1. Immersive and Interactive Media

The Department of Media and Communication will host a special lecture featuring Professor Sun Joo (Grace) Ahn from the University of Georgia, USA, on Wednesday, October 1st, from 12:00 PM to 1:15 PM. This lecture will take place in the Business Administration Building Live Virtual Studio (Room 33203) and is part of the WAVE joint lecture series. Students enrolled in Professor Lee Ji-young's Immersive and Interactive Media course will also participate. 

Professor Ahn earned her Ph.D. from Stanford University and currently serves as a professor at the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. She is the founder and director of the Center for Advanced Computer-Human Ecosystems (CACHE). For over 20 years, she has researched the impact of immersive media—including Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR)—on human cognition, emotion, and behavior. She is widely recognized as a global authority in media psychology, health communication, and human-machine interaction. 

In this lecture, Professor Ahn will present an in-depth discussion titled “3 Myths and 3 Facts about Immersive and Interactive Media,” examining common misconceptions and established facts about immersive media while exploring future possibilities.

● Special Lecture Announcement
 → Date: Wednesday, October 1, 2025, 12:00 PM–1:15 PM
 → Location: Live Virtual Studio (Room 33203), Business Building, Humanities and Social Sciences Campus
 → Speaker: Sun Joo (Grace) Ahn (University of Georgia)
 → Zoom Link: https://skku-edu.zoom.us/j/89134074469?pwd=dTES9tEPiaVChzdSqMYaSVNlpJjtxu.1
     - Meeting ID: 891 3407 4469
     - Passcode: 371309
     - Students are requested to join with Video On and Mic Off.
     - The lecture and Q&A will be conducted in English.


Title: 3 Myths and 3 Facts about Immersive and Interactive Media

Abstract: With the rapid rise of immersive platforms, such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR), the world was abuzz (again) with the lofty promises of the metaverse and rosy visions of Ready Player One style technology. Now that the dust has settled and the hype has moved on, what do we really know about extended and blended realities and what does the future hold? Emerging science indicates that human experiences in immersive virtual environments are shaped by the dynamic interactions between user characteristics, media features, and situational contexts. How do virtual experiences influence human minds and how do they transfer into the physical world to continue impacting our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors?  This talk will cover findings from nearly two decades of lab and field research from University of Georgia's Center for Advanced Computer-Human Ecosystems (CACHE) on the multisensory extensions of our realities, with an emphasis on the media psychological mechanisms and outcomes of user experiences.

Dr. Ahn's Bio: Sun Joo (Grace) Ahn (Ph.D., Stanford University) is a Professor at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, University of Georgia. She is the founding director of the Center for Advanced Computer-Human Ecosystems (CACHE; https://www.ugavr.com) and most recently served as co-editor-in-chief of Media Psychology. She has spent two decades investigating how immersive technologies such as virtual and augmented reality, wearables, sensors, and AI embodied agents can transform traditional rules of communication and social interactions. Under Dr. Ahn's leadership, the CACHE center has gained global recognition as a research powerhouse and thought leader in human-computer and human-machine interactions, producing timely and critical knowledge on how virtual experiences in extended and blended realities shape the way that people think, feel, and behave. Her work has received over $12 million in funding from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency, and published in numerous top-tier outlets in the fields of communication, health, and engineering.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


2. Emerging Media for Sustainable Community
The Department of Media and Communication will host a special lecture featuring Professor Michael Hameleers from the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, on Wednesday, October 1st, from 1:30 PM to 2:45 PM. This lecture will take place in the Business Administration Building Live Virtual Studio (Room 33203) and is part of the WAVE joint education program, with students enrolled in the Emerging Media for Sustainable Community course participating.

Professor Hameleers is an Associate Professor in Political Communication and Journalism at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research, University of Amsterdam. For over a decade, he has researched information threats emerging at the intersection of populism and disinformation. Since earning his PhD in populist communication in 2017, he has published extensively on the effects of misinformation, prevention and response strategies through pre- and post-intervention, and the epistemological problems of misinformation. Furthermore, through his activities with the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) hub, he strengthens collaborative networks between academia and media practitioners, contributing to identifying vulnerabilities in the digital environment and exploring practical countermeasures.

In this lecture, Professor Hameleers will address the theme “Beyond Disinformation: Epistemic Challenges in a Digital Media Landscape.” She will examine how democratic communication and community formation are threatened by the growing difficulty of distinguishing reliable from unreliable information in the digital media environment, alongside the decline in traditional media usage. Furthermore, she will discuss how resilience can be strengthened for sustainable communities within this context.

● Special Lecture Announcement
 → Date: Wednesday, October 1, 2025, 1:30 PM–2:45 PM
 → Location: Live Virtual Studio (Room 33203), Business Building, Humanities and Social Sciences Campus
 → Speaker: Michael Hameleers (University of Amsterdam)
 → Zoom Link: https://skku-edu.zoom.us/j/89134074469?pwd=dTES9tEPiaVChzdSqMYaSVNlpJjtxu.1
     - Meeting ID: 891 3407 4469
     - Passcode: 371309
     - Students are requested to join with Video On and Mic Off.
     - The lecture and Q&A will be conducted in English.


Title: Beyond disinformation: Epistemic challenges in a digital media landscape

Abstract: Emerging media and new technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence, may pose new challenges for democratic communication and community formation. In digital communities, people find it increasingly more difficult to find their way online and discern between trustworthy and untrustworthy information. High levels of distrust, the increased attack on epistemic authorities, and the decline of mainstream media use may stand in the way of resilient communities. In this lecture, Dr. Hameleers will discuss which epistemic threats are salient in an emergent media landscape, and how resilience can be strengthened to foster more sustainable communities.

Dr. Hameleers' Bio: 
Dr. Michael Hameleers is associate professor of political communication and journalism at the Amsterdam School of Communication Research (University of Amsterdam). He has over ten years of research experience on informational threats at the intersections of populism and disinformation. After completing his PhD on populist communication in 2017, he has published widely on the effects of disinformation, the potential of pre- and de-bunking interventions preventing and countering falsehoods, and the epistemology of disinformation. He is also part of the European Digital Media Observatory (EDMO) hub, in which the collaboration between stakeholders in media practice and academics is formalized and platformed. These networks are alleviated to secure direct impact from the findings and underpin a practice-oriented identification of vulnerabilities in the digital landscape. Hameleers has co-initiated and currently co-chairs a mis- and disinformation research and teaching initiative at the University of Amsterdam.