CMO People

Director of CMO

Gabriele Balbi is Full Professor in Media Studies at the Institute of Media and Journalism (IMeG), Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society, USI Università della Svizzera italiana (Switzerland). At this institution, he is Pro-Rector for Education and Students' Experience, program director of the Bachelor in Communication, director of the China Media Observatory, and vice director of the Institute of Media and Journalism. Furthermore, he is Vice-Chair of ICA Communication History Division. He received a BA and MA in Communication Sciences at the University of Turin (Italy) in 2002 and 2004 and a PhD in Communication Sciences and Social History of Communication at USI in 2008. He has been lecturer and visiting professor at several universities: Harvard, Maastricht, Columbia, Westminster, Oxford, Northumbria, Perugia, Augsburg, and Concordia. His main research area is media history.

More on Gabriele

PhD candidate

Lin Yue is a doctoral candidate at the Institute of Media and Journalism (IMeG). Her supervisor is Prof. Gabriele Balbi. In 2022, she got the second master's degree in the university of Zurich, writing qualitative research on cross-cultural management between Chinese and European social media App Little Red Book and Instagram. In 2021, she obtained a MSc master's degree in international management and marketing, writing a thesis on marketing and was awarded for distinction dissertation entitled: “The Impact of Eco-Labelling on the Chinese Gen-Z consumers: The Mediation Role of eco-label knowledge in Green Purchase Behavior”. In both her bachelor's and master's degrees, she received high GPAs. After an internship for Chinese journal media XinHua News agency, she returned to academics in September 2022 to pursue a doctorate in communication.  Her research, funded by China Scholarship Council (CSC), studies comparative revolution analysis of Chinese and European digital mobile payment, emphasizing on the culture of media and technology companies exclusively available to her research team. Adopting a historical perspective, the work focuses on the global transition to a digital payment era with a ten year timeline outlook and the development process of mobile technologies. Her research interests include cross- cultural management, financial communication, competitive analysis, media history, and digital mobile payment.

PhD candidate

Ziwen Meng is a PhD candidate at the Institute of Media and Journalism (IMeG), currently devotes his efforts at the China Media Observatory (CMO). His research is centered on unraveling the evolution of digital technologies in China and the underlying digital metaphors. He harbors a keen interest in studying the cultural and societal dimensions within communication behaviors, particularly delving into the varied reflections of how digital technologies impact and reshape culture. He has a Bachelor's degree in Advertising (2021) and a Master's degree in Social Science Research Methods (Sociology) (2023).

Honorary President of CMO

Giuseppe Richeri is Professor emeritus of the Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society (formerly: Faculty of Communication Sciences) at Università della Svizzera italiana. He taught History and Theory of Communication, Politics and Economics of the communications strategy and New Media Markets. He was the Dean of the Faculty for the 2004-2006 and 2006-2008 biennia. He was also the director of the Institute of Media and Journalism (IMeG), and PhD supervisor and visiting professor at the Communication University of China (Beijing). After various periods of studying abroad and a degree in Economics from the University of Pavia in 1971, he has carried out research and consultancy in the field of communications for Italian and international institutions including UNESCO, the Council of Europe the EEC, the European Broadcasting Union. He has taught at various universities in France and Spain (including the Ecole Nationale d'Administration in Paris and the University Autonomous of Barcelona, where he has held the UNESCO Chair in Communication) and later in Italy (Faculty of Architecture, Polytechnic of Milan, Faculty of Political Science, University of Florence, Bachelor of Science in Communication Sciences, University of Bologna). He has held conferences, seminars and presentations at scientific universities in 20 different countries including Westminster in London, Annamberg School of Communication in Philadelphia, McGill and UQAM in Montreal, Federal University in Rio de Janeiro, American University of Beirut, and Communication University of China, etc. Other positions he had taken in recent years are: strategic advisor to the Information Service of the European Broadcasting Union, a member of the Committee of the Italian Ministry of communications for national and local TV licenses (1999-2001), member of the Italian Ministerial Standing for digital terrestrial TV (2001-2005), member of the Scientific Committee of the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme in Paris and the Bordoni Foundation in Rome.

Scientific collaborator

Gianluigi Negro is Assistant Professor at the University of Siena (Department of Education, Human Sciences and Intercultural Communication). He was born in Maglie (LE), he got a BA (2006) and a MA (2008) at Ca’ Foscari University studying oriental languages and Chinese economics. In 2008 he has been working for the General Consulate of Italy in Guangzhou. His dissertation was focused on the Chinese Internet and titled “Web 2.0 in China”. After his graduation Gianluigi started to collaborate with several Italian media reporting the most important trend of the Chinese Internet. In 2010 he got a second MA in ‘Global Management’ at Roma 3 University. The same year he moved to Beijing to work at China-Italy Chamber of Commerce as Publications & Media Relations Executive. In May 2010 he co-founded Cineresie.info a collective blog focused on contemporary China. After his PhD at China Media Observatory (CMO), Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), he has been Post Doctoral Researcher Fellow at the School of Communication of Tsinghua and Peking Universities. He is member of Global Internet Governance Academic Network (Giga-Net) as well as the Italian Association of Chinese Studies (AISC). His researches focus on Chinese media history and the Chinese Internet governance. 

Researcher / Project manager

Zhan Zhang is Assistant Professor in International Communication at the School of International Communications, University of Nottingham Ningbo China (UNNC). She taught at Institute of Media and Journalism (IMeG), Faculty of Communication, Culture and Society, Università della Svizzera italiana (USI). She was academic coordinator of USI Master in Media Management, and she conducted research and organized scientific and educational activities for China Media Observatory (CMO). Zhan finished her Bachelor's and first Master's degree in TV Journalism in Communication University of China (Beijing), and accomplished her European Master degree in Aarhus University (Denmark) and University of Florence (Italy) with the rewarded Erasmus scholarship in Arts in Media, Communication and Culture Studies. She worked for both Chinese media (China Central Television, Kaiming) and Western media (The Independent, Variety) before her academic career. She finished her PhD in Communication Sciences at USI in April 2015, summa cum laude. Between 2016 and 2017, she carried her early postdoc project at Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism of the University of Southern California (USC), Los Angeles, the United States, funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. She co-founded the Europe-China Dialogue: Media and Communication Studies (doctoral) Summer School with the School of Journalism and Communication, Peking University in 2014. And she supported CMO and USI to initiate academic collaboration with different Chinese universities in the field of media, communication and culture studies since 2011.