Assistant Professor, Communication
Program Director, Technologies and Society
- PHD, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, COMMUNICATION
- MA, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, COMMUNICATION & PUBLIC DIPLOMACY
- BA, SEOUL NATIONAL UNIVERSITY, INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Dr. Jeeyun (Sophia) Baik is an Assistant Professor of Communication Technology and Policy in the Department of Communication. She is the Program Director of the interdisciplinary minor in Technologies and Society. Her teaching and research broadly explore the politics of regulating media, technologies, and data. She joined the faculty at the University of San Diego in 2022 after completing her postdoctoral fellowship at UC Berkeley’s Center for Long-Term Cybersecurity (CLTC).
Scholarly Work
Dr. Baik examines how emerging communication technologies and their governance (re)configure and are shaped by power dynamics among socio-political actors. Specifically, her work focuses on investigating the ways societal understandings and legal protections of values such as privacy and free speech are complicated by intensifying datafication, networked surveillance, and content moderation. She studies how these issues evolve with newer technologies, such as digital platforms and artificial intelligence (AI), and how they intersect and differ across national and regional borders.
Her research has appeared in various academic publications, including Telematics & Informatics, Telecommunications Policy, Journal of Information Policy, The Information Society, International Journal of Communication, Mobile Media & Communication, Mass Communication & Society, and Information, Communication & Society. She was recently named as one of 2023's 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics.
Areas of Interest
Dr. Baik has taught classes such as Communication and Media Economics, Introduction to Media Studies, International Media, and Media Law and Policy. Experiential learning and inclusion are at the core of her classes where she introduces hands-on examples and activities while cultivating a safe space for diverse student perspectives. Dr. Baik is further introducing a new course on media ethics and artificial intelligence (AI) in the Department of Communication to make regulatory issues around AI more accessible and engaging.