Yiyan Zhang
Biographic Data
| ID | 4169787 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Yiyan Zhang |
| GIVEN NAMES | Yiyan |
| FAMILY NAME | Zhang |
| SIGNATURE | ZHANG Y |
| AFFILIATIONS | Boston University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-4299-0236 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 11 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 16 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 11 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Explicating the Time Factor in Media Agenda-Setting Research
Media agenda setting takes time. However, with the evolving media landscape altering how we consume news, many contemporary agenda-setting studies still rely on decade-old guidelines to determine time lags instead of empirically testing them. The literature also reveals inconsistent conceptualizations of “time lag.” To address this, we propose a two-dimensional typology to clarify this concept and conduct a systematic literature review of 1,444 a…
Agenda Setting, Cross-cutting Effects, and Political Expression on Social Media: The Gun Violence Case
Focusing on a polarized issue—U.S. gun violence—this study examines agenda setting as an antecedent of political expression on social media. A state-of-the-art machine-learning model was used to analyze news coverage from 25 media outlets—mainstream and partisan. Those results were paired with a two-wave panel survey conducted during the 2018 U.S. midterm elections. Findings show mainstream media shape public opinion about gun violence, which the…
Information flows from local to national: Evidence from 21 major US cities
Local journalism is in decline in the United States. As one way to assess the state of local journalism, this study examines the information flows between local and national media in the online media ecosystem. Focusing on metropolitan journalism, this paper empirically investigates whether and when a city’s local news coverage can influence national news portrayal of the city. This research draws from intermedia agenda setting (IAS) theory and e…
The “populist imbecile” versus the “heartless shrew”: Polarizing election coverage and voters’ evaluation in Taiwan
This study content analyzes the news coverage of two major presidential candidates—one populist challenger, the other female incumbent—in the 2020 Taiwan election. A nation-wide survey of voters and their newspaper uses was also utilized to verify the association between partisan news reliance and candidate evaluations. Based on the concept of partisan press, the study confirms that the coverage is highly polarizing and that it includes more hors…
‘Push-and-pull’ for visibility: How do fans as users negotiate over algorithms with Chinese digital platforms
In the algorithmic era, both users and the platform battle for visibility. Chinese fans are savvy users who explore the hidden algorithms behind platform functions. With the collectively developed algorithmic imaginary, digital fandom communities negotiate with the platform over algorithms to optimize the visibility of celebrities they endorse. Drawing from participatory observation and semi-structured interviews in Chinese online fandoms of an i…
‘A battlefield for public opinion struggle: How does news consumption from different sources on social media influence government satisfaction in China
While the political influence of the Internet, especially social media, on people’s attitude toward their governments has been widely discussed in western democracies, the situation in authoritarian regimes such as China has not yet been adequately addressed. The current Chinese administration considers social media ‘the main battlefield for public opinion struggle’ between the official discourse and those challenging it. To provide clues about w…
Demographic inequalities or personality differences? Exploring six types of social media usage divides in Mainland China
With the wider penetration of information and communication technologies (ICTs), digital divide scholars have turned attention from physical access to the difference in usage. Based on a national representative survey conducted in mainland China (N = l,004), this exploratory study contributes to the literature by explicating a new typology of social media usage divides predicted by demographic factors and personality traits (the Big Five) and by …
What Makes Gun Violence a (Less) Prominent Issue? A Computational Analysis of Compelling Arguments and Selective Agenda Setting
Despite several transient spikes in response to the deadliest mass shootings, the U.S. population continues to perceive gun violence as less important than other issues, and public opinion remains divided along partisan lines. Drawing upon literature of compelling arguments and partisan media, this study investigates what kind of news framing—episodic framing that focuses on individual stories or thematic framing that emphasizes broader context—m…
Media vs. candidates and minorities vs. majorities: Who sets the public’s agenda in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary
Despite an abundance of research dedicated to the first level agenda setting process in political elections, there is a considerable gap within the literature regarding how the amount of media coverage granted to minority candidates – people of color and women – influence their salience in public opinion. The current study seeks to address this gap by analyzing the effects of online coverage of minority candidates and their subsequent performance…
Information Flow Within and Across Online Media Platforms: An Agenda-setting Analysis of Rumor Diffusion on News Websites, Weibo, and WeChat in China
In China, the discussion of “fake news” often revolves around online rumor. In addition to politically motivated rumors, a large portion of profit-driven, sensational rumors permeate China's Internet. This study examines the diffusion of day-to-day online rumors on Weibo, WeChat, and mainstream news websites—the three major online news platforms in China—within an agenda-setting framework. Specifically, the study analyzed the top ten most widely …
When politics intervenein non-political news flow: Trans-regional intermedia agenda-settingbetween Mainland China, Hong Kong,and Taiwan on online air pollution news
While intermedia agenda-setting scholars have examined the process from a global perspective, trans-regional intermedia agenda setting, especially in non-western context, remains understudied. By analyzing the time-series data of news coverage on air pollution, a non-political topic, from online news media in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan from 2015 to 2018, this study revealed a triangular first-level agenda-setting relationship among the…
What Makes Gun Violence a (Less) Prominent Issue? A Computational Analysis of Compelling Arguments and Selective Agenda Setting
Despite several transient spikes in response to the deadliest mass shootings, the U.S. population continues to perceive gun violence as less important than other issues, and public opinion remains divided along partisan lines. Drawing upon literature of compelling arguments and partisan media, this study investigates what kind of news framing—episodic framing that focuses on individual stories or thematic framing that emphasizes broader context—m…
Information Flow Within and Across Online Media Platforms: An Agenda-setting Analysis of Rumor Diffusion on News Websites, Weibo, and WeChat in China
In China, the discussion of “fake news” often revolves around online rumor. In addition to politically motivated rumors, a large portion of profit-driven, sensational rumors permeate China's Internet. This study examines the diffusion of day-to-day online rumors on Weibo, WeChat, and mainstream news websites—the three major online news platforms in China—within an agenda-setting framework. Specifically, the study analyzed the top ten most widely …
Demographic inequalities or personality differences? Exploring six types of social media usage divides in Mainland China
With the wider penetration of information and communication technologies (ICTs), digital divide scholars have turned attention from physical access to the difference in usage. Based on a national representative survey conducted in mainland China (N = l,004), this exploratory study contributes to the literature by explicating a new typology of social media usage divides predicted by demographic factors and personality traits (the Big Five) and by …
Media vs. candidates and minorities vs. majorities: Who sets the public’s agenda in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary
Despite an abundance of research dedicated to the first level agenda setting process in political elections, there is a considerable gap within the literature regarding how the amount of media coverage granted to minority candidates – people of color and women – influence their salience in public opinion. The current study seeks to address this gap by analyzing the effects of online coverage of minority candidates and their subsequent performance…
Information Flow Within and Across Online Media Platforms: An Agenda-setting Analysis of Rumor Diffusion on News Websites, Weibo, and WeChat in China
In China, the discussion of “fake news” often revolves around online rumor. In addition to politically motivated rumors, a large portion of profit-driven, sensational rumors permeate China's Internet. This study examines the diffusion of day-to-day online rumors on Weibo, WeChat, and mainstream news websites—the three major online news platforms in China—within an agenda-setting framework. Specifically, the study analyzed the top ten most widely …
When politics intervenein non-political news flow: Trans-regional intermedia agenda-settingbetween Mainland China, Hong Kong,and Taiwan on online air pollution news
While intermedia agenda-setting scholars have examined the process from a global perspective, trans-regional intermedia agenda setting, especially in non-western context, remains understudied. By analyzing the time-series data of news coverage on air pollution, a non-political topic, from online news media in mainland China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan from 2015 to 2018, this study revealed a triangular first-level agenda-setting relationship among the…
‘A battlefield for public opinion struggle: How does news consumption from different sources on social media influence government satisfaction in China
While the political influence of the Internet, especially social media, on people’s attitude toward their governments has been widely discussed in western democracies, the situation in authoritarian regimes such as China has not yet been adequately addressed. The current Chinese administration considers social media ‘the main battlefield for public opinion struggle’ between the official discourse and those challenging it. To provide clues about w…
Demographic inequalities or personality differences? Exploring six types of social media usage divides in Mainland China
With the wider penetration of information and communication technologies (ICTs), digital divide scholars have turned attention from physical access to the difference in usage. Based on a national representative survey conducted in mainland China (N = l,004), this exploratory study contributes to the literature by explicating a new typology of social media usage divides predicted by demographic factors and personality traits (the Big Five) and by …
What Makes Gun Violence a (Less) Prominent Issue? A Computational Analysis of Compelling Arguments and Selective Agenda Setting
Despite several transient spikes in response to the deadliest mass shootings, the U.S. population continues to perceive gun violence as less important than other issues, and public opinion remains divided along partisan lines. Drawing upon literature of compelling arguments and partisan media, this study investigates what kind of news framing—episodic framing that focuses on individual stories or thematic framing that emphasizes broader context—m…
Media vs. candidates and minorities vs. majorities: Who sets the public’s agenda in the 2020 Democratic presidential primary
Despite an abundance of research dedicated to the first level agenda setting process in political elections, there is a considerable gap within the literature regarding how the amount of media coverage granted to minority candidates – people of color and women – influence their salience in public opinion. The current study seeks to address this gap by analyzing the effects of online coverage of minority candidates and their subsequent performance…
Information flows from local to national: Evidence from 21 major US cities
Local journalism is in decline in the United States. As one way to assess the state of local journalism, this study examines the information flows between local and national media in the online media ecosystem. Focusing on metropolitan journalism, this paper empirically investigates whether and when a city’s local news coverage can influence national news portrayal of the city. This research draws from intermedia agenda setting (IAS) theory and e…
The “populist imbecile” versus the “heartless shrew”: Polarizing election coverage and voters’ evaluation in Taiwan
This study content analyzes the news coverage of two major presidential candidates—one populist challenger, the other female incumbent—in the 2020 Taiwan election. A nation-wide survey of voters and their newspaper uses was also utilized to verify the association between partisan news reliance and candidate evaluations. Based on the concept of partisan press, the study confirms that the coverage is highly polarizing and that it includes more hors…
‘Push-and-pull’ for visibility: How do fans as users negotiate over algorithms with Chinese digital platforms
In the algorithmic era, both users and the platform battle for visibility. Chinese fans are savvy users who explore the hidden algorithms behind platform functions. With the collectively developed algorithmic imaginary, digital fandom communities negotiate with the platform over algorithms to optimize the visibility of celebrities they endorse. Drawing from participatory observation and semi-structured interviews in Chinese online fandoms of an i…
Agenda Setting, Cross-cutting Effects, and Political Expression on Social Media: The Gun Violence Case
Focusing on a polarized issue—U.S. gun violence—this study examines agenda setting as an antecedent of political expression on social media. A state-of-the-art machine-learning model was used to analyze news coverage from 25 media outlets—mainstream and partisan. Those results were paired with a two-wave panel survey conducted during the 2018 U.S. midterm elections. Findings show mainstream media shape public opinion about gun violence, which the…
Explicating the Time Factor in Media Agenda-Setting Research
Media agenda setting takes time. However, with the evolving media landscape altering how we consume news, many contemporary agenda-setting studies still rely on decade-old guidelines to determine time lags instead of empirically testing them. The literature also reveals inconsistent conceptualizations of “time lag.” To address this, we propose a two-dimensional typology to clarify this concept and conduct a systematic literature review of 1,444 a…
Political science (10 works) · Social Media and Politics (9 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Politics (7 works) · Law (6 works) · Media Studies and Communication (6 works) · Psychology (6 works) · Mainstream (5 works) · Media studies (5 works) · Social media (5 works)