Bingbing Zhang

University of Iowa | UI · School of Journalism and Mass Communication

Citizens’ assessments of government performance are rooted in their judgement on how public policy responds to their concerns, a key element for a sustainable democracy. However, conspiracy mentality, where individuals believe in larger plans orchestrated by powerful entities or the government, may impact such judgement. To examine the antecedents...

While recent research has demonstrated how exposure to cross-cutting political opinions intensifies politically motivated disconnectivity on social media, there has been a notable gap in examining the influence of emotions and psychological traits in this process. Guided by the theories of selective avoidance and affective intelligence, our study e...

Purpose In the past few years, research focusing on misinformation, referred to broadly as fake news, has experienced revived attention. Past studies have focused on explaining the ways in which people correct it online and on social media. However, fewer studies have dealt with the ways in which people are able to identify fake news (i.e. fake new...

Research on the origin, dissemination, and support of conspiracy theories has skyrocketed. Studies reveal how individual antecedents such as people’s personality traits, intrinsic motivations, and broad social-psychological processes explain this phenomenon. Fewer studies, however, explored the role of cable news exposure. This study casts a new li...

In recent years, there has been an increased academic interest revolving around the beneficial or pernicious effects of ideological extremity and (uncivil) political discussion over democracy. For instance, citizens’ ideological predispositions and higher levels of political discussion have been linked with a more active and vibrant political life....

Memes are humorous images, often featuring captions with superimposed text, that are shared online. To avoid censorship, Chinese netizens strategically use memes to discuss political issues. This study content analyses memes that feature an image or likeness of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un posted by Chinese social media users on the Weibo platfo...

This study examined two-sided conversion messages in relation to one-sided advocacy messages in reducing vaccine hesitancy related to COVID-19 vaccine uptake. Results demonstrated that, for vaccine-hesitant participants, conversion messages increased pro-COVID-19 vaccination attitudes and behavioral intentions. For high vaccine-hesitant participant...

According to lifestyle politics theory, social media platforms introduce new ways for people to engage in civic life. Based on the communication mediation model, prior scholarship laid out theoretical and empirical foundations for how media exposure to the news positively influences people’s political participatory behavior through supplemental com...

Can popular media play a role in inspiring and uplifting peoples’ spirits during the COVID-19 pandemic? The current study extended existing positive media psychology research by exploring the positive effects of inspirational COVID-19 online videos on meaningful affect, norm perceptions, and prosocial intentions. It was also proposed that positive...

Although mask-wearing can curb the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic and protect others, the attitudes and behaviors regarding wearing a mask during the COVID-19 pandemic appear to differ between partisan groups. This study aimed to investigate whether wearing a mask in public can be elicited by uplifting media messages through increasing universal o...

Prior research highlights substantial beneficial effects of political user-generated content (UGC) in society, such as diversifying political viewpoints, mobilizing the electorate, and fostering citizens’ civic engagement. However, important user asymmetries exist when creating political content. Gender, age, media uses, and skills gaps have been i...

The risks that animals and humans face from climate change are frequently featured in climate change memes. Although memes may appear to some as silly jokes, little is known of the impact they may have in the formation and spread of individuals’ perceived risk of climate change and intention to participate in climate change campaigns. This study te...

News outlets use social media, especially Facebook, for content distribution and engagement. This exposes consumers to user comments before reading a news article, creating an environment where audiences judge content prior to reading the story. In response to Perloff's (2015) call for research exploring how social media cultivate hostile media eff...

Definition: Drawing from the literary/semiotic tradition, studies of editing and mise-en-scène, and the analyses of commercial and political advertising as the foundation , this chapter defines "visual intertextuality" as a practice of producing and/or assigning meaning to texts formed out of symbioses of images and words that reference other texts...