibility in a big tent: Digital communication and the People's Climate March. International Journal of Communication, 10, 4784–4806. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/4703
Zhou, R., Xu, Y., & Li, X. (2015). Journalists in contemporary China: Evidence from Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Wuhan. African Journalism Studies, 36(3), 87–113. https://doi.org/10.1080/23743670.2015.1073933