Dr. Sungwon Chung
<b>Department:</b> School of Journalism and Strategic Communication<br><b>Research Area:</b> Motivated cognitive and psychological processing of strategic communication messages (e.g., for advertising, public relations, computer-based learning, public health and environmental campaigns) in traditional and emerging media.<br>
Department: Journalism
Research Focus: My research focuses on motivated cognitive and psychological processing of strategic communication messages (e.g., for advertising, public relations, computer-based learning, public health and environmental campaigns) in traditional and emerging media. Specifically, I am interested in understanding how media content and features influence consumers’ or the public’s emotion, motivation, cognition, and attitudes. My prior work explored various mediated contexts, including in-game advertising, corporate social responsibility (CSR) messages in social media, instructional animations, multimedia learning, and serious games. My current projects explore visual communication design for CSR campaigns, aiming to help the public engage companies’ supporting initiatives addressing social and environmental issues, such as pollution and hunger.
Potential Student Project: The overarching question is as follows, but I would like to hear your ideas, too.
What types of visual content (e.g., humans vs. nonhumans, narrative vs. non-narrative, or specific social cues such as eye contact or facial expressions of the victim) or message strategies can make a significant effect on consumers’ or the public’s memory of the information, issue involvement, campaign effectiveness, and evaluations of the companies supporting the issues?
Students may propose ideas on media and communication design in such contexts as public health or environmental campaigns for learning or persuasion.
Attributes/skills/background sought in undergraduate: Curiosity: “A strong desire to know or learn something”
Curiosity leads to discoveries. I look forward working with a student who wants to better understand the world around us. For this particular project, I hope you are especially passionate about exploring ways to decrease and eliminate wrongful convictions. All majors are welcome and you don’t need an advanced research or technology background.
Mentoring Plan: I will help the student understand how to (a) start quantitative research, (b) develop and formulate testable research questions, and (c) design surveys and experiments for the research, (d) collect and analyze data in a computer lab or online if relevant, and/or (e) present the completed research. Also, the student can have an opportunity to present the research proposal or findings to the classes and/or Ball State University’s Annual Student Symposium, and further to apply for the ASPiRE Student Research Program.
Contact: 765-285-4320, AJ 397