Eugene Kim
PhD Candidate
Contact Information
Research and Creative Interests
- Public Relations
- Health risk and crisis communication
- Social Media Strategies
- Public Engagement
- Science and Environmental Communication
Biography
Eugene Kim is a Ph.D. candidate in The Media School at Indiana University Bloomington. His research focuses primarily on public relations, with an emphasis on corporate social advocacy (CSA), CSR, organization-public relationships (OPR), as well as risk/health/science communication, and social media. Eugene has explored publics’ communicative behaviors, including not only seeking and sharing but also avoidance. Recognizing the roles of social media in various contexts of communication, his recent works investigated the features of social media communication facilitated by organizations and professionals (e.g., climate NGOs, climate scientists, and police unions) and publics’ responses to the communications (e.g., engagement).
Eugene received his M.A. in Media Arts and Sciences from Indiana University in June 2020, and his B.S. in Mass Media from Minnesota State University, Mankato, in December 2017.
In The Media School, He has taught Public Relations Planning and Research as an Instructor of Record and Media as an Associate Instructor.
He is currently based in Oxford, MS, serving as an Assistant Professor of Integrated Marketing Communications at the University of Mississippi School of Journalism and New Media.
Publications
Hara, N., Kim, E., Akter, S., & Miyazaki, K. (2025). Exploring the dynamics of interaction about generative artificial intelligence between experts and the public on social media. Journal of Science Communication, 24(01). https://doi.org/10.22323/2.24010202
Moon, B., Choi, C.-W., & Kim, E. (2024). Silent ripples: negative CSR associations’ impact in noncrisis situations. Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 29(6), 1013–1033. https://doi.org/10.1108/CCIJ-01-2024-0014
Casiraghi , L., Kim, E.*, & Hara, N. (2024). Tweeting on thin ice: Scientists in dialogic climate change communication with the public. First Monday, 29(6). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v29i6.13543 [*corresponding author]
Kim, E., & Hara, N. (2024). Identifying Different Semantic Features of Public Engagement with Climate Change NGOs Using Semantic Network Analysis. Sustainability, 16(4). https://doi.org/10.3390/su16041438
Kim, E., & Sarge, M. A. (2022). Modeling Electronic-Cigarette Users’ Risk Information Avoidance. Journal of Health Communication, 27(8), 603–613. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2022.2140366
Heatherly, K. A., Yang, S. U., Browning, N., & Kim, E. (2022). Words, Money, or Action? How Corporate Social Advocacy Drove Media Coverage in Response to the Black Lives Matter Protests of 2020. Public Relations Journal, 15(2). https://instituteforpr.org/wp-content/uploads/Heatherly.PRJ_.15.2-2.pdf
Award
2021 ICA/NCA Amanda L. Kundrat Thesis of the Year Award, “The Predictors of Electronic-Cigarette Users’ Risk Information Avoidance”
Grant and Fellowship
2024 Rob Kling Social Informatics Fellowship, “Expanding Network, Beyond Dyadic OPR: Exploring Active Issue Public Engagement with New Insights”
• Amount: $7,500
Sustainability Research Development Grant, “The Role of Public Mediators in Addressing Climate Change: Investigating the Communicative Actions of Active Publics with Scientific Information from Climate Scientists on Social Media”
• Amount: $8,500
• Period: Summer 2023 – Spring 2024
• Role: leading author of the grant proposal, Co-PI