Dr. Timothy Fung’s research focuses on the processes of how people seek, process, interpret, and react to messages about issues related to health, risk, environment, and science, as well as how media cover risk-related issues. His research in these areas appeared in top-ranked academic journals. He is an editorial member of the Environmental Communication and World Medical & Health Policy.

Dr Fung’s work have been recognized by various organizations through research awards and grants. He received the Article of the Year Award and several top conference paper awards from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC). He also awarded competitive grants from General Research Fund (GRF) of the Research Grant Council, and the Department of Health of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government.

Community outreach is an integral part of Dr. Fung’s research. He has been making use of the knowledge out of his research on narrative persuasion to serve different health organizations to develop effective persuasive messages using animation and micro-movies. For example, he collaborated with the Renal Companion Association to develop theory-driven animated stories to persuade patients undergoing peritoneal dialysis (PD) to adhere to treatment regimen, and the animated story was made into a DVD to distribute to patients. Local news media covered the project. In addition, he worked with the Hong Kong Society of Transplantation to design an evidence-based animated story, “Say Your Wish Save a Life” to promote family discussion about organ donation among young adults. The Department of Health of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government adopted the animated story for its organ donation promotion. This project was awarded the HKBU Knowledge Transfer Award in 2017.

Collaborated with the Primary Care Office of the Department of Health, Dr. Fung’s most recent knowledge transfer project was to develop a narrative-based videos to promote the idea of family doctor to parents of young children. The Public Service Announcement (PSA) has been broadcasting on TV stations in Hong Kong since January 2018 (Also see the Editor’s edition). Another 3-mintue narrative-based video has been showing on the Primary Care Office’s Youtube channel (Also see the Editor’s edition). Collaborated with The Hong Kong College of Family Physicians and the Boys’ and Girls’ Clubs Association of Hong Kong, Dr. Fung recently produced an explainer animation to promote the family doctor healthcare concept. 

Health Communication, Risk Communication, Science Communication, Environmental Communication