Mengyu Li

Mengyu Li studies how emerging media and technologies shape what people see, how information circulates, and how these dynamics influence public conversation and democratic participation. Li investigates how platform design and algorithmic systems affect visibility, engagement, and public understanding, with a particular interest in controversial political and health issues. She uses computational, experimental, and survey-based approaches to examine how publics interact within mediated, networked environments.

Li’s current projects advance multimodal and cross-platform frameworks for analyzing digital communication, integrating large language models to process multimodal data and web-based content. She also collaborates with interdisciplinary teams to develop computational tools for measuring online social support and to understand the behavioral mechanisms underlying online engagement. Li has contributed to research projects funded by the National Science Foundation and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, and her work has appeared in leading journals including Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, New Media & Society, Information, Communication & Society, and Social Media + Society.

In addition to her research, Li is committed to teaching and mentorship, helping students build computational literacy, data ethics awareness, and critical perspectives on algorithms, media infrastructures, and emerging technologies.

Ph.D. candidate, Mass Communications, School of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Wisconsin-Madison
M.Phil., Communication Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University
M.A., Global Communication, Chinese University of Hong Kong
B.A., Management, Renmin University of China