Amid justified pessimism concerning social media's negative role in political polarization, Hyunjin Seo's exemplary study of South Korea's recent successful impeachment of its president provides an alternative perspective. Through interviews and historical analysis of Korea's shifting politics and its well-established citizens' media, Seo explains why an initially polarized politics morphed into national consensus with dramatic results. Taking seriously the role of
traditional media and on-the-ground symbolic politics alongside social media, Seo offers a much-needed antidote to Western-dominated understandings of our democratic futures.
Hyunjin Seois Oscar Stauffer Professor and Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development in the William Allen White School of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Kansas as well as founding director of the KU Center for Digital Inclusion. She is also a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society, Harvard University. Her research examines how social collaborative networks facilitated by digital
communication technologies affect social change, and she has published over 50 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters.
Her research has been funded by various federal agencies and foundations including National Science Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Prior to her graduate studies in the United States, Seo covered politics and diplomacy for South Korean and international media outlets, reporting on South Korea's presidential office, six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear issues, and other major national and international events.