Dr. Grace Xiao ZHANG, an Assistant Professor from the Department of Journalism and Communication at Hong Kong Shue Yan University, attended the 2023 International Communication Association (ICA) Annual Conference held in Toronto, Canada, at the end of May.

Dr. Zhang was invited to present two research papers at the conference. The first paper, titled " Knowledge, Negative Emotion and the Third-person Effect of Covid-19 Misinformation: A Study in Singapore," was presented at the Affiliate Journal Top Paper Session on May 26. The co-authors of this paper are Prof. Ran WEI, Chair Professor in the School of Communication at Hong Kong Baptist University, and Prof. Jack Linchuan QIU, Shaw Foundation Professor in Media Technology at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, Nanyang Technology University. The second paper, titled "Imaginary Intimacy: The Exploring Female K-pop Fans’ Continuous Usage Intention of Fan-Idol Social Media Apps from the SOR Perspective," was presented at the Fandom, New Conflicts, Media Culture session on May 28. Co-authors included Ms. Keyin ZHU and Ms. Mingming FAN, postgraduate students from the Faculty of Humanities and Arts at Macau University of Science and Technology.

The ICA annual conference is a top academic conference in the field of communication, held by the ICA with over 5,000 communication scholars from more than 80 countries as association members. The 2023 ICA Annual Conference, held from May 25 to 29, was themed "Reclaiming Authenticity in Communication", and attracted communication scholars around the world to share their latest academic achievements related to global public discourse and popular culture.