Research

My research interests lie at the intersection of digital media, political communication, and computational social science. 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 mechanism and consequence of political astroturfing and propaganda on digital platforms.

My publications can be found on Google scholar and ResearchGate.

Peer-Reviewed Articles

• 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.

Book Chapters

• Liang, F. & Tian, L. (2023). From citizens to users: The algorithmic turn in China’s surveillance apparatus. In Filimowicz, M. (Ed.), Algorithms & Society: China’s digital civilization. Routledge, 1-16.
• Liang, F. (2020). Talking politics via images: Exploring the 2016 Chinese Internet memes war on Facebook. In Herdin, T & Faust, M. (Eds). De-westernizing visual culture: Perspectives from the Global South (pp.163-181). Baden, Germany: Nomos Publishing.

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

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 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, 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