research

2026

1. 

   Journalistic Roles in Humanitarian News: A Multistage Natural Language Processing Approach

   Zhe Xu, Martin Scott, Shuai Wang, Dani Madrid-Morales, and Kate Wright

   Under review, DFG-funded project: Natural Language Processing and the Politics of Humanitarian Journalism, 2026

   Bib

   @article{xu2026bert,
     title = {Journalistic Roles in Humanitarian News: A Multistage Natural Language Processing Approach},
     author = {Xu, Zhe and Scott, Martin and Wang, Shuai and Madrid-Morales, Dani and Wright, Kate},
     journal = {Under review, DFG-funded project: Natural Language Processing and the Politics of Humanitarian Journalism},
     volume = {},
     number = {},
     pages = {},
     year = {2026},
   }

2. 

   A Longitudinal Unsupervised Machine Learning Analysis of Refugee Framing in Humanitarian News

   Zhe Xu, Yotam Ophir, Ke Du, Gaia Guatri, Shuai Wang, Dani Madrid-Morales, and Kate Wright

   Under review, DFG-funded project: Natural Language Processing and the Politics of Humanitarian Journalism, 2026

   Bib

   @article{xu2026antmn,
     title = {A Longitudinal Unsupervised Machine Learning Analysis of Refugee Framing in Humanitarian News},
     author = {Xu, Zhe and Ophir, Yotam and Du, Ke and Guatri, Gaia and Wang, Shuai and Madrid-Morales, Dani and Wright, Kate},
     journal = {Under review, DFG-funded project: Natural Language Processing and the Politics of Humanitarian Journalism},
     volume = {},
     number = {},
     pages = {},
     year = {2026},
   }

3. 

   Trust in News Media Across Asia: A Multilevel Analysis of Individual and Societal Factors

   Ke Du and Zhe Xu

   Journalism and Media, 2026

   Bib HTML

   @article{du2026trust,
     title = {Trust in News Media Across Asia: A Multilevel Analysis of Individual and Societal Factors},
     author = {Du, Ke and Xu, Zhe},
     journal = {Journalism and Media},
     volume = {7},
     number = {1},
     pages = {8},
     year = {2026},
     publisher = {MDPI}
   }

2024

1. 

   How News Media Visually Dehumanize Victims of Humanitarian Crises through Framing Disparities: A Quantitative Comparative Analysis

   Zhe Xu and Mengrong Zhang

   International Communication Gazette, 2024

   Bib HTML

   @article{xu2024news,
     title = {How News Media Visually Dehumanize Victims of Humanitarian Crises through Framing Disparities: A Quantitative Comparative Analysis},
     author = {Xu, Zhe and Zhang, Mengrong},
     journal = {International Communication Gazette},
     volume = {86},
     number = {8},
     pages = {633--654},
     year = {2024},
     publisher = {SAGE Publications Sage UK: London, England},
   }

2023

1. 

   Audiences of Distant Suffering in Authoritarian Regimes: Denial Mechanisms and Acts of Moral Justification

   Zhe Xu

   Media, Culture & Society, 2023

   Bib HTML

   @article{xu2023audiences,
     title = {Audiences of Distant Suffering in Authoritarian Regimes: Denial Mechanisms and Acts of Moral Justification},
     author = {Xu, Zhe},
     journal = {Media, Culture \& Society},
     volume = {45},
     number = {5},
     pages = {985--1002},
     year = {2023},
     publisher = {SAGE Publications Sage UK: London, England}
   }

2. 

   The Politics of Pity under Authoritarianism: How Government-Controlled Media Regulates Audiences’ Mediated Experiences of Distant Suffering

   Zhe Xu and Mengrong Zhang

   International Journal of Communication, 2023

   Bib HTML PDF

   @article{xu2023politics,
     title = {The Politics of Pity under Authoritarianism: How Government-Controlled Media Regulates Audiences' Mediated Experiences of Distant Suffering},
     author = {Xu, Zhe and Zhang, Mengrong},
     journal = {International Journal of Communication},
     volume = {17},
     pages = {19},
     year = {2023},
   }

2022

1. 

   The “Ultimate Empathy Machine” as Technocratic Solutionism? Audience Reception of the Distant Refugee Crisis through Virtual Reality

   Zhe Xu and Mengrong Zhang

   The Communication Review. As part of the special issue (De)constructing Societal Threats During Times of Deep Mediatization, edited by Paul Reilly and Virpi Salojärvi, Routledge , 2022

   Bib HTML

   @article{xu2022ultimate,
     title = {The “Ultimate Empathy Machine” as Technocratic Solutionism? Audience Reception of the Distant Refugee Crisis through Virtual Reality},
     author = {Xu, Zhe and Zhang, Mengrong},
     journal = {The Communication Review},
     volume = {25},
     number = {3-4},
     pages = {181--203},
     year = {2022},
     publisher = {Taylor \& Francis},
   }