Heesoo Jang

Assistant Professor of Media Law and Ethics · University of Massachusetts Amherst

My research asks who governs what a democracy knows. As the institutions democracy relies on — journalism, courts, election systems — and the communities they serve come to depend on platforms and AI companies they don't control, I study how that dependency redistributes power, who can be held accountable when these systems fail, and what makes publics support or resist their governance. I work across journalism, platforms, and AI, combining qualitative, quantitative, and computational methods across national contexts under a critical and normative lens: scholarship in service of a more democratic and just society.

My work is organized into four research programs. Click any project to view its publications and presentations.

Peer-reviewed publication / law review / dissertation Conference presentation

AI Governance, Ethics & DemocracyFlagship

The critical study of AI power, governance, and democratic implications.

LLMs and U.S. Elections›

Publication

Jang, H.*, McGregor, S. C.*, & Neill, L.* (2026, In Press). Inaccuracies, Omissions, and Hallucinations: 2024 U.S. elections through the eyes of ChatGPT. Information, Communication & Society [Special issue].

Presentation

Jang, H.*, McGregor, S. C.*, & Neill, L.* (2025, September). Investigating the Democratic Alignment of LLMs during the 2024 U.S. Elections. APSA, Vancouver.

Related grant: "Assessing the Impact of Large Language Models on Elections," Microsoft (2023).

Framing the Public Discourse on AI Ethics (Doctoral Dissertation)›

Dissertation

Jang, H. (2024). An Integrative Framing Study of the Public Discourse around Artificial Intelligence (AI) Ethics [Doctoral dissertation, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill]. Carolina Digital Repository. https://doi.org/10.17615/jd4c-dk43

Presentations

Jang, H. (2025, August). The Ethics We Read: How News Media Shape the Moral Imagination of AI. PolNet-PaCSS, Boston/Cambridge.
Jang, H., & Cho, J. (2024, June). An Assessment of Reported Biases and Harms of Large Language Models. ICA, Gold Coast. Top Paper

AI Infrastructure Dependency›

Presentations

Jang, H.* (2025, October). Exporting autonomy, importing dependency: The geopolitical work of "sovereign AI." AIES, Madrid.
Jang, H. (2026, April). Lessons from the platform era for AI governance: The infrastructural dependency trap in local journalism. Local Journalism Researchers Workshop, Duke in DC, Washington.

AI in the Legal System & First Amendment Theory›

Publication

Schroeder, J., & Jang, H. (2026, In Press). A synthetic marketplace: Rethinking First Amendment theory in the age of AI-generated video. Missouri Law Review.

Presentations

Jang, H.*, Reid, A.*, & Ringel, E.* (2025, August). Who Gets to Shape the Future? A Theory of Stakeholder Voices for Understanding Legal AI. AEJMC, San Francisco.
Jang, H., Ringel, E., & Reid, A. (2025, June). The Future of Justice: A Computational Mixed-method Approach to News Coverage of AI in the United States Legal System. ICA, Denver.
Jang, H.*, Reid, A.*, & Ringel, E.* (2025, March). Beyond Innovation Diffusion Theory: Stakeholder Perspectives in News Coverage of Legal AI Adoption. AEJMC Southeast Colloquium, Chapel Hill. Top Faculty Paper

Journalism, Democracy & Media Accountability

How news, democracy, and political actors shape — and are shaped by — the media system.

Democracy-Framed Journalism, Election Deniers & Far-Right News›

Publications

Jang, H.*, & Kreiss, D.* (2024). Analyzing "Democracy-Framed Journalism": The Case of Media Coverage of Election Deniers During the 2022 U.S. Midterm Elections. International Journal of Press/Politics.
Archer, A. M. N., Schmitt, C., McGregor, S. C., & Jang, H. (2024). Presidential Authority and the Legitimation of Far-Right News. International Journal of Press/Politics.

Presentations

Archer, A. M. N., Schmitt, C., McGregor, S. C., & Jang, H. (2022, September). Presidential Authority and the Legitimation of Far-Right News. APSA, Montreal.
Schmitt, C., Bach, P., Jang, H., McGregor, S. C., & Archer, A. (2023, September). "Fox News doesn't deliver for us anymore" — Political elites and far-right media. APSA, Los Angeles.

Social Media Policy & Attribution of Responsibility›

Publication

Jang, H., Barrett, B., & McGregor, S. C. (2023). Social media policy in two dimensions: Understanding the role of anti-establishment beliefs and political ideology in Americans' attribution of responsibility regarding online content. Information, Communication, & Society.

Presentation

Jang, H., Barrett, B., & McGregor, S. C. (2022, August). Social media policy in two dimensions. AEJMC, Detroit.

Celebrity Journalism Ethics›

Presentation

Jang, H. (2025, August). The Case of G-Dragon and the Ethics of Celebrity Journalism. AEJMC, San Francisco. First Place Faculty Paper

Platform Harms, Digital (In)Justice & Transnational Media

Feminist, global, and justice-oriented work on platform-enabled harm — anchored in India and South Korea.

Deepfakes, Image-Based Abuse & Digital Sex Trafficking (Nth Room)›

Presentations

Jang, H. (2023, October). Using Data Feminism to Study South Korea's Mass Digital Sex Trafficking Case. A Toolbox of Feminist Wonder Workshop, CSCW '23, Minneapolis.
Jang, H. (2022, April). The "Nth Room" case: transnational contexts in modern digital sex trafficking. CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, New Orleans.

Digital Harm & Platform (In)Justice — India & South Korea›

Publication

Jang, H., & Narayanamoorthy, N. (2025). Echo Chambers of Digital Harm: Insights Into Layered Affordances From India and South Korea. Social Media + Society, 11(4).

Presentations

Jang, H., Narayanamoorthy, N., Schelenz, L., Brandner, L. T., Burkhardt, A., Hirsbrunner, S. D., & Timcke, S. (2023). Platform (In)Justice: A Call for a Global Research Agenda. CSCW '23, Minneapolis. [Panel Organizer]
Jang, H., et al. (2023). Platform (In)Justice: Exploring Research Priorities and Practical Solutions. CSCW '23 Companion, 576–580. [SIG Organizer]

TikTok, Privacy & National Reputation›

Presentations

Jang, H. (2023, August). Understanding Americans' TikTok Privacy Concerns, Resistance, and Rejection via their Country Reputation of China. AEJMC, Washington, D.C.
Jang, H. (2021, May). Tik Tok: Motivations and Privacy Perceptions. ICA (virtual).

AI, Corporate Responsibility & Public Trust

How organizations — especially AI companies — communicate, manage responsibility, and are evaluated by their publics.

Corporate Responsibility & Public Evaluation of AI Companies›

Presentations

Jang, H. (2023, November). Bringing AI Under Critical CSR Scrutiny: A Critical CSR Assessment of Major AI Companies' Communication of Responsible AI. NCA, National Harbor.
Jang, H. (2023, March). What should CSR in the AI industry look like? — A current assessment and a framework for the future. IPRRC, Orlando.
Xu, H., Zhu, Y. E., Jang, H., & Juarez Miro, C. (2026, August). Value-based communication in the AI industry: Public evaluation of AI companies' organization–public relationships and governance expectations. AEJMC, New Orleans.
Xu, H., Zhu, Y. E., Jang, H., & Juarez Miro, C. (2026, June). From optimism to obligation: How positive orientation toward AI drives public demand for corporate digital responsibility. ICA, Cape Town.
Zhu, Y. E., Juarez Miro, C., Jang, H., & Xu, H. (2026, June). Confidence engages; understanding withdraws: How knowledge and populist attitudes shape orientations toward AI and participatory governance across three countries. ICA, Cape Town.

Related grant: "Public Reactions to AI Promotional Campaigns," University of Melbourne (with H. Xu).

AI Crisis Communication (Lee-Luda / Co-oriented Scansis Model)›

Publication

Jang, H., & Lee, S. (2023). Introducing the Co-oriented Scansis (CoS) model: A case of chatbot, Lee-Luda. Public Relations Review.

Presentation

Jang, H., & Lee, S. (2022, May). A co-oriented crisis communication model for an AI scansis: A Case of Chatbot, Lee-Luda. ICA, Paris. Top Student Paper