Ahn named co-editor of ‘Media Psychology’

Sun Joo (Grace) Ahn, director of Grady College’s Games and Virtual Environments Lab and an associate professor of advertising, has been named co-editor of the journal “Media Psychology” beginning fall 2020.

Ahn joins Benjamin Johnson from the University of Florida, Marina Krcmar from Wake Forest University and Leonard Reinecke from Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz, Germany, as editors of Media Psychology.

“Media Psychology has always been one of my favorite journals in the field of communication and media psychology because of its interdisciplinary, yet rigorous, nature,” Ahn said. “Because of this, the journal is relatively young but has quickly risen as one of the most respected and high impact publication outlets in communication that attracts high quality, cutting-edge research.”

Ahn’s research has been regularly published in “Media Psychology” over the past several years, and she has served on its Editorial Board for the past four years.

Ahn’s research specializes in how interactive digital media transforms traditional rules of communication and social interactions, especially through virtual reality applications with regard to health, consumer psychology, conservation and education.

She continued: “I am excited to continue this tradition and to maintain an interdisciplinary orientation for the journal so that researchers are able to submit rigorous, and also exploratory and forward-pushing ideas that test the boundaries of traditional sciences.”

Ahn was the recipient of the 2019 Krieghbaum Under-40 Award presented by the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication for outstanding contributions in three key areas: teaching, research and public service. In addition to her work in the GAVEL lab, she is co-director of Grady’s VERGE Lab. Currently, she is working on a $3.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health for “The Virtual Fitness Buddy Ecosystem” encouraging children to have a more active lifestyle by using digital technology and incenting them with rewards through virtual reality interaction.

“Media Psychology” is an interdisciplinary journal devoted to publishing theoretically oriented, empirical research that is at the intersection of psychology and media/mediated communication.  Research topics include media uses, processes, and effects.