Biography
Seungahn Nah joined the University of Oregon in July 2017 as Professor and the new Associate Dean for Gradudate Affairs and Research after spending 11 years at the University of Kentucky, where he was an associate professor of community communication in the Department of Community and Leadership Development, as well as Information Communication Technology in the School of Information Science. He received his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his master’s and bachelor’s degrees from Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea. He is founding director of the University of Kentucky’s Community Communication Research Group and the Kentucky Citizen Media Project, which initiated its first community-based citizen journalism news site or the Lexington Commons in Lexington, Kentucky. He currently directs the Digital Media and Civic Engagement Project, nationally and globally.
He has produced more than 60 publications including journal articles in leading communication and journalism journals. With regard to grants, he has acquired numerous funding to support his research and teaching from New Voices through the Knight Foundation and the National Science Foundation, among others. He is a recipient of numerous top paper awards from the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, the International Communication Association, the American Political Science Association, and the World Association of Public Opinion Research. He is also a recipient of the University of Kentucky Provost’s Outstanding Teaching Award. He was a fellow of the Academic Leadership Academy and served as head of the Mass Communication and Society Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. He also served as president of the Korean American Communication Association and currently is an associate editor of the journals, Mass Communication and Society and Journal of Communication.
Education
- PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA
- MA, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea
- BA, Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea
Research
Nah’s research centers on the interrelationships among communication, community, and democracy, with special emphasis on the roles of digital communication technologies in community and democratic processes and outcomes. His work has appeared in such leading journals as Journal of Communication, Communication Theory, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, New Media & Society, Mass Communication & Society, International Journal of Communication, Javnost-The Public, Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media, and Journalism: Theory, Practice and Criticism among others.
Publications
Seungahn Nah, Jasmine McNealy, Janghyun Kim, and Jungseock Joo (Eds.). Communicating Artificial Intelligence (AI): Theory, Research, and Practice. Routledge, Taylor & Francis, 2021.
Wenlin Liu & Seungahn Nah (2020). Community Attachment, Communication Mediation, and Nonprofit Participation: An Integrated Community Communication Approach. VOLUNTAS: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations. Online Published First.
Hazel K. Kwon, Chun Sao, & Seungahn Nah (2020). Community Social Media and Civic Life: Exploring the Relationships among Social Media, Trust, and Participation in the U.S. Local Communities. Journal of Information Technology and Politics. Online Published First
Seungahn Nah & Masahiro Yamamoto (2020). Citizen Production, Political Discussion, and Civic Participation: Testing a Moderated Role of Media Credibility and Collective Efficacy. International Journal of Communication, 14, 5177-5198.
Soomin Seo & Seungahn Nah (2020). Mapping Communication Research Concerning North Korea: A Systematic Review (2000-2019). International Journal of Communication, 14, 1308-1330.
Sangwon Lee, Seungahn Nah, Deborah Chung, & Junghwan Kim (2020). Predicting AI News Credibility: Communicative or Social Capital or Both? Communication Studies, 71(3), 428-447.
Nah, S. & Chung. D. Understanding citizen journalism as civic participation (2020). Routledge, Taylor & Francis.
Seungahn Nah & Masahiro Yamamoto (2019). Communication and Citizenship Revisited: Theorizing Communication and Citizen Journalism Practice as Civic Participation. Communication Theory, 29(1), 24-45.
Deborah S. Chung, Youngsoo Kim, & Seungahn Nah (2018). A Comparison of Professional vs. Citizen Journalistic Roles: Views from Visual Journalists. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media & Technologies. First Published Online
Seungahn Nah & Masahiro Yamamoto (2018). The Integrated Media Effect: Rethinking the Effect of Media Use on Civic Participation in the Networked Digital Media Environment. American Behavioral Scientist, 62(8), 1061-1078.
Wenin Liu, Nien-Tsu Nancy Chen, Sandra Ball-Rokeach, & Seungahn Nah (2018). Connecting with Hyperlocal News Website: Cause or Effect of Civic Participation. American Behavioral Scientist. First Published Online.
Youngseek Kim & Seungahn Nah (2018). Internet Researchers’ Data Sharing Behaviors: An Integration of Data Reuse Experience, Attitudinal Beliefs, Social Norms, and Resource Factors. Online Information Review. First Published Online.
Kang Namkoong, Seungahn Nah, Rachael Record, and Stephanie Van Stee (2018). Social Media Campaign Effects: Moderating Role of Social Capital in Anti-smoking Campaign Communication. Health Communication, 33(3), 274-283.
Wenlin Liu, Minhee Son, Andrea Wenzel, Zheng An, Nan Zhao, Seungahn Nah & Sandra J. Ball-Rokeach (2018). Bridging Mechanisms in Multiethnic Communities: Place-Based Communication, Neighborhood Belonging and Intergroup Relations. Journal of International and Intercultural Communication, 11(1), 58-80.
Yamamoto, M. & Nah, S. (2018). A Multilevel Analysis of Individual-and Community-Level Sources of Local Newspaper Credibility. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 95(1), 76-95.
Nah, S. & Yamamoto, M. (2017). Civic Technology and Community Building: Interaction Effects between Integrated Connection to a Storytelling Network (ICSN) and Internet and Mobile Uses on Civic Participation. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication. Online First Published.
Yamamoto, M. & Nah, S. (2017). Mobile Information Seeking and Political Participation: A Differential Gains Approach with Offline and Online Discussion Attributes. New Media & Society. Online First Published.
Yamamoto, M., Nah, S., & Chung, D. (2017). U.S. Newspaper Editors’ Ratings of Social Media as Influential News Sources. International Journal of Communication, 11, 684-700.
Chung, D., Nah, S., & Yamamoto, M. (2017). Conceptualizing Citizen Journalism: U.S. News Editors’ Views. Journalism: Theory, Practice, & Criticism. Online First Published.
Namkoong, K. Nah, S. Record, R., & Van Stee, S. (2017). Social Media Campaign Effects: Moderating Role of Social Capital in Anti-smoking Campaign Communication. Health Communication. Online First Published.
Nah, S. & Chung, D. (2016). Communicative Action and Citizen Journalism: A Case Study of OhmyNews in South Korea. International Journal of Communication, 10, 2297-2317.
Namkoong, K., Nah, S., Van Stee, S., & Record, R. (2016). Communication, Reasoning, and Planned Behaviors: Unveiling the Effect of Interactive Communication in an Anti-Smoking Social Media Campaign. Health Communication, doi: 10.1080/10410236.2015.1099501.
Nah, S., Namkoong, K., Chen, N.-T. N., & Hustedde, R. J. (2015). A Communicative Approach to Community Development: The Effect of Neighborhood Storytelling Network on Civic Participation. Community Development: Journal of the Community Development Society, 47(1), 11-28.
Nah, S., Oh, P., & Yoon, Y. (2015). Press-Party Parallelism Regarding ‘Openness of Agriculture’ During Three Political Regimes (1993-2008) in South Korea. Asian Communication Research, 12(1), 5-36.
Nah, S., Yamamoto, M., Chung, D., & Zuercher, R. (2015). Modeling the Adoption and Use of Citizen Journalism by Online Newspapers. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 92(2), 399-420.
Honors and Awards
- Fund for Faculty Excellence Award, University of Oregon, November 20, 2020
- Jaewon Lee Distinguished Service Award, Inaugural Recipient, Korean American Communication Association, August 8, 2020.
- Top Poster Award, Political Communication Division, International Communication Association (ICA), Prague, Czech, 2018; * Top Paper Presented for Political Communication Division’s Poster Session.
- Faculty Teaching Excellence Award Nominee, 2016-2017, College of Communication and Information, University of Kentucky
- Top Poster Award, Journalism Studies Division, International Communication Association (ICA), Fukuoka, Japan, 2016; * Top Paper Presented for Journalism Studies Division’s Poster Session.
- Certificate of Appreciation: Vice President of Korean American Communication Association, Korean American Communication Association, 2015
- Top Reviewer Recognition, Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 2015
- Top Faculty Paper Award, Civic and Citizen Journalism Interest Group, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), Washington D.C., 2013
- Wethington Research Award. University of Kentucky, Spring 2013
- Presidential Citation for Outstanding Service & Dedication, Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, 2012
- University of Kentucky Provost’s Outstanding Teaching Award, 2011
Grants and Fellowships
- USDA Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
- The National Science Foundation
- J-Lab: The Institute for Interactive Journalism, The Knight Foundation
- Fellow, Academic Leadership Academy
- Fellow, Agora Journalism Center
Areas of Expertise
- Political communication
- Sociology of journalism, communication, and community
- International and global communication
- Civic and political engagement
- Participatory and citizen journalism
- Community and social informatics
- Information communication technologies for development (ict4d)
- Digital, social, and mobile technologies
- AI, VR/AR/MR, Human-Computer Interaction, and Human-Machine Interaction
- Social movements
- Nonprofit and voluntary associations
Teaching
- Fake News and Mis(Dis) Information
- Digital Media in Asia
- Social Media, the Nonprofit Sector, and Society
- The Internet, Community, and Democracy
- Communities and Information Communication Technology (ICT)
- Community Processes and Communication
- Theoretical Foundations for Communication and Community
- Research Methods
- Advanced Doctoral Seminar