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Weiyu Zhang

Weiyu Zhang

Principal Investigator and Director of the Civic Tech Lab,

weiyu.zhang@nus.edu.sg
Public Communication Information Communication Technology Risk Communication

Professor Weiyu Zhang is Director of the Civic Tech Lab, currently located at the Department of Communications and New Media, National University of Singapore. Her research focuses on civic engagement and Information and Communication Technologies, with an emphasis on Asia. She has led on multi-nation projects on youth engagement, online deliberation, and civic tech in Asia. Her current interest is to develop and examine civic tech applications to facilitate citizen deliberation on public topics such as social cohesion, COVID-19 vaccines, climate change, and novel food.

published papers

  1. Zhang, W., Wang, B., Leong, L. P., Leong, D., Tham, M. & Ang, W. H. (2025). Public Discourses of Alternative Protein Foods in Facebook Public Pages’ Posts, 2014–2024. PLoS One, 20(10), e0333922. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0333922
  2. Wang, R, Zhang, W., & Shin, J. (2025). Mapping the evolving networks of the #StopAsianHate movement on Twitter: the role of serial participants in digital activism. Information, Communciation & Society, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2025.2571407
  3. Zhang, W., Rui, E. Y. & Fu, G. J. (2025). Intermediated visibility: A case study of creators and MCNs in Singapore. Convergence, 31(3): 752 - 769.   https://doi.org/10.1177/13548565251331464
  4. Xi, Y. & Zhang, W. (2025). Moral Expression of “Experts” and Public Engagement: Communicating COVID-19 Vaccine on Facebook Public Pages in Chinese. Public Understanding of Science, 34(4): .459 - 478. https://doi.org/10.1177/09636625241310147
  5. Zhang, W. (2024). The 30 years of online fandom in China. Communication and the Public. https://doi.org/10.1177/20570473241270576
  6. Zhang, W., & Tong, T. (2024). Contesting the intermediary power: How Chinese MCNs interact with platforms, creators, and advertisers. Media, Culture & Society, 46(5), 1027-1044. https://doi.org/10.1177/01634437241229306
  7. Yeo, S. Y., Lim, G., Gao, J., Zhang, W., & Perrault, S. T. (2024, May). Help Me Reflect: Leveraging Self-Reflection Interface Nudges to Enhance Deliberativeness on Online Deliberation Platforms. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference Full Papers on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2024). ACM.
  8. Zhang W. (2023). Chineseness as Method. Global Media & China, 8(4), 514-518. https://doi.org/10.1177/20594364231214074
  9. Cheng, Y. & Zhang, W. (2023). C-MFD 2.0: Developing a Chinese Moral Foundation Dictionary. Computational Communication Research, 5(2). https://doi.org/10.5117/CCR2023.2.10.CHEN
  10. Zhang, W., Wang, R., & Liu, H. (2023). Moral Expression, Sources, and Frames: Examining COVID-19 Vaccination Posts by Facebook Public Pages. Computers in Human Behavior, 138. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2022.107479
  11. Zhang, W., Mukerjee, S., & Qin, H. (2022). Topics and sentiments influence likes: A study of Facebook public pages’ posts about COVID-19 vaccination. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, & Social Networking, 25(9), 552-560. https://doi.org/10.1089/cyber.2022.0063
  12. Zhang, W., Chen, Z., Chia, Y-T., & Neoh, J. Y. (2022). Rethinking civic education in the digital era: How media, school, and young people negotiate the meaning of citizenship. International Communication Gazette, 84(4):287-305. https://doi-org/10.1177%2F17480485221094101.
  13. Xi, Y., Chen, A., & Zhang, W. (2022). The expression of cultural identities in Hong Kong’s Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement: A semantic network analysis of tweets. Social Science Computer Review, 40(6), 1436-1455. https://doi.org/10.1177/08944393211012267
  14. Zhang, W. (2022). Political disengagement among youth: A comparison between 2011 and 2020. Frontiers in Psychology. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.809432
  15. Zhang, W. (2022). Civic AI Education: Developing a Deliberative Framework. In 4th Annual Symposium on HCI Education (EduCHI’22), April 30–May 1, 2022, New Orleans, LA, USA.

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