Xixuan Zhang is a research associate in the research project "DIFFCONT - Diffusion Dynamics of Conspiracy Theories and Adaptation Strategies in Hybrid Information Spaces" at Freie Universität Berlin. Previously, she worked in the research group "News, Campaigns and the Rationality of Public Discourse" at the Weizenbaum Institute.

She is writing her PhD on "Mapping Digital Environmentalism: a Computational Approach" at Freie Universität Berlin. She studied Journalism and Communication Studies as well as Media and Political Communication at Freie Universität Berlin and Media Informatics at Technische Universität Berlin. Her research interests are in digital activism, online discourse, and social media publics. In her work, Xixuan Zhang relies on computational methods, from text mining to network analysis and machine learning.

In the research group "News, Campaigns and the Rationality of Public Discourse", Xixuan Zhang conducted research on disinformation campaigns in digital media and networks.

Research interests

• social movements
• digital activism
• online discourse
• disinformation
• public sphere
• computational methods in social science

• Zhang, X. (2023). Diffusion dynamics and digital movement: The emergence and proliferation of the German-speaking #FridaysForFuture network on Twitter. Social Movement Studies, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/14742837.2023.2211015
• Klinger, U., Bennett, W. L., Knüpfer, C. B., Martini, F., Zhang, X., Klinger, U., Bennett, W. L., Knüpfer, C. B., & Martini, F. (2022). From the fringes into mainstream politics: Intermediary networks and movement-party coordination of a global anti-immigration campaign in Germany. Information, Communication & Society, 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369118X.2022.2050415
• Zhang, X (2021). Understanding Digitally Networked Action: A Case Study of #HomeToVote and the Irish Abortion Referendum 2018. Studies in Communication and Media, 10(4), 502-532. https://doi.org/10.5771/2192-4007-2021-4-502