I currently am an assistant professor in the Department of Telecommunication, in the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida. I research and teach digital media focusing on social interaction, information flow, and networks. I am particularly interested in how people create, share, and process information at the individual level and the resulting outcomes at the collective level.
I received my BA with honors in Mass Communication & Journalism from Korea University. After graduation, I worked as a journalist for the Chosun Daily – Korea’s leading media company – for five years covering consumer, business, and technology. During this time, I also collaborated with Booz Allen Hamilton, a management consulting firm, to investigate and analyze corporate strategies for imminent changes in the media industry. I conducted interviews with technology scholars and influential movers and published a book titled “Technology and the Future” in 2008 as well as two book chapters concerning the consumption of brands (2008) and the role of influentials (2010).
To more systematically study the trends of media technology and communication strategies, I returned to school for a Masters in Communication Management and a Ph.D in Communication at the Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism, University of Southern California. At Annenberg, I worked on various projects with research teams such as Annenberg Networks Network (ANN), the Annenberg Innovation Lab (AnnLab), and the Center for Applied Network Analysis (CANA). I was awarded "2017 Nafziger-White-Salwen Dissertation Award" from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC). My publications have also appeared in journals such as the Journal of Communication, New Media & Society, Computers in Human Behavior, Telematics and Informatics, and Mass Communication & Society.