Research

Authoritarian Information Control in the Digital Age

Recommending the State: How Social Media Algorithms Curate State-Created Content in China Yingdan Lu, Xinyi Liu & Carl Zhou · Journal of Communication · jqag010 · 2026
PDF DOI Replication
Performative Propaganda Engagement: How Celebrity Fans Engage with State Propaganda on Weibo Yingdan Lu · Political Communication · 43(1), 99–127 · 2026
PDF DOI Replication
Decentralized Propaganda in the Era of Digital Media: The Massive Presence of the Chinese State on Douyin Yingdan Lu, Jennifer Pan, Xu Xu & Yiqing Xu · American Journal of Political Science · Online First · 2025
Open Access Replication
Across the Firewall: Foreign Media's Role in Shaping Chinese Social Media Narratives on the Russo-Ukrainian War Hans Hanley, Yingdan Lu & Jennifer Pan · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences · 122(1), e2420607122 · 2025
Open Access Replication
How Information Flows from the World to China Yingdan Lu, Jack Schaefer, Kunwoo Park, Jungseock Joo & Jennifer Pan · The International Journal of Press/Politics · 29(2), 305–327 · 2024
Open Access Replication
Pandemic Nationalism: Use of Government Social Media for Political Information and Belief in COVID-19 Conspiracy Theories in China Anfan Chen, Yingdan Lu, Kaiping Chen & Aaron Yikai Ng · The International Journal of Press/Politics · 29(3), 710–732 · 2024
PDF DOI
The Pervasive Presence of Chinese Government Content on Douyin Trending Videos Yingdan Lu & Jennifer Pan · Computational Communication Research · 4(1), 68–97 · 2022
Open Access Replication
Public Sentiment on Chinese Social Media during the Emergence of COVID-19 Yingdan Lu, Jennifer Pan & Yiqing Xu · Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media · 1, 1–47 · 2021
Open Access Replication
Capturing Clicks: How the Chinese Government Uses Clickbait to Compete for Visibility Yingdan Lu & Jennifer Pan · Political Communication · 38(1–2), 23–54 · 2021
PDF DOI Replication

Multimodal Communication in AI-mediated Environments

Seeing the Surreal: Mapping Surrealism in Photorealistic AI-Generated Images Using Large Language Models Xinyi Liu, Yingdan Lu, Qiyao Peng, Sijia Qian, Yilang Peng & Cuihua Shen · Computational Communication Research · 8(2), 1 · 2026
Open Access Replication
Contextualizing Misinformation: A User-Centric Approach to Linguistic and Topical Patterns in News Consumption Ross Dahlke, Fangjing Tu, Yi-Chia Wang, Yingdan Lu, Blain W Engeda & Jeffrey T. Hancock · Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction · 9(7), 1–40 · 2025
Open Access
The Mobilizing Power of Visual Media Across Stages of Social-Mediated Protests Yingdan Lu & Yilang Peng · Political Communication · 41(4), 531–558 · 2024
PDF DOI
Convergence or Divergence? A Cross-Platform Analysis of Climate Change Visual Categories, Features, and User Engagement on Twitter and Instagram Sijia Qian, Yingdan Lu, Yilang Peng, Cuihua Shen & Huacen Xu · Public Relations Review · 50(2), 102454 · 2024
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The Influencer Pay Gap: Platform Labor Meets Racial Capitalism Angèle Christin & Yingdan Lu · New Media & Society · 26(12), 7212–7235 · 2024
PDF Open Access
Unpacking Multimodal Fact-checking: Features and Engagement of Fact-checking Videos on Chinese TikTok (Douyin) Yingdan Lu & Cuihua Shen · Social Media + Society · 9(1) · 2023
Open Access
An Agenda for Studying Credibility Perceptions of Visual Misinformation Yilang Peng, Yingdan Lu & Cuihua Shen · Political Communication · 40(2), 225-237 · 2023
PDF DOI
Selectively Localized: Temporal and Visual Structure of Smartphone Screen Activity across Media Environments Daniel Muise, Yingdan Lu, Jennifer Pan & Byron Reeves · Mobile Media & Communication · 10(3), 487–509 · 2022
PDF DOI
Screenomics: A Framework to Capture and Analyze Personal Life Experiences and the Ways that Technology Shapes Them Byron Reeves, Nilam Ram, Thomas N. Robinson, James J. Cummings, C. Lee Giles, Jennifer Pan, Agnese Chiatti, MJ Cho, Katie Roehrick, Xiao Yang, Anupriya Gagneja, Miriam Brinberg, Daniel Muise, Yingdan Lu, Mufan Luo, Andrew Fitzgerald & Leo Yeykelis · Human-Computer Interaction · 36(2), 150–201 · 2021
PDF DOI New York Times report

Advancing Computational Social Science Research

Video as Data in Computational Analysis Kaiping Chen & Yingdan Lu · Book chapter in The Handbook of Quantitative Research Methods in Communication Science (L. Shen, Ed.) · 2026
Book chapter
Unmasking Deception: How Computer Vision Could Empower Visual Journalism in Unveiling Visual Misinformation Sang Jung Kim, Yingdan Lu & Yilang Peng · Book chapter in The Routledge Companion to Visual Journalism (T. J. Thompson & N. S. Dahmen, Eds.) · 39, 471–482 · 2025
Book chapter
Unraveling China's Digital Traces: Evaluating Communication Scholarship through a Sociotechnical Lens Kaiping Chen, Yingdan Lu & Yiping Wang · Chinese Journal of Communication · 17(2), 127–150 · 2024
PDF DOI
Computational Visual Analysis in Political Communication Yilang Peng & Yingdan Lu · Book chapter in Research Handbook on Visual Politics (D. Lilleker & A. Veneti, Eds.) · 4, 42–54 · 2023
Book chapter