The Women in Leadership & Philanthropy (WLP) organization recently announced the recipients of the 2024 WLP Dr. Kathleen Moore Faculty Excellence Awards. Among the esteemed honorees was Dr. Miyoung Chong, an assistant professor from the College of Arts and Sciences.
Dr. Miyoung Chong, assistant professor of journalism and digital communication. (Photo courtesy of Miyoung Chong)
The WLP Excellence Awards recognize female faculty members whose research and scholarly work focus on the advancement of women. The awards are divided into six categories and each recipient receives a $5,000 grant to support the continuation of their research efforts.
Chong is a faculty member in the Department of Journalism and Digital Communication at the USF St. Petersburg campus. Her interdisciplinary background includes a bachelor's degree in English linguistics and literature, a master's degree in journalism, and a PhD in information science. This diverse academic foundation drives a data-centered approach to research and education.
“I am a social data scientist who studies the intersections of information, minorities, and power in digital, social, and news media settings with a critical informatics approach. My work builds on the idea that active public conversations are crucial for a democratic and sustainable society. I organized a panel session, “Racial Attacks During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Politicizing an Epidemic Crisis on Longstanding Racism and Misinformation, Disinformation, and Misconception,” at the prestigious Association for Information Science Conference where I presented how mis- and disinformation and stereotyped pre-existing misconceptions on minority racial groups, especially Asian women in the U.S., were conveyed on social media during the pandemic crisis,” Chong said.
Chong’s overall research focuses primarily on human rights and justice for gender and social minorities. Her commitment to this area of study has been evident since her master’s thesis, which addressed major issues faced by North Korean women defectors and victims of human trafficking.
Another notable example of Chong's work is her study on the effects of stereotypes in minority racial groups and misinformation within social movements such as the Black Lives Matter movement. Her research on this topic has been published in a manuscript and presented at multiple international conferences.
“The Black Lives Matter movement (BLM) was established by Black women, however, public discourses often centered on the experiences of Black men. Taking a stage-based approach, I examined the [hashtag] #JusticeforBreonnaTaylor on X (formerly Twitter) networks by employing natural language processing and social network analysis. I found that Black women policy makers, organizations, and activists were the outstanding influencers and connectors of the networks, which were not the cases for other major BLM related activism X networks, such as #Ferguson, #MichaelBrown, and #IfTheyGunnedMeDown. The main topics included demanding justice for the Taylor’s death and honoring numerous women victims of police brutality,” Chong explained. “I presented the findings at the 2021 Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Annual Conference (AEJMC) and at the Artificial Intelligence Special Seminar hosted by Cyber Emotions Research Center at Yeongnam University, Republic of Korea. The completed manuscript was published in Social Network Analysis and Mining in March 2023.”
With this award, Chong plans to use the funds to support international conference travels, career trainings for applications of generative artificial intelligence (GAI), such as large language models, and to hire a USF graduate student as a data analyst research assistant.
Dr. Miyoung Chong presenting her research at the University of Virginia's Postdoctoral Research Symposium. (Photo courtesy of Miyoung Chong)
Currently, Chong's research is concentrated on the applications of GAI and how these technologies can be utilized to understand the interpretation of visual information from various perspectives.
“My current research project includes investigating how visual information is differently generated depending on the diverse user backgrounds in large language models. I also am working on multiple projects that apply data science methods to investigate deep meanings of big social datasets taking critical informatics approaches. One of such projects aims to examine the complexity of the current media gatekeeping practices in Brazil by interviewing 20 Brazilian journalists who work at television broadcasting, radio, cable channels, and internet news media who report on platforms of international, national, and local news media. This will be the first study of its kind,” Chong explained.
Chong has several plans underway to advance her research areas. She reflected on this achievement and underscored the importance of addressing contemporary issues that tackle modern-day challenges.
“I feel wonderful and enormously grateful about the recognition of my research on women and social justice. These are crucial issues that deeply impact society, and it's essential that we continue our efforts in this direction. I deeply appreciate this grant opportunity and support of the WLP Dr. Kathleen Moore Faculty Excellence Awards committee,” Chong said.
To learn more about Dr. Miyoung Chong’s research please visit the website for the Women & Leadership Philanthropy.