Dr. Zhong is an associate professor of journalism in the College of Communications, Pennsylvania State University. He is also a faculty affiliate at Center for Advanced Data Assimilation and Predictability Techniques (ADAPT), Media Effects Research Lab, ICT4D Consortium, and the senior research fellow of the John Curley Center for Sports Journalism. At Penn State, he teaches news media ethics, television reporting and international mass communication for undergraduates, and social media research, social media communication and data analytics in journalism studies for graduate students.

His research applies decision-making theories to studying how information processing may affect judgment and decision making. His recent focus is on how patients, farmers, scientists and journalists use and share information on social media, including fake news and misinformation. He also studies the impact of ICT applications like social media or mobile devices, addressing human interaction with ICT, but not technology per se. Special attention has been paid to research projects with practical implications, such as how information processing may empower farmers and enhance patients' healthcare. His research has been published in Journal of Communication, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Computers in Human Behavior, Mass Communication and Society, Journalism and Mass Communication Educator, Newspaper Research Journal, Asian Journal of Communication and International Journal of Sports Communication.

Before he joined the Penn State faculty, he had been a journalist for one decade at China Daily in Beijing, CNN Washington D.C. Bureau and CNN/USA in Atlanta. He holds a Ph.D. degree from the Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland - College Park, and a Master's degree in broadcast journalism from Missouri School of Journalism, University of Missouri-Columbia. Please visit Dr. Zhong's faculty webpage in the College of Communications, Penn State.