Pu Cao is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication, Southwest Jiaotong University. She received her Ph.D. in Media Economics from Renmin University of China. She was a Visiting Scholar at the Annenberg School for Communication, University of Pennsylvania. She has an M.A. in Media Economics from Renmin University of China, a B.A. in Cultural Industry Management and a second B.A. in Journalism from Communication University of China. Her current research interests focus on new media studies and media production studies.

Her articles on these and other topics have appeared in such journals as Journalism & Communication, Chinese Journal of Journalism & Communication, Journalism Research, Contemporary Communication, etc.. She has also contributed chapters to books such as Research on Copyright Management of Media(edited by Ding, Hanqing), Media Economics: Disciplinary Construction in China (edited by Yu, Guoming and Ding, Hanqing) and Annual Report on China's Media Development Index (edited by Yu, Guoming). Her recent research project, "Exploring the Structural Changes in the Film Production Field Under the Influence of Internet Companies", is funded by Top and Innovative Talent Cultivation Funding (Renmin University of China). She has been a research fellow for the projects on "the Patterns and Trends of Public Opinion towards Confucius Institute (2004-2015)", "Big Data Analysis on Online Users' Behaviors"," Internet Industry Annual Security Report (2014)", etc..