Email: yujinl3@illinois.edu Research Interests Yujin’s research interests include virtual reality, artificial intelligence, social media marketing, celebrity endorsement, media usage, and cultural analysis. She is a doctoral student at the Institute of Communications Research. She completed her master’s and bachelor’s degrees in advertising from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Recent Publications/Presentations Lee, Y.*, Fukada, M., Baptiste, P., Du, […]
Get to know some of our College of Media students! Rheanna Lewis is a Class of 2026 journalism major. Why did you choose journalism as a major?As a kid I always loved storytelling. Although I wasn’t thinking about journalism back then, I enjoyed telling stories and being on camera. My mom bought me a camera when […]
Email: rji3@illinois.edu Research Interests My research centers on the psychology of persuasion in digital media, with a particular focus on social media platforms. I investigate how consumers interpret and react to persuasive messages such as advertisements and health-related messages by brands and social media influencers. I am also interested in the effects of misinformation and […]
Email: yanbol2@illinois.edu Research Interests My research interests lie at the intersection of computational communication and political communication. Specifically, I am interested in using computational methods to learn about online misinformation and incivility contagion inside and between different countries and the possible factors that foster these processes. Recent Publications/Presentations Li, Y., & Su, C. (2022). “Toxidization” of […]
Email: spark110@illinois.edu Research Interests Se Il is a doctoral student at the Institute of Communications Research (ICR). Se Il’s interdisciplinary research focuses on persuasive messages in the context of emerging technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Metaverse, and Web 3.0. He wants to examine the difference in consumer behavior in a more immersive and intelligent virtual […]
Email: wd12@illinois.edu Research Interests Weiting Du is a first-year Ph.D. student at the Institute of Communications Research. Weiting’s research interests encompass media effects and risk communication under the context of climate change, with a particular interest in climate inactions. In parallel, Weiting explores how contemporary visual imagery represents the complex interplay between human-environment relationships, collective memories, […]
Email: vp21@illinois.edu Research Interests Veranika’s master’s thesis focused on the topic of time perception during media use. Her current research focuses on time perception, message fatigue, and computational approaches to communications research. Veranika completed her bachelor’s degree in neuroscience and art history at Emory University, and her master’s in advertising at UIUC. Recent Publications/Presentations Paltaratskaya, V., Wise, K. […]
Email: zixuan26@illinois.edu Research Interests Melodie is a doctoral student at the Institute of Communications Research, primarily researching the social and psychological effects of media messages and digital media use. Her specific interests revolve around the interactions between interactive media technologies and individuals’ identity, perceptions of “otherness,” and social relationships, as well as their role in driving […]
Email: jz150@illinois.edu Research Interests Junwei’s research interests are centered around the relations between subjectivity, governmentality, global media network and the network’s interpretive power, which eradicate the boundary between public/private space, human/posthuman and self-governing/self-enslaving. Besides his academic research on communication and media, he is also a cross-disciplinary artist. Junwei received his master’s degree in fine arts from […]
Email: yewonh2@illinois.edu Research Interests Cuteness, aesthetics, affect, game, critical theory, cultural studies, cultural analysis Recent Publications/Presentations Puzar, Aljosa and Yewon Hong. “Korean Cuties: Understanding the Performed Winsomeness (Aegyo) of South Korean Women.” Asia Pacific Journal of Anthropology, vol.19, no. 4, 2018: pp. 333 – 349. Hong, Yewon and Dustin Hellberg. “Transient Labor: Past and Present of […]