Research
My research interests lie at the intersection of digital media,
political communication, and computational social science. I am
particularly interested in understanding how digital technologies
construct social and political changes, as well as how social and
political forces influence their design, governance, and operation. My
work primarily falls into three overarching areas: regulation,
platforms, and information. Using a mixed-methods approach, my ongoing
research has two focal areas: 1) the integration of algorithmic
decision-making and data analytics into politics and social life, and 2)
the governance of AI and digital platforms.
My publications can be found on Google
scholar and ResearchGate .
Peer-Reviewed Articles
Liang, F. & Ji, L. (2024).Manufacturing
influencers: The gatekeeping roles of MCNs (multi-channel networks) in
cultural production , Information, Communication &
Society , 1-17.Li, M., Liang, F. , & Zhu, Q. (2024). Examining
active news avoidance across countries: A multi-level moderation
analysis of news interests, news trust, and press freedom ,
Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly , 1-25.
Tian, L. & Liang, F. (2023). Cultural porters and Banyun
in Chinese fandoms on Bilibili , Transformative Works &
Cultures , 41 , 1-8.
Liang, F. & Campbell, S. (2023). Technological
acceptance and social shaping of 5G: Quantitative and qualitative
Insights from China and the US , International Communication
Gazette , 1-17.Liang, F. , Zhu, Q., & Li, M. (2023). The
effects of flagging propaganda sources on news sharing:
Quasi-experimental evidence from Twitter . The International
Journal of Press/Politics . 28 (4), 909-928.Campbell, S., Ross, M. Q., Liang, F. , & Rich,
L. (2023). From
moving about the city to moving about the home: Considering bounded
spaces of connected mobility , International Journal of
Communication , 17 , 5669–5689.
Xu, P., Krueger, B., Liang, F. , Zhang, M,
Hutchison, M., & Chang, M. (2023). Media
framing and public support for China’s Social Credit System: An
experimental study , New Media & Society , 1-19.
Liang, F. & Lu, S. (2023). The
dynamics of event-based political influencers on Twitter: A longitudinal
analysis of influential accounts during Chinese political events .
Social Media + Society , 1-12.Liang, F. & Chen, Y. (2022). The making of “good” citizens:
China’s Social Credit Systems and infrastructures of social
quantification . Policy & Internet . 1-22.Jia, L. & Liang, F. (2021). The
globalization of TikTok: Strategies, governance, and geopolitics .
Journal of Digital Media & Policy , 12 (2),
273-292.
Kim, Y., Chen, Y., & Liang, F. (2021). Engineering
care in pandemic techno-governance: The politics of care in China and
South Korea’s COVID-19 tracking apps . New Media &
Society , 1-19.
Liang, F. , Chen, Y., & Zhao, F. (2021). The
platformization of propaganda: How Xuexi Qiangguo expands persuasion and
assesses citizens in China . International Journal of
Communication , 15 , 1855–1874.Lee, S., Liang, F. , Hahn, L., Lane, D., Weeks, B.,
& Kwak, N. (2021). When
it seems bots have liked it: The impact of social endorsement cues and
manipulability concerns on perceptions of news credibility .
Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking , 1-6.
Campbell, S., Zhao, F., Frith, J., & Liang, F .
(2021). Imagining
5G: Public sense-making through advertising in China and the US .
Mobile Media & Communication , 1-16.
Liang, F. (2020). COVID-19
and Health Code: How digital platforms tackle the pandemic in China .
Social Media + Society , 1-4.Liang, F. (2019). The
New Silk Road on Facebook: How China’s official media cover and frame
national initiative for global audiences . Communication &
the Public, 4 (4), 261-275.Lane, D. S., Lee, S. S., Liang, F. , Kim, D. H.,
Shen, L., Weeks, B. E., & Kwak, N. (2019). Social
media expression and the political self . Journal of
Communication, 69 (1), 49-72.
Liang, F. , Das, V., Kostyuk, N., & Hussain, M.
M. (2018). Constructing
a data‐driven society: China’s Social Credit System as a state
surveillance infrastructure . Policy & Internet, 10 (4),
415-453.Kwak, N., Lane, D. S., Lee, S. S., Liang, F. , &
Weeks, B. E. (2018). From
persuasion to deliberation: Do experiences of online political
persuasion facilitate dialogic openness? . Communication
research , 1-23.
Conference Proceedings
Cao, J., Peng, X., Liang, F. , & Tong, T. (2024)
“Voices help
correlate signs and words”: Analyzing deaf and hard-of-hearing (DHH)
TikTokers’ content, practices, and pitfalls” , Proceedings of the
2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems ,
1-18.
Other Publications
Liang, F. (2021). China’s
social credit system is a fragmented experiment .
Devdiscourse .Liang, F. (2018). Book
review: Can the Internet strengthen democracy? Global Media and
Communication, 14 (3), 368-369.Kostyuk, N., Chen, W., Das, V., Liang, F. , &
Hussain, M. M. (2017). High-tech
governance through big data surveillance: Tracing the global deployment
of mass surveillance infrastructures, 1995 to present . SSRN,
1-38.
Conference Presentations
The 2024 International Conference on Social Media & Society,
July 16-18, 2024, London, UK
The 74th International Communication Association (ICA) Conference,
June 20-24, 2024, Gold Coast, Australia
The 10th Biennial Surveillance Studies Network/Surveillance &
Society Conference, May 29-31, 2024, Ljubljana, Slovenia
The 2023 Association of Internet Researchers (AoIR) Conference,
October 18-21, 2023, Philadelphia, PA
The 9th International Conference on Computational Social Science,
July 17-20, 2023, Copenhagen, Denmark
The International Association for Media and Communication Research
(IAMCR) Annual Conference, July 9-13, 2023, Lyon, France
The 73rd International Communication Association (ICA) Conference,
May 25-29, 2023, Toronto, Canada
International Conference on Automated Decision-Making and Chinese
Societies, February 1-3, 2023, Melbourne, Australia
The 2022 Conference of British Association for Chinese Studies
(BACS), August 31 - September 1, 2022, London, UK
The 23rd Annual Conference of the Association of Internet
Researchers (AoIR), November 2-5, 2022, Dublin, Ireland
The 72nd International Communication Association (ICA) Conference,
May 26-30, 2022. Hybrid Format
The 79th Annual Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA)
Conference, April 7-10, 2022. Hybrid Format
Digital Transactions in Asia IV - 2022 Conference, February 10-11,
2022. Virtual Format
The 71st International Communication Association (ICA) Annual
Conference, 27-31 May 2021. Virtual Conference
The 70th International Communication Association (ICA) Annual
Conference, 21-25 May 2020. Virtual Conference
The 5th International Conference on Computational Social Science,
July 17-20, 2019. University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
International Communication Association (ICA) Annual Conference, May
24-28, 2019. Washington, D.C.
The Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication
(AEJMC) Conference. August 6-9, 2018. Washington, D.C.
International Association for Media and Communication Research
(IAMCR) Annual Conference. June 20 - 24, 2018. University of Oregon,
Eugene, OR
International Communication Association (ICA) Annual Conference, May
24-28, 2018. Prague, the Czech Republic
The 16th Chinese Internet Research Conference. May 22-23, 2018.
Leiden University, Netherlands
Digital Transformation in China – Recent Trends and Impacts. January
19, 2018. Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Data Science Research Forum. December 1, 2017. Ann Arbor, MI
The 15th Chinese Internet Research Conference. June 5-6, 2017. Fort
Worth, TX
Global Fusion Conference. October 13-14, 2017. Athens, OH
International Communication Association (ICA) Preconference, May 25,
2017. San Diego, CA
Science, Technology, and the Politics of Knowledge in Global
Affairs, March 30-31, 2017. Northwestern University, Chicago, IL