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    • Home
    • ABOUT
    • RESEARCH
    • TEACHING
    • NON-PROFIT
    • TALKS
    • PRESS
  • Home
  • ABOUT
  • RESEARCH
  • TEACHING
  • NON-PROFIT
  • TALKS
  • PRESS

MY RESEARCH EXPERTISE

  • I am a research expert in digital media and transnational culture. My research investigates the social and cultural implications of digital media and popular culture on youth, families, and immigrant communities, especially on a transnational scale. 


  • I focus on Asian and Asian American populations, East Asian media (including Hallyu/the Korean Wave, K-pop, K-drama, mainland Chinese television shows, and anime) and Hollywood, communication devices (smartphones, tablets, etc.), social media (Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, etc.) and streaming apps (YouTube, Netflix, Spotify, etc.). 


  • My first stream of research focuses on youth, digital media, and popular culture. My first research project investigates the influence of Hallyu on Vietnamese American youth's digital culture. At the same time, I am leading a second project on the influence of Hallyu and mainland Chinese television shows in Asia. Previously, I had co-published research on K-pop fandom and public health on social media (2023), Super Bowl advertisements and media literacy education (2022), and the power of speculative fiction and collective imagination in building a better world (2021). 


  • My second stream of research centers on family communication and digital media. I am leading a third project on parenting practices and digital media in Vietnam. Previously, I had published and co-published research on American college students  and parental support during the COVID-19 pandemic (2021), and technologically mediated communication between migrant students (in Singapore and South Korea) and their left-behind families (in Indonesia and Vietnam) (2015-2019).


  • A predominantly qualitative social sciences researcher, I have conducted ethnography, netnography, interviews, focus groups, discourse analysis, and surveys for academic research.


  • With my colleagues in the non-profit sector, I have co-conducted two nationally representative surveys from which I co-wrote two public research reports on screen use and entertainment media consumption by American adolescents (ages 10-24) in 2022 and 2023. I also co-authored an industry report on female directors and diversity in Hollywood in 2023. Check my "PRESS" navigation tab for more information on my research for general audiences.

PUBLICATIONS

Peer-reviewed, Original Research Journal Articles (8)


8. Pham, B. (2024). On Digital Media Risks, Intensive Parenting, and Glocal Tensions: Public Discourse and Parents’ Experiences in Vietnam. International Journal of Communication, 18, 2558-2576. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/20745 [open-access]


7. Chang, H. H., Pham, B., & Ferrara. M. (2023). Parasocial diffusion: K-pop fandoms help drive COVID-19 public health messaging on social media. Online Social Networks and Media, 37-38. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.osnem.2023.100267 [open-access]


• Media coverage on NextShark.

• Study was retweeted by Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO).


6. Pham, B. (2022). Public reception of young K-pop fans in Vietnam, 2011-19. Transformative Works and Cultures, 38. https://doi.org/10.3983/twc.2022.2061 [open-access]


• Honorable Mention, 2025 Fans of Color Research Prize, Transformative Works and Cultures.


5. Delano, I., Glenhaber, M., Kim, D. O., Lanz, P., Mischie, I., Quick, T., Peterson-Reed, K., Persaud, C. J., Pham, B., Reddy, R., Rivera, J., Wilson, E., Jenkins, H., & Shresthova, S. (2021). Flying Cars and Bigots: Projecting Post-COVID-19 Worlds Through the Atlas of the Civic Imagination as Refuge for Hope. Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/10304312.2021.2003303 


4. Zhen, L., Nan, Y., & Pham, B. (2021). College students coping with COVID-19: Stress-buffering effects of self-disclosure on social media and parental support. Communication Research Reports, 38(1), 23-31. https://doi.org/10.1080/08824096.2020.1870445


3. Pham, B., & Lim, S. S. (2019). Vietnamese pre-schoolers' tablet use and early childhood learning: an ecological investigation. Journal of Children and Media, 13(3), 241-259. https://doi.org/10.1080/17482798.2019.1613247 


2. An, S., Lim, S. S., Lee, H., & Pham, B. (2018). Overcoming Prejudice, Seeking Support: Transnational Social Media Communication of Female Vietnamese Students in South Korea and Singapore. Transitions: Journal of Transient Migration, 2(2), 107-126. https://doi.org/10.1386/tjtm.2.2.107_1


1. Lim, S. S., & Pham, B. (2016). ‘If you are a foreigner in a foreign country, you stick together’: Technologically mediated communication and acculturation of migrant students. New Media & Society, 18(10), 2171-2188. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461444816655612

Commentary Article in Journals (1)


1. Pham, B., & Loh, R. S. M. (2019). Conducting fieldwork on children and media: comparing research in Singapore and Vietnam. Journal of Children and Media, 13(4), 494-497. https://doi.org/10.1080/17482798.2019.1669295 


Book Chapters (7)

7. Lim, S. S., & Pham, B. (2025). Policies. In E. Scharrer (Ed.), Children, Media, and Technology: Access, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (pp. 100-115). Routledge. [link]


6. Pham, B. (2025). Vietnamese Families Negotiating Glocal Intimacies through Mobile Media: Home-based Learning, Childhood Ideologies, and YouTube. In A. Z. H. Yee (Ed.), Mobile media use among children and youth in Asia (pp. 77-96). Springer. [link]


5. Livingstone, S., Lim, S. S., Nandi, A., & Pham, B. (2019). Comparative global knowledge about the use of digital technologies for learning among young children. In O. Erstad, R. Flewitt, B. Kümmerling-Meibauer, & I. S. P. Pereira (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Digital Literacies in Early Childhood. Routledge.  [link]


4. Pham, B., & Lim, S. S. (2018). Bridging Parental Expectations and Children's Aspirations: Creative Strategies in Migrant Students' Mediated Communication with their Left-behind Families. In C. Gomes & B. S. A. Yeoh (Eds.), Transnational Migration in the Asia-Pacific. London: Rowman & Littlefield. [link]


3. Pham, B., & Lim, S. S. (2016). Empowering interactions, sustaining ties: Vietnamese migrant students’ communication with left-behind family and friends. In S.S. Lim (Ed.), Mobile Communication and the Family - Asian Experiences in Technology Domestication (pp. 109-126). Dordrecht: Springer. [link]


2. Lim, S. S., Pham, B. & Cheong, K. (2016). At the crossroads of change – New media and migration in Asia. In L. Hjorth & O. Khoo (Eds.), Routledge Handbook of New Media in Asia (pp. 241-250). London: Routledge. [link]


1. Lim, S. S., & Pham, B. (2015). Digital connections and disjunctures of migrant students. In T. Skelton, N. Worth & C. Dwyer (Eds.), Geographies of Identities and Subjectivities. London: Springer. [link]


Non-Peer Reviewed Journal Articles (3)

3. Jenkins, H., Brichta, M., Kim, D. O., Lanz, P., Lee, A., Proudfoot, S., Shresthova, S., DeLano, I., Frizzell, M., Hedge, A., Madebo, A., Mischie, I., Persaud, C., Pham, B., Randazzo, M., Reed, K., Reid, D., Sørenssen, I. K., Steel, J., Nair, M., & Wilson, E. (2022, December 1). What Super Bowl Advertisements Can Teach Us About the Civic Imagination. Journal of Media Literacy. [link] [open-access]


2. Chang, H. H., Pham, B., & Ferrara, E. (2021). K-Pop Fandoms Drive COVID-19 Public Health Messaging on Social Media. arXiv Pre-print, Social and Information Networks. [link] [open-access]   


1. Lanz, P., Quick, T., Glenhaber, M., miller, j., Mischie, I., Peterson-Reed, K., Pham, B., Proudfoot, S., & Sengupta, P. (2020). New Civic Paths and a Public Sphere of the Imagination: The Civic Imagination Project. Revue Française des Sciences de l'Information et de la Communication, 18. https://doi.org/10.4000/rfsic.7912 [invited article] [open-access]

Academic Book Review (1)

1. Pham, B. (2023). Book Review: Lee Humphreys, The Qualified Self: Social Media and the Accounting of Everyday Life (MIT Press, 2018). Mobile Media & Communication, 11(3), 585-586. https://doi.org/10.1177/20501579231179547a 

RESEARCH AFFILIATIONS

Former Member, Civic Paths, USC Annenberg

I was a Member (2019-2025) of the Civic Paths research group at the University of Southern California. 


I was also Research Assistant (Spring 2021, Fall 2021, Spring 2023) to Civic Paths.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE

Social Media Editor, Transitions: Journal of Transient Migration (since 2023)

I am the Social Media Editor (since 2023) to the Intellect journal Transitions: Journal of Transient Migration (Q1 in Cultural Studies, Scimago). 


Former Editorial Assistant, Book Reviews, Mobile Media & Communication (2017-2022)

I was the Editorial Assistant (2017-2022) to the Book Reviews section of the SAGE journal Mobile Media & Communication. 


Ad-hoc Reviewer, for Academic Journals

I have served as Ad-hoc Reviewer for the following journals so far:

  • European Journal of Cultural Studies
  • First Monday 
  • Frontiers in Psychology 
  • International Journal of Communication 
  • Journal of Children and Media 
  • Mobile Media & Communication 
  • Popular Communication
  • Social Media + Society 
  • Transformative Works and Cultures
  • Transitions: Journal of Transient Migration 


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