Hye Soo Nah
Department of Communication and Journalism
Assistant Professor
Hye Soo Nah is a media scholar whose research focuses on media psychology, political communication, and the effects of news and influencer content on audiences. She earned her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign in 2023 and teaches courses in multimedia and digital video production.
Before entering academia, Dr. Nah worked as a reporter, photographer, and videographer
in the United States and South Korea. Her research on parasocial communication, media
effects, and political polarization has been published in Computers in Human Behavior,
Southwestern Mass Communication Journal, and the International Journal of Communication.
Nah’s scholarship has been recognized with a Top Six Paper Award at the 2024 SWECJMC
Southwest Symposium.
EDUCATION
Ph.D. University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, 2023
M.A. University of Missouri, 2011
B.A. Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, 2008
COURSES TAUGHT
COJO 3530 Multimedia Production
COJO 4040 / 5040 Digital Video Production
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Media psychology, political communication, news, influencers, parasocial communication,
media effects, experiments.
PUBLICATIONS
Nah, H. S. (2025). Pictures that Polarize: News Images Affect Appraisals of Political
Outgroups by Arousing Negative Emotions. Southwestern Mass Communication Journal, 41(1).
Nah, H. S. (2022). The appeal of “real” in parasocial interaction: The effect of self-disclosure on message acceptance via perceived authenticity and liking. Computers in Human Behavior, 134, 107330.
Nah, H. S., & Craft, S. (2019). Unpublishing the news: An analysis of US and South Korean journalists’ discourse about an emerging practice. International Journal of Communication, 13, 21.
CONFERENCE PAPERS & PRESENTATIONS
Nah, H. S., Feng, Y., & Song, G. (August, 2025). How moral frames in news influencer
videos liking, partisan attitudes, and journalistic quality assessments. Poster presented
at the AEJMC 108th Annual Conference, San Francisco, CA.
Feng, Y., Song, G., & Nah, H. S. (August, 2025). Understanding political news consumption in the age of social media: How platform and moral foundation shape audience perception. Poster presented at the AEJMC 108th Annual Conference, San Francisco, CA.
Nah, H. S. (October, 2024). Pictures that polarize: News images affect appraisals of political outgoups by arousing negative emotions. Paper presented at the 2024 SWECJMC Southwest Symposium, Round Rock, TX.
Vargas, P., & Nah, H. S. (May, 2021). Politicized perceptions of prejudice: Symmetric or asymmetric in-group favoritism? Poster presented at the Association for Psychological Science annual conference, Virtual.
Nah, H. S., & Vargas, P. (May, 2021). The effect of a mediated source’s “authentic” self-disclosure on people’s message acceptance. Poster presented at the Association for Psychological Science annual conference, Virtual.
Craft, S., Nah, H. S., Ahn, R., Ortiz, A. (May, 2017). Unpublishing the news: An analysis of U.S. and South Korean journalists’ discourse about an emerging practice. Paper presented at the 2017 Annual International Communication Association (ICA) Conference, San Diego, CA.
AWARDS
Top Six Paper Award, 2024 SWECJMC Southwest Symposium, Southwest Education Council
for Journalism and Mass Communication (SWECJMC)
