Rui (Cara) Zhu

Ph.D. Student

Department

Communication

zhurui1@msu.edu

Bio

Cara Zhu is a third-year doctoral student at the Department of Communication. She earned her M.Sc. in AI and Digital Media from Hong Kong Baptist University and her B.L. in Ethnology from Southwest University in China.

Research and Teaching

Cara's research centers on the impact of communication technology on human communication. Her current focus is on understanding how generative AI affects interpersonal communication, such as its influence on selective self-presentation and online impression formation. Her research interests also extend to human-machine communication, with a particular focus on the dynamics of human-AI conversation.

Before joining Michigan State University, Cara participated in several research projects related to social media, journalism, and public health. Her work received an award from ICA in 2023.

Related Work

Recent Publications

McKinley, E., Markowitz, D. M., Zhu, R., & Van Der Heide, B. (2025). Evaluating AI use and its psychological correlates via months of web-browsing data. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking.

Pham, D., Van Der Heide, B., Zhu, R., & Rathjens, B. (2025). The effects of metacognition on the sender’s feedback effect in computer-mediated communication. Communication studies.

Hu, J. M., Zhu, R., & Zhang, Y. (2024). Does online dating make relationships more successful? Replication and extension of a previous study. Cyberpsychology, Behavior and Social Networking, 27(9), 635–640.

Zhang, X. & Zhu, R. (2024). Health journalists’ social media sourcing during the early outbreak of the public health emergency. Journalism Practice, 18(7), 1660-1680.

Zhang, X., Zhu, R., Chen, L., Zhang, Z., & Chen, M. (2024). News from Messenger? A cross-national comparative study of news media’s audience engagement strategies via Facebook Messenger chatbots. Digital Journalism, 12(3), 336-355.

Zhu, R., & Zhang, X. (2023). Public sector’s misinformation debunking during the public health campaign: A case of Hong Kong. Health Promotion International, 38(3), daad053.

Zhang, X., & Zhu, R. (2022). How source-level and message-level factors influence journalists’ social media visibility during a public health crisis. Journalism, 23(12), 2627-2645.

Contact Information

404 Wilson Road, Room 457