Zicheng Cheng

Interests

Research

Media Effects, Political Communication, Digital journalism

Teaching

Research Methods, Social Media Analytics, Mass Communication & Journalism Theory

Courses

Scholarly Contributions

Chapters

• Gil de Zúñiga, H., & Cheng, Z. (2024). Origin and Evolution of the News Finds Me Perception: Review of Theory and Effects. In Media Influence on Opinion Change and Democracy(pp 151-179). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-70231-0

Journals/Publications

• Cheng, Z., & Li, Y. (2026). Political Content Engagement Model: A large-scale analysis of TikTok political video content features and audience engagement. Computers in Human Behavior, 174(Issue). doi:10.1016/j.chb.2025.108808
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  TikTok has emerged as a prominent platform for political information dissemination, where traditional news organizations, political figures, grassroots organizations, and influencers engage audiences on political and civic issues. However, limited research has systematically examined why politically oriented TikTok videos attract engagement. This study introduces the Political Content Engagement Model (PCEM), which explains how political identity, content features, content sources, and topic issues influence engagement. Using a dataset of 578,420 TikTok videos posted by 9722 elite accounts, we use machine learning and topic modeling to analyze how features such as political party references, issue framing, justification, sentiment, civility, and mobilization appeals affect video engagement. Besides, we investigate differences in engagement patterns between liberal- and conservative-leaning TikTok accounts and differentiate between internal and external engagement behaviors. Across both liberal and conservative accounts, civility level and out-party critique consistently emerge as the most powerful predictors of political TikTok video engagement. Our findings contribute to the field of digital political communication by offering insights into TikTok users’ political engagement behavior on TikTok and how different content strategies drive audience interactions.
• Cheng, Z., & You, L. (2025).

  Media exposure and information seeking as antecedents: Individual behavioral response to corporate political advocacy in the case of Lyft’s action against the Texas abortion ban.

  . International Journal of Public Opinion Research.
• Cheng, Z., & You, L. (2025). Media Exposure and Information Seeking as Antecedents: Individual Behavioral Response to Corporate Political Advocacy in the Case of Lyft’s Action Against the Texas Abortion Ban. International Journal of Public Opinion Research, 37(Issue 1). doi:10.1093/ijpor/edaf006
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  Using two-wave U.S. survey data, this study investigates the factors influencing an individual’s social media engagement in the context of Lyft’s opposition to the Texas abortion ban and its legal support for drivers. Drawing on the O-S-O-R model, the findings reveal that individual’s media exposure to abortion ban-related news does not consistently predict their social media engagement behaviors. Specifically, information seeking not only positively predicts social media engagement but also significantly mediates the effect of media exposure on social media engagement. These results indicate that information seeking can serve as a link between media use and individuals’ social media engagement in response to corporate political advocacy (CPA). Theoretical and practical implications for promoting citizen’s engagement with CPA are discussed.
• Cheng, Z., Goyanes, M., & Gil de Zúñiga, H. (2025). Exploring the Direct and Indirect Effects of Traditional and Social Media News Use on Media Trust and Journalism Error Tolerance. Digital Journalism, 13(Issue). doi:10.1080/21670811.2025.2457362
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  Accuracy, or getting the news right, has been viewed as a paramount journalism value. However, in the digital age, the pressure to disseminate news rapidly has increased the possibility that erroneous information may be published. Based on longitudinal survey data in the United States, this study investigates the factors that influence news users’ tolerance towards journalism errors. Alternative and competing theoretical models are tested to delimit the effects of traditional news use as opposed to social media news, and traditional versus social media news trust. The results showcase how traditional media news trust positively predicts people’s tolerance toward journalism errors. Similarly, traditional media news trust significantly mediates the relationship between traditional media news use and journalism error tolerance. However, social media news use and trust have either limited or null effects on journalism error tolerance, and social media news trust does not significantly mediate the relationship between social media news use and journalism error tolerance. Theoretical explanations and implications of these findings are discussed in the study.
• Cheng, Z., Goyanes, M., & Zúñiga, H. (2025). Exploring the Direct and Indirect Effects of Traditional and Social Media News Use on Media Trust and Journalism Error Tolerance.. Digital Journalism, online first.
• Cheng, Z., Medina, L., Durotoye, T., & Chadha, M. (2025).

  News on TikTok Through the Lens of Quality Journalism: How TikTok Users Perceive News Values, Content, and Engagement

  . Journalism Studies, 26(Issue 13). doi:10.1080/1461670x.2025.2559020
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  As TikTok becomes an increasingly popular platform for news consumption, it is important to understand how its unique format aligns with or challenges traditional journalistic standards. This study draws on the quality journalism framework, which consists of professional norms, content features, and audience engagement dimensions, to examine how U.S. TikTok users perceive the quality of news they encounter on the platform. Based on in-depth interviews with 23 TikTok news users, we find that while entertainment is a main motivation for using TikTok, users still value traditional journalistic principles such as information utility, accuracy, and credibility. Users express different expectations for news quality depending on the news topic and the source, whether the content comes from influencers or legacy media. Many users view TikTok news as an entry point to learning about current events and often seek out additional information on other platforms. Our findings suggest that users expect TikTok journalism to maintain a balance between engaging presentation and journalistic rigor. This study contributes to the growing literature on TikTok journalism by focusing on audience perspectives and offering a nuanced look at how news quality is understood within the TikTok context.
• Li, Y., Cheng, Z., & Gil de Zúñiga, H. (2025). TikTok’s political landscape: Examining echo chambers and political expression dynamics. New Media and Society. doi:10.1177/14614448251339755
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  Using a comprehensive dataset of over 160,000 public TikTok accounts and more than 16 million videos, this study indicates a notable increase in political TikTok video content from 2019 to 2023, with a peak around the 2020 US presidential election. The network analysis reveals distinct clusters of politically homogeneous networks or “political echo chambers” where users were exposed to attitude-consistent political TikTok content. Furthermore, through digital trace data, we found that users with strong political views and positive social feedback are more likely to share their political opinions on the platform. This research emphasizes TikTok’s growing importance as a hub for political engagement, as well as its potential polarization effects. The open-source datasets and methodological tools developed in this study offer valuable resources for future research on TikTok’s role in political communication.
• You, L., & Cheng, Z. (2025). Relationship Building and Community Empowerment: How Public-Serving Motive Informs the Public’s Assessment of Corporate Political Advocacy. Journal of Public Relations Research, 37(Issue 4). doi:10.1080/1062726x.2024.2444287
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  This study adopts a relational empowerment approach to view the company as a change agent in corporate political advocacy. The study examines the public’s commitment to a company after assessing its cause advocacy initiatives driven by a public-serving motive. Using a two-wave longitudinal survey and the case of Lyft’s opposition stance on the Texas abortion ban, the study found that a public-serving motive leads to commitment–a significant mediator facilitating the public’s confidence in following the company’s footsteps to be part of the change. The study’s theoretical contribution lies in incorporating relational empowerment as a foundation of community mobilization, specifically based on the public’s assessment of the motives behind a company’s issue advocacy behavior. Commitment strengthens a collective sense of efficacy, the conviction that the community can achieve goals that benefit society.
• Cheng, Z., & Li, Y. (2024). Like, Comment, and Share on TikTok: Exploring the Effect of Sentiment and Second-Person View on the User Engagement with TikTok News Videos. Social Science Computer Review, 42(Issue 1). doi:10.1177/08944393231178603
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  TikTok—the world’s most downloaded app since 2020, has become a place for more than silly dancing and lip-syncing. TikTok users are increasingly turning to TikTok for news content. Meanwhile, news publishers are embracing TikTok to reach a younger audience. We aim to examine the content strategy adopted by the most-followed news publishers on TikTok and how effective their TikTok strategy is in spurring audience engagement in terms of liking, commenting, and sharing. This study retrieved 101,292 TikTok news videos as of November 22, 2022. With the help of computer vision, natural language processing, and sentiment analysis, we found that TikTok news videos containing negative sentiment and more second-person view shots are associated with significantly higher audience engagement. In addition, this study demonstrated that the TikTok video features and engagement levels differ between the news publishers and other TikTok creators. Moderator analysis shows that both the effect of negative sentiment on engagement and the effect of the second-person view on engagement are moderated by the TikTok account type. The impact of negative sentiment and second-person view on engagement behaviors becomes smaller or even insignificant for news publisher TikTok videos. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in this study.
• Cheng, Z., Chen, J., Peng, R. X., & Shoenberger, H. (2024). Social media influencers talk about politics: Investigating the role of source factors and PSR in Gen-Z followers’ perceived information quality, receptivity and sharing intention. Journal of Information Technology and Politics, 21(Issue 2). doi:10.1080/19331681.2023.2173700
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  Afforded by the unprecedented interactivity of social media, social media influencers (SMI) can build strong and trusting relationships with their followers. Such connections carry great potential and may be a powerful asset for political campaigns. Drawing on the existing literature on parasocial relationships (PSR) and political persuasion, we examined the effect of source factors and PSR on followers’ perceived message quality, receptivity, and sharing intention in a political advocacy context. An online survey of 390 U.S. university students showed that, in general, SMIs who engage in sharing political messages would influence a young audience’s opinion formation. Our findings offered a unique and significant perspective: source characteristics of expertise, similarity, trustworthiness, attractiveness, and interactivity will foster parasocial relationships, which leads to a higher level of perceived information quality, and then further predicts higher receptivity toward the SMI’s political advocacy and elicits the followers’ sharing intention.
• Cheng, Z., Marcos-Marne, H., & Gil de Zúñiga, H. (2024). Birds of a Feather Get Angrier Together: Social Media News Use and Social Media Political Homophily as Antecedents of Political Anger. Political Behavior, 46(Issue 2). doi:10.1007/s11109-023-09864-z
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  A significant body of literature within political communication revolves around the constructive political virtues and blighting social and democratic consequences of political anger. For the most part, studies have focused on identifying the primary causes and antecedents of political anger. However, within the context of social media, fewer efforts have been devoted to clarifying how and what infuriates people about politics. Does social media news use relate to increased or reduced levels of political anger? Do social media political homophilic networks explain political anger? And to what extent does political homophily influence the potential effect of social media news use on citizens’ political anger levels—moderating effect? Results drawing on a two-wave U.S. survey dataset show that the frequency of social media news use alone has no direct effect on people’s increased political anger, whereas interacting in homophilic discussion and information networks on social media positively associates with anger. Furthermore, the relationship between social media news use and political anger is contingent upon social media political homophily. Those who report high levels of social media news use and very low levels of social media political homophily end up being less angry over time. Limitations and steps for future research are discussed in the manuscript.
• Cheng, Z., Yang, Y., & de Zùñiga, H. G. (2024). Second screening and trust in professional and alternative media: the mediating role of media efficacy. Human Communication Research, 50(Issue 3). doi:10.1093/hcr/hqad053
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  In the media convergence landscape, consumption of traditional, well-established media is increasingly combined with newer digital and online platforms such as blogs, podcasts, and social media, which has changed the way news users engage with media content. This study examines the relationship between hybrid media use—specifically, second screening—and trust in both professional and alternative media. Drawing on a two-wave U.S. panel data, first, we find that the second screening positively predicts individuals’ belief in the media’s ability to help them comprehend complex political matters, known in the literature as media efficacy. Furthermore, second screening is positively associated with alternative media trust but is not significantly related to trust in professional media. However, media efficacy positively mediates the connection between second screening and trust in both alternative and professional media. By delivering valuable information to help the public understand intricate political topics, the second screening promotes news media trust.
• You, L., & Cheng, Z. (2024). Relationship Building and Community Empowerment: How Public-Serving Motive Informs the Public's Assessment of Corporate Political Advocacy. Journal of Public Relations Research, 1-26.
• Cheng, Z., Zhang, B., & Gil de Zúñiga, H. (2023). Antecedents of Political Consumerism: Modeling Online, Social Media and WhatsApp News Use Effects Through Political Expression and Political Discussion. International Journal of Press/Politics, 28(Issue 4). doi:10.1177/19401612221075936
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  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 communicative processes. Building on this line of research, we rely on a two-wave panel survey of U.S. adults to examine how the different online and social media communicative patterns among U.S. citizens, such as news use, political expression, and discussion, predict political consumerism behavior - the purchase decision of consumers based on political or ethical reasons. Advancing diverse causal order structural equation models, this study highlights a positive influence of news consumption, social media political expression, and political discussion in explaining political consumerism (i.e., boycotting and buycotting). Specifically, results underscore the importance of political expression and discussion mediating the relationship between online, social media and WhatsApp news use and political consumerism. Implications for future research and limitations to the study are provided in the manuscript.
• Gil De Zúñiga, H., Cheng, Z., & González-González, P. (2022). Effects of the news finds me perception on algorithmic news attitudes and social media political homophily. Journal of Communication, 72(Issue 5). doi:10.1093/joc/jqac025
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  Prior literature on political filter bubbles suggests an overall positive association between social media use and political networks diversification. Sometimes, this might not be the case. This study argues that the News Finds Me perception (NFM) or the belief that "one"can be well-informed about public affairs without actively seeking information as news will find "me"through "my"networks, tend to nurture a positive attitude toward algorithmic news gatekeeping. Likewise, NFM's news over-reliance on one's social network support the development of homogeneous information and discussion political networks in social media (political homophily). Results based on a variety of ordinary least squares regression models (cross-sectional, lagged, and autoregressive) from a U.S. representative panel survey, as we all as autoregressive structural equation model tests, indicate that this is indeed the case. This study serves to specifically clarify when and how social media and the NFM facilitate politically homogeneous filter bubbles.
• Goyanes, M., Demeter, M., Cheng, Z., & de Zúñiga, H. G. (2022). Measuring publication diversity among the most productive scholars: how research trajectories differ in communication, psychology, and political science. Scientometrics, 127(Issue 6). doi:10.1007/s11192-022-04386-7
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  Examining research patterns across scientific fields constitutes a growing research enterprise to understand how global knowledge production unfolds. However, scattered empirical evidence has casted light on how the publication diversity of the most productive scholars differ across disciplines, considering their gender and geographical representation. This study focuses on the most prolific scholars across three fields (Communication, Political Science, and Psychology), and examine all journals where they have published. Results revealed the most common journals in which prolific scholars have appeared and showed that Communication scholars are more prone to publish in Political Science and Psychology journals than vice-versa, while psychologists’ largely neglect them both. Our findings also demonstrate that males and US scholars are over-represented across fields, and that neither the field, gender, geographic location, or the interaction between gender and geographic location has a significant influence over publication diversity. The study suggests that prolific scholars are not only productive, but also highly diverse in the selection of the journals they publish, which directly speaks to both the heterogeneity of their research contributions and target readers.
• de Zúñiga, H. G., & Cheng, Z. (2021). Origin and evolution of the news finds me perception: Review of theory and effects. Profesional de la Informacion, 30(Issue 3). doi:10.3145/epi.2021.may.21
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  Research revolving social media and democracy has exploded. For almost two decades, scholarship has offered new theories, revisited some old ones, and provided empirical evidence that helped cast a strong light on social media effects over people’s social life, and democracy at large. Thanks to social media, citizens consume news, express their political views, discuss political matters, and participate in political activities. However, social media also cultivates the dissemi-nation of fake news and misinformation, exposure to hate speech, media fragmentation, and political polarization. In short, social media seems to simultaneously be a springboard for encouraging and undesirable outcomes that foster and challenge democracies alike. One of these phenomena that stems from social media news use is the News Finds Me perception (NFM), which takes place when individuals feel they do not have to actively seeks news any more to be well-in-formed about public affairs, as they expect to receive relevant news and information by relying on their peers in social media. This article traces back the origin of the theory, its evolution, and the set of effects found in the literature. It also presents guidelines for future research and potential challenges as the scholarship centering on NFM continues to grow.