Education

Ph.D., Communication, George Mason University
M.A., Public Relations and Advertising, Sogang University
B.A., Mass Communications, Sogang University

Research

Dr. Jungmi Jun is a health communication scientist, investigating the intersection of communication/media, sociopsychology, and health perceptions/behaviors. Her recent research has focused on communications surrounding cancer and tobacco control, health information disparities, and racial/ethnic minorities’ communicative coping of racism/biases. She is the author of 90 peer-reviewed journal and conference papers in the fields of Health Communication, Tobacco Regulatory Science, Public Health, Health Disparities/Community Health, Racial Justice, and Public Relations.

Funded Research

2023 AEJMC Senior Scholar. Cancer communication ecologies of Asian Americans in the United States. (Role: PI; $5,000). Associations for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication. 1, 2023 – Aug. 30, 2024.

Racial Justice and Equity Research Fund. Have Asian students safely returned to school? Anti-Asian racism/bullying stress and perceived social support among Asian students. (Role: PI; $15,000). The Office of the Vice President for Research, University of South Carolina. Feb. 1, 2022 – Apr. 30, 2023.

Colorectal Cancer Prevention Network (CCPN) Pilot Research Grant: (Role: co-PI; $20,000). Identifying optimal visual narratives to impact African American men’s colorectal cancer risk awareness and screening uptake. Colorectal Cancer Prevention Network. Feb. 1, 2022 – Jan. 31, 2023.

ASPIRE – II. Automatic and personalized identification of smoking using smartwatches (Role: Co-PI; $99,190). The Office of the Vice President for Research, University of South Carolina. Jul. 1, 2022 – Jun. 30, 2023.

ASPIRE – I.Biometric responses and health outcomes of youth exposure to modified exposure claims for novel tobacco products with FDA authorization cues. (Role: PI; $15,000). The Office of the Vice President for Research, University of South Carolina. Jul. 1, 2021 – Sep. 30, 2022.

CIC/CON Seed Funding.COVID-19 vaccination hesitancy among cancer communities (Role: Co-PI; $10,000). The College of Communications and College of Nursing, University of South Carolina. Jul. 15, 2021 – Jul. 15, 2022.

Big Data Health Science Initiative Grant (Social Media Core).Multi-national comparison of ‘COVID-19 vaccination’ discourses on social media and their association with vaccination penetration. (Role: PI; $5,000). Big Data Health Science Center, University of South Carolina. Jun. 15, 2021 – Sep. 30, 2022.

Teaching

Jun teaches Health Communication, Strategic Communication, Crisis Communication, PR Theory, PR Management, and International PR at the School of Journalism and Mass Communications. She has also taught Social Media, PR Campaigns and Cases, Interpersonal Communication, and Research Methods.

Recent Publications

Jun, J., Wickersham, K., Zain, A., Ford, R., Zhang, N., Ciccarelli, C., Kim, S.-H., & Liang, C. (2023). Cancer and COVID-19 vaccines on Twitter: The voice and vaccine attitude of cancer community. Journal of Health Communication

Jun, J., Zain, A., Chen, Y., & Kim, S. (2022). Adverse mentions, negative sentiment, and emotions in COVID-19 vaccine tweets and their association with vaccination uptake: Global comparison of 192 countries. Vaccines.

Jun, J., Fitzpatrick M. A., Zain, A. & Zhang, N. (2022). Have e-cigarette risk perception and cessation intent of young adult users changed during the pandemic? American Journal of Health Behaviors.

Jun, J., Kim, S., Thrasher, J., Cho, Y. & Heo, Y. (2021). Heated debates on regulations of heated tobacco products in South Korea: The news valence, source, and framing of relative risk/benefit. Tobacco Control. 

Jun, J., Kim, J., Woo, B., (2021). Fight the virus and fight the bias: Asian Americans’ engagement in activism to combat Anti-Asian COVID-19 racism. Race and Justice.

Personal

Jun was born in Seoul, South Korea and has lived in Washington D.C., Nashville, Detroit and Cedar Falls, Iowa. She equally enjoys traveling the world and staying home as long as she is with her husband and two sons.