Thomas H. Zhang (he/him/his) is a Ph.D. Candidate in the School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His research focuses on message effects, AI-facilitated persuasion, and cross-cultural health and risk communication.
Zhang’s current research programs draw on a range of experimental and computational methods to understand the effects of public-interest campaigns addressing tobacco control and other issues of public concern, such as ultra processed food counter-marketing and chronic disease prevention. In particular, he investigates theory-informed decomposability, (re)constructability, and message-level generalizability of campaign messages. Zhang also studies how large language models (LLMs) can advance message effects research and support the full lifecycle of public-interest campaigns. This work encompasses large-scale message construction, multimodal feature detection and reconstruction, as well as cross-cultural design and adaptation of campaign messages.
Zhang’s research has been published in journals such as Mass Communication and Society, Journal of Health Communication, Journal of Media Psychology, and Journal of Medical Internet Research. His research has also received top paper awards at the International Communication Association Annual Conference and the National Communication Association Annual Convention.