Jaeho Cho

Jaeho Cho is a Professor at the University of California, Davis, affiliated with the Department of East Asian Studies and the College of Letters and Science. He holds a Ph.D. in Mass Communication from the University of Wisconsin–Madison (2005). His research focuses on how political communication and mediated information contribute to democratic engagement, with emphasis on media effects, citizen discourse, and polarization. Key areas include the role of social media in political expression, algorithmic impacts on democracy, and the interplay between information exposure and decision-making.

Dr. Cho has been recognized with prestigious awards, including the LRP Best Article of the Year Award (2008) and the Political Communication Division’s Best Article Award (2006). His teaching spans political communication, media effects, and survey research methods. Recent work explores topics such as podcast influence on protests, AI-driven political interactions, and geographic diversity’s effect on partisan communication. He emphasizes the importance of understanding how digital media shapes political participation and public health behaviors, including vaccine hesitancy linked to social media use.

His research bridges theoretical frameworks like information processing and inoculation theory with empirical studies on global contexts, including India’s electoral campaigns and Arab-world internet activism. Dr. Cho’s work consistently addresses the dual challenges of misinformation and polarization in modern democracies, advocating for evidence-based solutions to enhance civic discourse.