Su Jung Kim is an assistant professor at USC Annenberg. Her research has been driven by the fundamental changes in the digital media environment and the ways in which media users have evolved to adapt to such changes. She is interested in how media users cope with the abundance of media choices and enact their agency using social and mobile media. Her research projects have examined cross-platform media use patterns, news and information sharing behaviors (e.g., electronic word-of-mouth, online reviews) and mobile app/web engagement, as well as the impact of aforementioned media engagement on decision-making such as information adoption, purchase decisions, and civic and political engagement. Methodologically, she employs the tools of computational social science to trace, collect and analyze individuals’ digital footprints along with other quantitative research methods.

Her work has been published in top-tier peer-reviewed journals such as New Media & Society, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, Decision Support Systems, Computers in Human Behavior, Journal of Interactive Marketing, International Journal of Advertising, and International Journal of Communication among others. At USC Annenberg, she teaches “Strategic Public Relations Research, Analysis and Insights” and “Strategic Public Relations: An Introduction.”

Prior to joining USC, she was an assistant professor in the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication at Iowa State University. Before that, she was a post-doctoral research associate in the Spiegel Digital and Database Research Center in the Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications at Northwestern University. She earned her PhD in media, technology and society (MTS) from the School of Communication at Northwestern University. She double-majored in linguistics and communication and has an MA in communication from Seoul National University.

Awards and honors:

Research Fellowship Grant, American Academy of Advertising (2020).
Faculty Fellow, National Association of Television Program Executives (2018).
Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Center for the Advancement of Women in Communication Fellow, AEJMC (2016).
Best Paper Award, Journal of Interactive Marketing (2016).
Faculty recognition, Iowa State University Office of Multicultural Student Affairs (2015).