Dam Hee Kim

About Dam Hee Kim

Dam Hee Kim (Ph.D., University of Michigan, Homepage) is an Assistant Professor of Communication. With her cross-disciplinary background in communication and business, Dam Hee Kim’s research focuses on the social, political and economic implications of individuals’ engagement with news and entertainment content in the evolving media environment. With an emphasis on social media, she investigates news sharing and political engagement. On media diversity, she empirically examines the normative claim that individuals who value and consume news from diverse viewpoints will become highly-aware and involved democratic citizens.

In addition, Dam Hee Kim explores the practical implications of media diversity policies as well as strategies in the news and entertainment industries. At the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in summer 2011, she examined the nexus among minority ownership, employment and content. Dam Hee’s on-going research topics involve social media strategies of news media outlets, specifically predicting user engagement, and brand extension strategies involving sequels across genres and adaptations in the U.S. and South Korea.

Overall, her work has earned her nine research awards including the Mary Alice Shaver award from the AEJMC (Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication) in 2015 and 2016. Her work has appeared in Communication Research, Human Communication Research, International Journal of Communication, Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, Journal of Communication, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, and New Media & Society among others.

At Arizona, Dam Hee Kim teaches courses on communication technology theory and mass media effects. At Michigan, she taught courses of her design, Social media practices: New vs. enduring principles and New media and the audience: Social, political, and economic engagement.

Research Interests

Media diversity and democratic citizenship
Engagement with news and politics on social media
Strategies in the media industry

Selected Publications

Kim, D. H. (Accepted). Managing films as extended brands: Performance of adaptations and sequels at the box office. Journal of Media Business Studies.

Kim, D. H., Jones-Jang, S. M., & Kenski, K. (2020). Why do people share political information on social media?. Digital Journalism.

Kim, D. H., & Pasek, J. (2020). Explaining the diversity deficit: Value-trait consistency in news media exposure and democratic citizenship. Communication Research. 47(1), 29-54.

Jones-Jang, S. M., Kim, D. H., & Kenski, K. (2020). Perceptions of mis- or disinformation exposure predict political cynicism: Evidence from a two-wave survey during the 2018 U.S. midterm elections. New Media & Society.

Kim, D. H., & Kim, S. (2020). A comparative study: Performance of Hollywood and Korean sequel films in Korea. Journal of Media Economics.

Kwak, N., Lane, D., Weeks, B., Kim, D. H., & Lee, S. (2020). Now we’re talking? Understanding the interplay between selective and incidental exposure online and their influence on cross-cutting online political discussion. Social Science Computer Review.

Kim, D. H. (2019). Brand extension strategies in the film industry: Factors behind financial performance of adaptations and sequels. International Journal on Media Management. 21(3-4), 161-176.

Weeks, B. E., Kim, D. H., Hahn, L. B., Diehl, T. H., & Kwak, N. (2019). Hostile media perceptions in the age of social media: Following politicians, candidate directed emotions, and perceptions of media bias. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media. 63(3), 374-392.

Lane, D., Lee, S., Liang, F., Kim, D. H., Shen, L., Weeks, B., & Kwak, N. (2019). Social media expression and the political self. Journal of Communication, 69(1), 49-72.

Kwak, N., Lane, D., Weeks, B., Kim, D. H., Lee, S. S., & Bachleda, S. (2018). Perceptions of social media for politics: Testing the Slacktivism hypothesis. Human Communication Research, 44(2), 197-221.

Kim, D. H., & Kwak, N. (2017). Media diversity policies for the public: Empirical evidence examining exposure diversity and democratic citizenship. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, 61(4), 682-702.

Weeks, B., Lane, D., Kim, D. H., Lee, S. S., & Kwak, N. (2017). Incidental exposure, selective exposure, and political information sharing: Integrating exposure patterns and expression on social media. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 22(6), 363-379

Lane, D., Kim, D. H., Lee, S. S., Weeks, B. & Kwak, N. (2017). From online disagreement to offline action: How diverse motivations for using social media can increase political information sharing and catalyze offline political participation. Social Media + Society, 3(3), 1-17.