The BK Four "Free and Responsible AI Media" Education Research Center and Institute of Communication Research holds a overseas distinguished guest lecture series in the field of communication studies.
This session is held online via ZOOM. We hope for your active participation.
Time and Date: 7.13 (Wednesday) 9:30-11:00
ZOOM Link: https://snu-ac-kr.zoom.us/j/
Lecturer: Jingbo Meng (Michigan State University)
Title: Social Support in the Digital Age: Social Network and Artificial Intelligence
Subject:
Online social support enabled by communication technologies is a critical resource for coping with stress and illness. In this talk, I will present two lines of research on social support in the digital age. The first study is representative of my theoretical interest on the structural model of social support. Using computational research methods, this study established the linkages between individuals’ structural positions in an online social network and specific types of social support received from members in the network by tracking their online communication over three months. The second line of research involves using artificial intelligence (AI) to communicate social support in online social networks. I will present findings from online experiments that examined people’s perceptions about AI, their psychological outcomes after interacting with AI, and comparisons of conversational patterns between human-human and human-AI interactions.
Lecturer:
Jingbo Meng is an Associate Professor in the Department of Communication at Michigan State University. She received her doctoral degree from Annenberg School for Communication at University of Southern California. Dr. Meng’s research focuses on the processes and effects of human networking via contemporary communication technologies on social support, health behavior change, and psychological well-being. Her work aims to illuminate individual- and group-level communication mechanisms that can explain online network influence. Bridging the structural theory of social influence and computer-mediated communication theories, Dr. Meng has published in leading journals in the field of communication such as Journal of Communication, Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, Communication Research, and Computers in Human Behavior. Applying her basic science work to the health domain, Jingbo has received internal and external grants for promoting physical and psychological well-being using communication technologies.