Dr Lewen Wei

Lecturer
Arts,Design & Architecture
School of the Arts and Media

Dr. Lewen Wei is Lecturer in the School of the Arts and Media at the University of New South Wales, Sydney since April, 2023. Her broad program of research is motivated by ever-changing technological innovations and their persuasive influence over people’s cognition, emotion, and behavior.  In particular, she is interested in how both immediate and temporal effects of message attributes (format, content, source) can be amplified by media technologies (e.g., social network sites, game and gamification, wearable trackers, chatbots, AI) to cultivate sustainable self-identities and relationships, build resilient communities, and facilitate responsible communication among different entities to collectively promote prosocial changes across individual, community, and society levels.

Lewen is familiar with quantitative, qualitative, computational, and design methodologies, and proficient at toolkits for data analytics, game design, and multimedia. She has worked independently or in collaboration with colleagues on a variety of research projects in the interconnected research areas including digital advertising/marketing, corporate social responsibility, crisis communication, and human-technology interaction. Her work has been published in peer-reviewed journals such as Journal of Interactive Advertising, Public Relations Review, and Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, and conference proceedings in areas such as information systems and human-agent interaction, among others.

She held a bachelor degree in Editing and Publishing with a minor in Computer Science and Technology (Wuhan University, China, 2015), a master degree in Media Studies (Pennsylvania State University, USA, 2017), and a doctoral degree in Mass Communications with a minor in Social Data Analytics (Pennsylvania State University, USA, 2021). After that, Lewen was a postdoctoral research fellow of the Gamification Group in the Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences at Tampere University, Finland prior to joining UNSW.

Lewen is available to supervise Honours, Masters, and PhD students in her areas of expertise. Please feel free to reach out if you are interested in a project in the general area of technology-mediated strategic communication.

Location
231Q, Level 2 Robert Webster
  • Book Chapters | 2018
    Liu B; Wei L, 2018, 'Reading Machine-Written News: Effect of Machine Heuristic and Novelty on Hostile Media Perception', in Kurosu M (ed.), , SPRINGER INTERNATIONAL PUBLISHING AG, pp. 307 - 324, http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-91238-7_26
  • Journal articles | 2023
    Liu B; Kang J; Wei L, 2023, 'Artificial intelligence and perceived effort in relationship maintenance: Effects on relationship satisfaction and uncertainty', Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/02654075231189899
    Journal articles | 2023
    Liu B; Wei L; Wu M; Luo T, 2023, 'Speech production under uncertainty: how do job applicants experience and communicate with an AI interviewer?', Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 28, http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/jcmc/zmad028
    Journal articles | 2023
    Liu B; Wei L, 2023, 'Unintended effects of open data policy in online behavioral research: An experimental investigation of participants’ privacy concerns and research validity', Computers in Human Behavior, 139, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2022.107537
    Journal articles | 2022
    Diddi P; Wei L, 2022, 'Crisis management on social media: Effect of pre-crisis inoculation strategy and midst-crisis organizational interactivity', Public Relations Review, 48, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2022.102206
    Journal articles | 2022
    Freeman J; Wei L; Yang H; Shen F, 2022, 'Does in-Stream Video Advertising Work? Effects of Position and Congruence on Consumer Responses', Journal of Promotion Management, 28, pp. 515 - 536, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10496491.2021.2009086
    Journal articles | 2022
    Wei L; Diddi P, 2022, 'Morality rules: Understanding the role of prior reputation in consequences of scansis', Public Relations Review, 48, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2022.102147
    Journal articles | 2022
    Wei L; Myrick J, 2022, 'Gamifying Green Consumerism Websites: Can Gamification Mitigate Moral Licensing and Ideological Resistance to Green Behaviors?', Journal of Communication Technology, 5, http://dx.doi.org/10.51548/joctec-2022-001
    Journal articles | 2021
    Liu B; Wei L, 2021, 'Machine gaze in online behavioral targeting: The effects of algorithmic human likeness on social presence and social influence', Computers in Human Behavior, 124, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106926
    Journal articles | 2021
    Wei L; Kim N, 2021, 'Attenuating public skepticism: Effects of pre-crisis corporate engagement and post-crisis CSR initiatives on corporate evaluations', Public Relations Review, 47, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2020.101999
    Journal articles | 2021
    Wei L; Kim N, 2021, 'Within- and between-person(s) emotional reactions toward crisis communication', Corporate Communications, 26, pp. 420 - 437, http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/CCIJ-06-2020-0096
    Journal articles | 2021
    Wei L; Yang G; Shoenberger H; Shen F, 2021, 'Interacting with Social Media Ads: Effects of Carousel Advertising and Message Type on Health Outcomes', Journal of Interactive Advertising, 21, pp. 269 - 282, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15252019.2021.1977736
    Journal articles | 2020
    Kang J; Wei L, 2020, 'Let me be at my funniest: Instagram users’ motivations for using Finsta (a.k.a., fake Instagram)', Social Science Journal, 57, pp. 58 - 71, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.soscij.2018.12.005
    Journal articles | 2020
    Wang J; Wei L, 2020, 'Fear and Hope, Bitter and Sweet: Emotion Sharing of Cancer Community on Twitter', SOCIAL MEDIA + SOCIETY, 6, http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/2056305119897319
    Journal articles | 2020
    Wei L; Kang J; Schmierbach M, 2020, 'Memory at Play: Personalizing Online Advertisements Based on Consumers’ Autobiographical Memory', Journal of Promotion Management, 26, pp. 322 - 349, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10496491.2019.1699632
    Journal articles | 2020
    Wei L; Liu B, 2020, 'Reactions to others' misfortune on social media: Effects of homophily and publicness on schadenfreude, empathy, and perceived deservingness', COMPUTERS IN HUMAN BEHAVIOR, 102, pp. 1 - 13, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2019.08.002
    Journal articles | 2020
    Wei L; Sun T; Liu B, 2020, 'Exploring the Effect of Incorporating Danmaku into Advertising', Journal of Interactive Advertising, 20, pp. 31 - 46, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15252019.2019.1691094
    Journal articles | 2020
    Wei L, 2020, 'Examining Corporate Communications of Environmental Responsibility on Corporate Websites: Main Themes, Linguistic Features, and Text Reuse', Journal of Promotion Management, 26, pp. 1013 - 1037, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10496491.2020.1746467
    Journal articles | 2019
    Liu B; Wei L, 2019, 'MACHINE AUTHORSHIP IN SITU Effect of news organization and news genre on news credibility', DIGITAL JOURNALISM, 7, pp. 635 - 657, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21670811.2018.1510740
    Journal articles | 2019
    Wei L; Ferchaud A; Liu B, 2019, 'Endorser and Bodily Addressing in Public Service Announcements: Effects and Underlying Mechanisms', Communication Research Reports, 36, pp. 1 - 13, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08824096.2018.1524752
    Journal articles | 2019
    Wei L; Kang J, 2019, 'Employing Emotion Regulation Strategies in Tracking Personal Fitness Progress', International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 35, pp. 1115 - 1124, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2018.1511024
    Journal articles | 2018
    Liu B; Wei L, 2018, 'Modeling social support on social media: Effect of publicness and the underlying mechanisms', COMPUTERS IN HUMAN BEHAVIOR, 87, pp. 263 - 275, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.05.006
  • Conference Papers | 2023
    Wei L; Hamari J, 2023, 'Game-Based Approaches to Enhancing Public Understanding of Science: A Descriptive Literature Review', in Proceedings of the 56th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Hawaii, USA, pp. 4681 - 4690, presented at 56th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Hawaii, USA, 03 January 2023 - 06 January 2023, https://hdl.handle.net/10125/103203
    Conference Papers | 2023
    Wei L; Kang J; Liu B, 2023, 'What if I Use Help for This? Exploring Normative Evaluations of Relationship Maintenance Behaviors Augmented by External Agency', in Proceedings of the 56th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Hawaii, USA, pp. 2441 - 2450, presented at 56th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, Hawaii, USA, 03 January 2023 - 06 January 2023, https://hdl.handle.net/10125/102932
    Conference Presentations | 2023
    Wei L; Liu B; Wu M, 2023, 'Embodied AI as job interviewer: Exploring the effects of AI-applicant similarity on job applicants', presented at 106th Annual Conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Washington DC, USA, 07 August 2023 - 10 August 2023
    Conference Presentations | 2023
    Wei L; Schmierbach M; Liu B; Kang J; Chen C; Dardis F; Tan R; Cohen O, 2023, 'Amplifying player experience to facilitate prosocial outcomes in a narrative-based serious game', presented at ECREA Digital Games Research Section Symposium (“Digital Games at the Forefront of Change - On the Meaningfulness of Games and Game Studies”), Complutense University of Madrid, Spain, 09 November 2023 - 10 November 2023
    Conference Presentations | 2023
    Wei L; Schmierbach M, 2023, 'Examining immediate and delayed exemplification effects on communicating risks of binge drinking among college students', presented at 73rd Annual International Communication Association Conference, Toronto, Canada, 25 May 2023 - 29 May 2023
    Conference Presentations | 2023
    Wei L; Schmierbach M, 2023, 'Recall as mechanism underlying exemplification effects? Exploring the differential impacts of cognitive processing styles', presented at 73rd Annual International Communication Association Conference, Toronto, Canada, 25 May 2023 - 29 May 2023
    Conference Presentations | 2023
    Yang G; Wei L, 2023, 'When influencers compare brands: Defensive processing of sponsored comparative message appeal and effects on consumer responses', presented at 106th Annual Conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Washington DC, USA, 07 August 2023 - 10 August 2023
    Conference Papers | 2022
    Järvelä S; Wei L; Hassan L; Hamari J, 2022, 'Storifying a Serious Mobile Game: Exploring Players' Perception of Storification Features, Narrative Engagement, and Behavioral Intentions', in ACM International Conference Proceeding Series, pp. 53 - 61, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3569219.3569343
    Conference Presentations | 2022
    Liu B; Wei L, 2022, 'Unintended effects of open data policies on participants’ privacy concerns and research validity: An experimental investigation', presented at 72nd Annual International Communication Association Conference, Paris, France, 26 May 2022
    Conference Presentations | 2021
    Schmierbach M; Wei L; Cheng Z, 2021, 'Play hard: The video game difficulty story', presented at 71st Annual International Communication Association Conference, 27 May 2021
    Conference Presentations | 2021
    Wei L; Diddi P, 2021, 'Morality rules: Understanding the role of prior reputation in consequences of scansis', presented at 104th Annual Conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, 04 August 2021
    Conference Papers | 2020
    Kang J; Wei L, 2020, 'Enter Your Dinner Now!', in Proceedings of the 14th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare, ACM, presented at PervasiveHealth '20: 14th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3421937.3422014
    Conference Papers | 2020
    Kang J; Wei L, 2020, 'Promises of Anthropomorphism in Virtual Coaches', in Proceedings of the 14th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare, ACM, presented at PervasiveHealth '20: 14th EAI International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3421937.3421945
    Conference Presentations | 2020
    Kang J; Wei L, 2020, '“Should I use emoticon and GIF?”: The effect of emoticon and GIF in human-chatbot interaction', presented at 103rd Annual Conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, 06 August 2020 - 09 August 2020
    Conference Presentations | 2020
    Wei L; Kang J, 2020, 'All about words: Linguistic profile of Twitter users who tweet and retweet about face-swapping posts', presented at 103rd Annual Conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, 06 August 2020
    Conference Presentations | 2020
    Wei L; Kim N, 2020, 'Attenuating public skepticism: Effects of pre-crisis dialogic engagement and post-crisis CSR initiatives on corporate evaluations', presented at 70th Annual International Communication Association Conference, 20 May 2020 - 26 May 2020
    Conference Presentations | 2020
    Wei L; Kim N, 2020, 'Within- and Between-Person(s) emotional reactions towards crisis communication', presented at 103rd Annual Conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, 06 August 2020
    Conference Presentations | 2020
    Wei L; Schmierbach M, 2020, 'Effects of broadcast media, ideology, and voter affect on political participation in presidential elections, 1984-2012', presented at 70th Annual International Communication Association Conference, 20 May 2020 - 26 May 2020
    Conference Presentations | 2020
    Wei L; Wang J, 2020, 'Effects of soft and hard news consumption on 2012 and 2016 presidential candidate evaluations', presented at 103rd Annual Conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, 06 August 2020
    Conference Presentations | 2020
    Wei L; Wang J, 2020, 'Favoring emotional or analytical? Exploring corporate brand personality projected on Twitter', presented at 103rd Annual Conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, 06 August 2020 - 09 August 2020
    Conference Presentations | 2020
    Wei L; Yang G; Schoenberg H; Shen F, 2020, 'Carousel advertising for public health: Effects of narrative and involvement', presented at 103rd Annual Conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, 06 August 2020 - 09 August 2020
    Conference Presentations | 2019
    Freeman J; Wei L; Yang H; Shen F, 2019, 'Does in-stream video advertising Work? Effects of position and congruence on ad and brand-related responses', presented at 102nd Annual Conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Toronto, Canada, 07 August 2019 - 10 August 2019
    Conference Presentations | 2019
    Wang J; Wei L, 2019, 'Fear and hope, bitter and sweet: Emotion sharing of cancer community on Twitter', presented at 102nd Annual Conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Toronto, Canada, 07 August 2019 - 10 August 2019
    Conference Presentations | 2019
    Wei L; Liu B, 2019, 'Emotional reaction to another’s misfortune on social media: Effects of publicness and closeness on schadenfreude and empathy', presented at 69th Annual International Communication Association Conference, Washington DC, USA, 24 May 2019 - 28 May 2019
    Conference Presentations | 2019
    Wei L; Liu B, 2019, 'Outcomes of support seeking on social media: Effects of message publicness, explicitness, and social distance', presented at 69th Annual International Communication Association Conference, Washington DC, USA, 24 May 2019 - 28 May 2019
    Conference Presentations | 2019
    Wei L; Myrick J, 2019, 'Gamifying green consumerism websites: Can gamification help mitigate moral licensing and ideological resistance to green behaviors?', presented at 69th Annual International Communication Association Conference, Washington DC, USA, 24 May 2019 - 28 May 2019
    Conference Presentations | 2019
    Wei L; Zhao W, 2019, 'Conspicuous donation and strategic self-presentation on social media: Prosocial fitness app as a double-edged sword', presented at 102nd Annual Conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Toronto, Canada, 07 August 2019 - 10 August 2019
    Conference Presentations | 2018
    Diddi P; Wei L, 2018, 'Crisis management on social media: Inoculation strategy and organizational interactivity', presented at 2018 Annual Conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Washington DC, USA, 06 August 2018 - 09 August 2018
    Conference Papers | 2018
    Kang J; Wei L, 2018, '"Give Me the Support I Want!": The Effect of Matching an Embodied Conversational Agent's Social Support to Users' Social Support Needs in Fostering Positive User-Agent Interaction', in HAI'18: PROCEEDINGS OF THE 6TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON HUMAN-AGENT INTERACTION, ASSOC COMPUTING MACHINERY, ENGLAND, Southampton, pp. 106 - 113, presented at 6th International Conference on Human-Agent Interaction (HAI), ENGLAND, Southampton, 15 December 2018 - 18 December 2018, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3284432.3284462
    Conference Presentations | 2018
    Kang J; Wei L, 2018, 'How should an embodied conversational agent carry out small talks? The effect of the agent’s passivity in small talks on user psychology', presented at 2018 Annual Conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Washington DC, USA, 06 August 2018 - 09 August 2018
    Conference Presentations | 2018
    Kang J; Wei L, 2018, 'Let me be at my ugliest: Instagram users’ motivations for using Finsta (a.k.a., Fake Instagram)', presented at 68th Annual International Communication Association Conference, Prague, Czech Republic, 24 May 2018 - 28 May 2018
    Conference Presentations | 2018
    Wang J; Wei L; Schmierbach M, 2018, 'Effects of avatars in online group interactions: Self-disclosure, group conformity, and social support', presented at 68th Annual International Communication Association Conference, Prague, Czech Republic, 24 May 2018 - 28 May 2018
    Conference Presentations | 2018
    Wei L; Ferchaud A; Liu B, 2018, 'Underlying effects of endorser identity and bodily addressing in public service announcements', presented at 2018 Annual Conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Washington DC, USA, 06 August 2018 - 09 August 2018
    Conference Presentations | 2018
    Wei L; Kang J; Schmierbach M, 2018, 'Memory at play: Personalizing advertisements based on consumers’ autobiographical memory', presented at 2018 Annual Conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Washington DC, USA, 06 August 2018 - 09 August 2018
    Conference Presentations | 2018
    Wei L; Kang J, 2018, 'Employing emotion regulation strategies in tracking personal fitness progress', presented at 104th National Communication Association Conference, Salt Lake City UT, USA, 08 November 2018 - 11 November 2018
    Conference Presentations | 2018
    Wei L; Kropczynski J, 2018, 'Examining social and personal factors that influence in-game profanity through comparative ego-network analysis', presented at 68th Annual International Communication Association Conference, Prague, Czech Republic, 24 May 2018 - 28 May 2018
    Conference Presentations | 2018
    Wei L; Shen F, 2018, 'Exploring the effects of interactive narratives in promoting health behaviors', presented at 104th National Communication Association Conference, Salt Lake City UT, USA, 08 November 2018 - 11 November 2018
    Conference Presentations | 2018
    Wei L, 2018, 'Communicating emerging technologies in healthcare on Twitter: Network characteristics, opinion leadership, thematic and sentiment analysis', presented at 104th National Communication Association Conference, Salt Lake City UT, USA, 08 November 2018 - 11 November 2018
    Conference Presentations | 2018
    Wei L, 2018, 'Reviewing the role of emotion in video gaming research', presented at 104th National Communication Association Conference, Salt Lake City UT, USA, 08 November 2018 - 11 November 2018
    Conference Presentations | 2017
    Liu B; Wei L, 2017, 'Is the robot biased against me? An investigation of boundary conditions for reception of robot as news writer', presented at 2017 Annual Conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Chicago IL, USA, 09 August 2017 - 12 August 2017
    Conference Presentations | 2017
    Wei L; Kang J, 2017, 'Are you a social media chameleon? Probing self-presentations across and within social network sites', presented at 2017 Annual Conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Chicago IL, USA, 09 August 2017 - 12 August 2017
    Conference Presentations | 2017
    Wei L; Schmierbach M, 2017, 'Gamification and social comparison in learning', presented at 67th Annual International Communication Association Game Studies Division Preconference, San Diego CA, USA, 25 May 2017 - 29 May 2017