Areas of Expertise
Thi Ngoc Bich (Becky) Pham is Assistant Professor in Communication Studies at Temple University, Japan Campus (TUJ). Her research and teaching focus on digital media and transnational culture, with an emphasis on Asian and Asian American populations, East Asian popular culture and Hollywood, communication devices, social media, and streaming apps.
Teaching Interests
Pham has more than 7 years of teaching experience in Communication Studies in Japan, Singapore, and the U.S. She has taught a wide range of classes, including entertainment media and society, introduction to communication studies, intercultural communication, mass media, media economics, and public speaking.
Research
Pham investigates how youth, families, and communities of immigrant background engage with media to construct their cultural and collective identities. In doing so, she addresses issues of media representations, social marginalization and discrimination, ethnicity, nationalism, gender, parenting under pressure, and online child safety. Her published articles have appeared in Continuum: Journal of Media & Cultural Studies, International Journal of Communication, Journal of Children and Media, New Media & Society, Transformative Works and Cultures, and in notable edited volumes. Her writing for general audience has appeared on Psychology Today, Greater Good Magazine, and The Connected Learning Alliance Blog.
Representative Publications
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.
Lim, S. S., & Pham, B. (2025). Policies. In E. Scharrer (Ed.), Children, Media, and Technology: Access, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (pp. 100-115). Routledge.
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
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
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
Education
2025 Doctor of Philosophy (Communication), University of Southern California
2022 Master of Arts (Communication), University of Southern California
2017 Master of Arts (Communications and New Media), National University of Singapore
2014 Bachelor of Social Science (Communications and New Media), National University of Singapore
Professional Associations
Association for Netnographic Research (ANR)
International Communication Association (ICA)
National Communication Association (NCA)