Yeon

Jiyoung Yeon is a Ph.D. student at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia. Her research centers on the effects of online humor and entertainment media on attitudes and behaviors in political and science communication. She currently explores how AI-generated imagery influences social media users’ behaviors, such as attention and engagement, alongside emerging forms of AI-manipulated multimodal content, including AI-generated memes and slop content as well as deepfakes.

education

M.A. in Mass Communication, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea

B.A. in Political Science, Kyung Hee University, Seoul, South Korea

Publications

Yeo, S. K., Freiling, I., Yeon, J., Zhang, J. S., McKasy, M., Cacciatore, M. A., Su, L. Y.-F., & Siskind, S. R. (2025). Examining the use of aggressive satirical humor on perceptions of trustworthiness in communication about renewable energy. Science Communication, OnlineFirst. https://doi.org/10.1177/10755470251345746

Shim, H., Yeon, J. & Lee, H. (2024). What makes political rumors contagious: third-person effect of political rumor dissemination on SNS via dual information processing routes. Asian Communication Research, 21(3), 475-495. https://doi.org/10.20879/acr.2024.21.030

Freiling, I., Cacciatore, M. A., Su, L. Y.-F., Yeon, J., Park, S., Du, W., Zhang, J. S., Yeo, S. K., & Siskind, S. (2024). Communicating about renewable energy with satire: The influence of gentle and harsh humor tones on perceived message credibility and information reliance. Science Communication, OnlineFirst.https://doi.org/10.1177/10755470241293361

Lee, H., Kim, H., Yeon, J. (2023). Partisan YouTube use and evaluation of knowledge in Korea and the United States: a fresh perspective via the Dunning–Kruger effect, Human Communication Research, hqad054, https://doi.org/10.1093/hcr/hqad054

Lee, H., Lee, H. S., Yeon, J., Shim, H. (2023). COVID-19 and anger-inducing news coverage: Focusing on major topics and the transition of negative emotions. Korean Journal of Journalism & Communication Studies, 67(3), 80-126. https://doi.org/10.20879/kjjcs.2023.67.3.003

Lee, H., Hur, J., Yeon, J., & Shim, H. (2022). Biased coverage of political rumors: Partisan bias in the media's coverage of political rumors in the 2017 presidential election in South Korea through Issue filtering and framing. International Journal of Communication,16, 1969-1989.

Lee, H., & Yeon, J. (2022). Paying Attention to their planks, not our specks: Biased media framing of political rumors against the other side. Asian Journal of Information and Communications, 14(2), 44-59. 

Yeon, J., & Lee, H. (June 2021). When hate meets humor: the effect of humor to amplify hatred and disgust toward outgroup and the implications for gender conflicts in South Korea. The Journal of Inequality and Democracy, 4(1), 20-47.

Lee, H., & Yeon, J. (2021). The power of humor: The role of political entertainment programming in South Korea for enhancing attitudes toward the oppositional message source. Mass Communication and Society, 1-34. https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2021.1912773

Yeon, J., & Lee, H. (2020). When hate meets humor: The effect of humor to augment hatred and disgust toward out-group and the implications for gender conflicts in South Korea. Korean Political Science Review, 54(4), 219-259. http://doi.org/10.18854/kpsr.2020.54.4.009

conference

Yeon, J., Peng, Y., Lu, Y., Khawar, S., & Shen, C. (2026).From “just jokes” to “biased truth”: How politician-featured memes shape perceptions of political (mis)information. To be presented at the annual conference of the International Communication Association, Cape Town, South Africa

Khawar, S., Lu, Y., Peng, Y., Yeon, J., & Shen, C. (2026). Visual matters: Connecting aesthetic appeal and production quality of photos, infographics, and data visualization to credibility of social media posts. To be presented at the annual conference of the International Communication Association, Cape Town, South Africa

Yeon, J. (2025, August 8-10). Women see impact, men see laughs: Gender differences in scientists' perception of humor effectiveness and appropriateness in science communication. To be presented to ComSHER division of Annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC), San Francisco, CA, United States.

Yeon, J., Yoon, H. J., Kim, H., Han, J-Y., Seo, J . K., Seo, Y., & Ko, Y. (2025, March). Fighting back with memes: The effect of meme-based public service announcements on counter-arguing anti-vaccine memes across different attack types. Paper to be presented at American Academy of Advertising (AAA) 2025 Annual Conference, Pittsburgh, PA, United States.

Yeo, S. K., Freiling, I., Yeon, J., Zhang, J. S., McKasy, M., Cacciatore, M. A., Su, L. Y.-F., & Siskind, S. (2024, June). Satire and perceived trustworthiness in communicating about renewable energy. To be presented at the annual conference of the International Communication Association, Gold Coast, Australia.

Kim, H., Zhang, W., Han, J. Y., Seo, J. K., Yoon, H. J., & Yeon, J. (2024, June). Talking with AI about mental health: The role of perceived message contingency and outcome relevant involvement. Paper to be presented to Human-Machine Communication Division of the International Communication Association Annual Conference, Gold Coast, Australia.

Yeon, J., Wojdynski, B., Park, S., & Ebba, H. K. (2024, March 7-9). Deepfaking science with well-known faces: Exploring the influence of populist attitudes on evaluations of science deepfakes video with celebrities. To be presented at 2024 AEJMC Southeast Colloquium, Lexington, KY, United States.

Yeon, J. (2020). When humor meets hate: The effect of humor to augment hatred toward out-group. To be presented at 21th National Graduate Conference in The Korean Society for Journalism & Communication Studies, Seoul, South Korea.

* KSJCS Top Graduate Students Paper Award

Yeon, J. & Lee, H. (2019). When humor hurts: The effect of humor to incite hatred toward out-group. To be presented at 2019 Spring Conference of Cybercommunication Academic Society, Seoul, South Korea.

* CAS Top Paper Award

Yeon, J. (2018). Hostile humor in online community: The influence of misogynic "mirroring" messages on attitude change. To be presented at 2018 Summer Conference of Korean Association of Ad and PR, Seoul, South Korea.