Lichen Zhen is a Ph.D. student at Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California. Her research interests lie at the intersection of social network analysis, online group collaboration, and organizational communication. She is especially interested in how individuals use technology to form groups, reach consensus and engage in coordinated actions. Currently, she is working on a project looking at how GitHub functions as an enclaved public sphere for Chinese developers to store public memories, express dissent and organize connective actions. She also has a growing interest in using network approaches to understand the mechanism of misinformation diffusion and the relationship between the spread of misinformation and political polarization online.
She has presented her work at the annual conferences of the International Communication Association and the National Communication Association. Prior to joining Annenberg, she received her B.A. in Journalism from Wuhan University and her M.A. from the Radio, Television and Film department at the University of Texas at Austin, where she also completed a minor in Applied Statistical Modeling. She has experience working with various Chinese media production companies, including Zhejiang Television and Film Carnival.