DAM HEE KIM'S BIO
​
With her cross-disciplinary background in communication and business, Dam Hee Kim’s research focuses on the social, political and economic implications of individuals’ engagement with news and entertainment content in the evolving media environment. With an emphasis on social media, she investigates news sharing and political engagement. On media diversity, she empirically examines the normative claim that individuals who value and consume news from diverse viewpoints will become highly-aware and involved democratic citizens.
In addition, Dam Hee explores the practical implications of media diversity policies as well as strategies in the news and film industries. At the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in summer 2011, she examined the nexus among minority ownership, employment and content. Dam Hee’s on-going research topics involve social media strategies of news media outlets, specifically predicting user engagement, and brand extension strategies involving sequels across genres and adaptations in the U.S. and South Korea.
Dam Hee is well-versed in the implementation of varying research methods. In collecting social media “big data,” she measures user engagement with news posts. In the context of election campaigns, she analyzed panel survey responses to investigate Americans’ media use and political behaviors. For the 2014 academy awards, Dam Hee conducted case studies of successful social media strategies. She also identified themes that emerged across focus groups on a digital news project.
Overall, her work has earned her 11 research awards including two Top Paper awards from the AEJMC (Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication) in 2021. Her work has appeared in Communication Research, Digital Journalism, Human Communication Research., Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Journal of Media Economics, and New Media & Society among others.
At Korea University, Dam Hee teaches courses on entertainment & media and social media theories & research. Before joining the faculty at Korea University, Dam Hee was an Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Arizona in Tucson, Arizona.
Dam Hee received her Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Michigan. She received her M.A. (Journalism and Mass Communication) and B.A. (Summa Cum Laude, Journalism and Mass Communication, and Business Administration) from Korea University in South Korea. She graduated from DFLHS (Daewon Foreign Language High School), majoring in Chinese.