Xinyan Zhao, Ph.D.

I am an assistant professor in the Hussman School of Journalism and Media at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. My research is centered on computational strategic communication, social networks, and emerging media, with a particular emphasis on diverse cultural groups in disaster, crisis, and health contexts. Theoretically, I specialize in social media and crisis communication theories, exploring how organizations and individuals consume and engage with converging streams of information. Methodologically, I specialize in computational social science, including large language models, machine learning, social network analysis, and have developed various tools for automated content analysis.