Daba Coura Mbow
Jeyoung Oh, assistant professor of communication at the University of Michigan Flint, first moved to the United States during her high school years. During her undergraduate years at college, working as public relations and marketing assistant in a student organization, she became interested in the relationship between social media and the public. Eventually, in graduate school at the University of Alabama, she pursued a Ph.D. in communications to explore the growing impact of new media. Dr. Oh remains interested in the emergence of new media and technology in her research. Jeyoung is currently investigating the impact of Virtual Reality (VR), and Artificial intelligence (AI) on the interaction between organizations and the public, both the potential positive and negative impacts it can have on an organization.
Many studies criticize social media, but Jeyoung continues to explore the informational benefits it can have. Social media plays a significant role in shaping information and levels of social connection in our society. Environmental or social campaigns, for instance, would not be able to connect people locally, nationally, or internationally on major issues such as climate change or “Black Lives Matter”, without the platforms and communication channels. It is not just a way of sharing information to help people understand those issues but provides an avenue for activists and organizers to engage with one another and work towards solutions.
From an organizational perspective, providing information that will arouse the curiosity of the readers, helps to increase audience size. It is important to choose the audience that we want to make an impact on. By understanding the needs that they have, and exceeding their informational expectations, the audience will be more likely to engage in taking action toward finding solutions. In order to make social and environmental changes, organizations need to study their stakeholders and choose the best platform to communicate with them. They must know how to communicate and frame messages, by having messaging architectures, which will help them prioritize and emphasize the information received and not mislead them on their missions and values.
According to Jeyoung Oh, it is important for people and organizations to understand the benefits that social media can have for issues-based information campaigns. Her research focuses on the best use of social media and emerging technologies to build relationships between organizations and the public. Expanding her studies in AI and VR technology, Jeyoung hopes to find the role that they can play in the relationships and interactions between organizations and their public.