Professor Soontae An of the Division of Communication & Media, awarded a Minister of Health and Welfare’s Commendation
- Date2020.09.11
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Professor Soontae An of the Division of Communication & Media was awarded a Minister of Health and Welfare’s Commendation on September 10 (Thursday) to mark the " Suicide Prevention Day."
The Ministry of Health and Welfare and Korea Suicide Prevention Center reward people and institutions for their contributions to preventing suicide. Professor An is an advisor to the Ministry of Health and Welfare and Korea Suicide Prevention Center. He won the award for his contribution to raising awareness of suicide prevention and conducting several related projects, including public advertisements for preventing suicide middle-aged men in 2020.
Professor An’s research has been focusing on suicide prevention communication. He has published several papers in different international reputable journals, focusing on cultural phenomena that unique to Korean society. He also has been actively engaged in research activities, including the publication of his book ‘Health Communication for Suicide Prevention and the Mental Health Promotion’.
Professor An, in charge of advertising effect, policy and social marketing at the Division of Communication & Media, earned a Ph.D. in mass communications from the University of North Carolina in the U.S., and served as an assistant/vice professor at Kansas State University and a visiting professor at Navarra University in Spain. Professor An is actively conducting research on social marketing strategies related to public health along with advertising effects and policies to protect the vulnerable such as the elderly and children, and he has served as the sixth president of the Korea Health Communication Association. He published a number of papers on advertising effects and policy in domestic and international academic journals, including the ‘Global Advertising Regulation Handbook’(M.E. Sharpe), ‘the Communication and Society’ (Ewhapress), and the ‘Children Advertisement in the Digital Era’ (Han Na-rae).