Joon Soo Lim teaches public relations theory, diversity in public relations, public relations campaigns, and public relations research. He has expertise in corporate social advocacy for diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), authenticity in public relations and CSR communication, eHealth communication and behavior change and user engagement with disruptive technologies.
He has been named a Knight News Innovation Fellow by the Tow Center at Columbia University. He was also named Page and Johnson Legacy Scholar from Arthur Page Center three times in 2012, 2017 and 2023 for his research on CSR communication and responsible use of digital analytics.
Lim has conducted extensive research on the managerial and ethical issues in public communication campaigns that use and abuse the characteristics of social media and artificial intelligence, such as user-generated content, word-of-mouth tactics, anonymity, and algorithmic personalization. With research published in more than three dozen publications, Lim has addressed several real-world problems, including corporate social advocacy for diversity, inclusion and equity (DEI), the authenticity of CSR and CSA communication, deceptive online advertising, fake news and hateful content on social media, brand safety, social TV, health risks of PM2.5, emerging infectious diseases and sensational news, parasocial relationships with live streamers, political parody videos on YouTube, sweatshop factories overseas and ISIS recruitment propaganda.
His work has appeared in Communication Research, Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly, Technology in Society, Computers in Human Behavior, Telematics and Informatics, International Journal of Advertising, Journal of Brand Management, Journal of Contingencies and Crisis Management, Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Review, American Behavioral Scientist, International Journal of Communication, Journal of Marketing Communication, Journal of Promotion Management and Journal of Public Affairs.