Wei Zhong

Biography

Wei (Rocio) Zhong is an Assistant Professor of Political Science. Prior to joining Stony Brook, she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at New York University’s Center for Social Media and Politics and a Research Scientist at the Institute for Data, Democracy & Politics at George Washington University. She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science and an M.S. in Statistics from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, an M.A. from New York University, and a B.A. from the University of International Business and Economics in China.

Research

Wei uses computational methods to investigate how digital media and emerging technologies shape political behavior, polarization, and democratic governance. She studies how individuals engage with online content, how extremist groups adapt to platform interventions, and how synthetic media influences public perception. Her work examines when, why, and among whom digital communication alters political attitudes and mobilization. Current projects explore the effects of AI-generated content and labeling policies, the resilience of far-right networks after deplatforming, and the role of media strategies in audience building. She is especially interested in cross-platform dynamics and how social media architectures mediate political discourse in both democratic and authoritarian contexts.

RECENT Publications

• Zhong, Wei, & Broniatowski, David A. (2023). Economic risk framing increases intention to vaccinate among Republican COVID-19 vaccine refusers. Social Science & Medicine, 317, 115594.
  • https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953622009005
• Zhong, Wei, Bailard, Catie, Broniatowski, David A., & Tromble, Rebekah. (2024). Proud Boys on Telegram. Journal of Quantitative Description: Digital Media, 4.
  • https://journalqd.org/article/view/4187
• Bailard, Catie S., Tromble, Rebekah, Zhong, Wei, Bianchi, Francesca, Hosseini, Parisa, & Broniatowski, David A. (2024). “Keep Your Heads Held High Boys!”: Examining the Relationship between the Proud Boys’ Online Discourse and Offline Activities. American Political Science Review, 118(4), 2054–2071.
  • https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/keep-your-heads-held-high-boys-examining-the-relationship-between-the-proud-boys-online-discourse-and-offline-activities/D2EFAADAB8EE8633340A4F81460551FC
• Zhong, Wei, & Zhang, Maggie. (Forthcoming). Subdued but Unbroken: The Cohesion of Far-Right Extremist Followers after Deplatforming by Twitter. Perspectives on Politics.

Teaching

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