Siyuan MA

Assistant Professor

Academic Qualifications

  • Ph.D. in Communication, Michigan State University
  • M.A. in Journalism & Communication, Beijing Normal University
  • B.Sc. in Educational Technology, Beijing Normal University

Careers

University of Macau
01/2024—present Department of Communication Assistant Professor
08/2023—12/2023 Department of Communication Lecturer
Michigan State University
08/2018–07/2023 Department of Communication Teaching Assistant

Research areas

Political communication, Computational methods and big data, International communication.

Peer-Reviewed Journal Publications

    • Zhu, Y., Wang, Y., & Ma, S*. (2025). Videos engaging in conspiracy theories: Promoting or refuting foreign-pseudohistory on the video-sharing website (Bilibili). PloS one, 20(2), e0318986. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0318986
    • Wang, Z., Wang, D., Sheng, Q., Cao, J., Ma, S., & Cheng, H. (2025). Exploring news intent and its application: A theory-driven approach. Information Processing & Management, 62(6), 104229. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2025.104229
    • Yin, S., Huang, S., Xue, P., Xu, Z., Lian, Z., Ye, C., Ma, S., Liu, M., Hu, Y., Lu, P., & Li, C. (2025). Generative artificial intelligence (GAI) usage guidelines for scholarly publishing: a cross-sectional study of medical journals. BMC medicine, 23(1), 77. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12916-025-03899-1 Ulusoy, E., Van Der Heide, B., Ma, S., Earle, K., & Mason, A. (2024). Breaking the Fifth Wall: Two Studies of the Effects of Observing Interpersonal Communication with Content Creators on YouTube. Behavioral Sciences, 14(2), 140. https://doi.org/10.3390/bs14020140
    • Zhu, Y., Ma, S., & Bresnahan, M. J. (2024). A quantitative study on Chinese international students’ support mechanisms to address alienation caused by COVID-19 stigma encounters in the United States. International Journal of Intercultural Relations, 98, 101926. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijintrel.2023.101926
    • Ma, S., Wang, Y., Shu, Z., Duan, Z., & Sun, L. (2023). Development and validation of the Internet literacy scale. Education and Information Technologies, 1-28. https://doi.org/ 10.1007/s10639-023-11641-8
    • Ma, S., Bergan, D., Carnahan, D., Ahn, S., Virtue, I., & Mcgraw, J. (2022). Fact-checking as a deterrent? A conceptual replication of the influence of fact-checking on the sharing of misinformation by political elites. Human Communication Research, hqac031. https://doi.org/10.1093/hcr/hqac031
    • Ma, S., & Zhang, H. (2021). Opinion expression dynamics in social media chat groups: An integrated quasi-experimental and agent-based model approach. Complexity, 2021. http://doi.org/10.1155/2021/2304754
    • Ma, S., Zhu, Y., & Bresnahan, M. (2021). Chinese international students’ face concerns, mental health stigma, and help seeking intentions. Health Communication, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2021.1910167
    • Ahn, S., Bergan, D. E., Ma, S., & Carnahan, D. (2023). Estimating the impact of immediate versus delayed corrections on belief accuracy. Communication Monographs, 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637751.2023.2202728
    • Bergan, D., Virtue, I., Ma, S., Caitlin, F., Harrison, J., & Ahn, S. (2023). Can people use party cues to make accurate judgments?: Ecological rationality and political heuristics. Political Research Quarterly, https://doi.org/10.1177/10659129231151388.
    • Danowski, J., van Klyton, A., Peng, T. Q., Ma, S., Nkakleu, R., & Biboum, A. (2022). ICT development, interorganizational networks, and corruption in Africa. Quality and Quantity, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11135-022-01508-4
    • Lee, S., Ma, S., Meng, J., Zhuang, J., & Peng, T. Q. (2022). Detecting Sentiment toward Emerging Infectious Diseases on Social Media: A Validity Evaluation of Dictionary-Based Sentiment Analysis. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(11), 6759. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19116759
    • Zhang, R., Gong, J., Ma, S., & Xu, J. (2022). Analytical advances through open science: An automatic coding mechanism for open-ended questions in journalism surveys. Digital Journalism, 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2022.2037006
    • Ulusoy, E., Carnahan, D., Barry, R. C., Bergan, D. E., Ma, S., Ahn, S., & Mcgraw, J. (2021). Flooding the zone: How exposure to implausible falsehoods shapes subsequent belief judgments. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 33(4), 856-872. https://doi.org/10.1093/ijpor/edab022

Book Chapters

  • Wang, Y. & Ma, S. (2024, expected). Applied Communication in Education, Beijing: China Higher Education Press. (co-first author) (in press, in Chinese)

  • Ma, S., & Wang, Y. (2020). Chapter Six: Paradigm shift of mass communication effect studies. (Eds.), Applied Communication in Science Venues, Beijing: Science and Technology of China Press. (in Chinese)

  • Wan, A., Ma, S., & Wang, S. (2017). Chapter Three: Publishing techniques in ancient Greek and ancient Rome. (Eds.), Publishing History in China and Foreign Countries. Beijing: China Higher Education Press. (in Chinese)

Courses Taught

New media and communication studies, Interpersonal communication, Methods in communication, Public Opinion, Human communication.

Contact Details

Faculty of Social Sciences (FSS)
Humanities & Social Sciences Building (E21B), 2052
Tel: (853) 6358 1549
E-mail: siyuanma@um.edu.mo
Personal website: https://siyuanma.org/