Research

Liu, X., Peng, Y., & Lu, Y. Mitigating Confounder Bias in Observational Studies of Visual Media Effects. (Conditional Acceptance, Human Communication Research)

Lu, Y., Liu, X., & Zhou, C. (2026). Recommending the State: How Social Media Algorithms Curate State-Created Content in China. Journal of Communication, jqag010. (DOI)

Liu, X., Lu, Y., Peng, Q., Qian, S., Peng, Y., & Shen, C. (2026). Seeing the Surreal: Mapping Surrealism in Photorealistic AI-Generated Images Using Large Language Models. Computational Communication Research, 8(2), 1. (DOI)

Peng, Q., Lu, Y., Peng, Y., Qian, S., Liu, X., & Shen, C. (2025). Crafting Synthetic Realities: Examining Visual Realism and Misinformation Potential of Photorealistic AI-Generated Images. Proceedings of the Extended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA ’25, 1–12. (DOI)

Liu, X., Lin, C., & Lu, Y. Computational Visual Analysis in Communication Research: A Critical Examination of Methods, Challenges, and Opportunities. (Forthcoming in Critical Visual Research Methods for Social Media.)

Liu, X., Lu, Y., Peng, Q., Qian, S., Peng, Y., & Shen, C. (2026, July). Seeing the Surreal: Mapping Surrealism in Photorealistic AI-Generated Images Using Large Language Models. Presented at 12th International Conference on Computational Social Science (IC2S2), Burlington, USA.

Liu, X., Peng, Y., & Lu, Y. (2026, July). Mitigating Confounder Bias in Observational Studies of Visual Media Effects. Presented at 12th International Conference on Computational Social Science (IC2S2), Burlington, USA. [poster presentation]

Liu, X., Peng, Y., & Lu, Y. (2026, July). Mitigating Confounder Bias in Observational Studies of Visual Media Effects. Presented at 2026 Annual Meeting of the Society for Political Methodology, Lansing, USA. [poster presentation]

Liu, X., Lu, Y., Peng, Q., Qian, S., Peng, Y., & Shen, C. (2026, June). Seeing the Surreal: Mapping Surrealism in Photorealistic AI-Generated Images Using Large Language Models. 76th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA), Cape Town, South Africa.

Lu, Y., Liu, X., & Zhou, C. (2026, June). Recommending the State: How Social Media Algorithms Curate State Content in China. Scheduled at 76th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA), Cape Town, South Africa.

Liu, X., Lu, Y., Peng, Q., Qian, S., Peng, Y., & Shen, C. (2026, May). Seeing the Surreal: Mapping Surrealism in Photorealistic AI-Generated Images Using Large Language Models. Presented at Comm Horizons @UCD 2026, Sacramento, USA.

Lu, Y., Liu, X., & Zhou, C. (2025, September). Recommending the State: How Social Media Algorithms Curate State Content in China. Presented at 2025 American Political Science Association (APSA) Annual Meeting & Exhibition, Vancouver, Canada.

Lu, Y., Liu, X., & Zhou, C. (2025, July). Recommending the State: How Social Media Algorithms Curate State Content in China. Presented at 11th International Conference on Computational Social Science (IC2S2), Norrköping, Sweden. [Best Lightning Talk Award]

Lu, Y., Liu, X., & Zhou, C. (2025, July). Recommending the State: How Social Media Algorithms Curate State Content in China. Presented at 18th Annual Political Networks and Computational Social Science Conference (PolNet-PaCSS), Boston, USA. [poster presentation]

Liu, X., & Ho, S. S. (2024, June). Human, AI, vs. Synergy Agency: How Agency Framing Affects Perceived Uncertainty, Controllability, and Trust in AI in Autonomous Vehicles. 74th Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference.

Liu, X., Xiao, Q., Liang, D., & Pan, Y. (2023, August). Agency and Modality Interaction: Exploring the Impact of Multimodal AI-Generated Content on News Credibility. 2023 Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) Annual Conference.

Liu, X., Liang, D., Tong-Laurence, G., Lin, S., & Kang, H. (2023, May). A False Sense of Reality: Effects of Augmented Reality (AR) Filters on Communication Willingness. 73rd Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference.