Communication Commons^™

The Algorithmic Public Sphere: Ai-Generated News Site As A Conduit To Social Capital, Seungahn Nah, Xinlei Wu, Ernest Makata, Jun Luo, Ian Koratsky, David Park, Seungbae Kim

Human-Machine Communication

A growing body of scholarship on AI-generated news has examined its impact on various outcomes. However, less attention has been paid to the actual implementation of AI-generated news sites and their effectiveness on civic consequences. This study examines the effects of an AI-generated, community-centered, nonprofit news site on civic outcomes such as trust in nonprofit organizations, trust in AI-generated news, social capital, and civic engagement. Data was collected from participants at a large southeastern university who visited the AI-generated news site over a four-week period and responded to a series of open-ended questions weekly. A total of 721 open-ended responses …

Disentangling (Hybrid) Trustworthiness Of Communicative Generative Ai As Intermediary For Science-Related Information—Results From A Qualitative Interview Study, Evelyn Jonas, Esther Greussing, Monika Taddicken

Human-Machine Communication

The increasing prevalence of communicative Generative AI, such as ChatGPT, highlights their transformative potential for science communication while raising critical questions about users’ trust in these systems conveying science-related information. As perceptual hybrids these agents challenge traditional notions of trustworthiness, and it remains unclear to whom or what users refer to as the object of trust. This qualitative interview study integrates dimensions from human-machine and epistemic trustworthiness within a hybrid framework, complemented by a descriptive source orientation model. It highlights that trustworthiness assessments can extend beyond a chatbot’s interface, emphasizing the perceived salience of its underlying infrastructure, developers, and organizations. …

Generative Artificial Intelligence And Collaboration: Exploring Religious Human-Machine Communication And Tensions In Leadership Practices, Pauline Hope Cheong, Liming Liu

Human-Machine Communication

The adoption of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) applications has bolstered efforts toward human-machine collaboration. Given the lag in research on AI and religion, this study examines how pastors engage GAI to develop religious human-machine communication practices that constitute their leadership. Findings from in-depth interviews with pastors in the U.S. reveal that they view GAI as an idea generator, research assistant, co-author and translator. Clergy enact multiple ways to incorporate GAI communication in religious education and to enhance sermonic performances. Concurrently, pastors perceive tensions between innovation and established rites, as they contend with the authenticity and spiritual depth of GAI content …

Tools Or Teammates? Examining Agency Negotiation In Human-Genai Collaboration In Creative Work, Yuan Sun, Ignacio Fernandez Cruz, Donggyu Kim

Human-Machine Communication

As Generative AI (GenAI) becomes increasingly integrated into creative work, creative professionals face an emerging dilemma: while they can leverage powerful AI capabilities through prompts, the automated process also introduces uncertainties and risks. This study, based on semi-structured interviews with 18 creative professionals, explores their experiences and perceptions of using GenAI tools in creative work. The findings revealed that GenAI’s perceived adaptability, creativity, and scalability enhanced sense of agency in the creative process. Conversely, limitations in customizability, uncertainty, and feedback mechanisms undermined human agency. These perceptions were influenced by users’ conceptualization of GenAI—as either a simple tool or a collaborative …

Investigating The Persuasive Potential Of Communicating With Generative Artificial Intelligence Chatbots For Mental Health: The Roles Of Perceived Message Contingency, Cognitive Elaboration, And Issue Involvement, Hanyoung Kim, Yanyun (Mia) Wang

Human-Machine Communication

With the ever-increasing adoption of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) chatbots in diverse communication roles, there is a burgeoning need to address how people process and respond to messages from these technologies. This study explores the theoretical mechanisms by which the use of GenAI chatbots influences persuasive outcomes related to mental health, examining perceived message contingency and cognitive elaboration as mediators, and issue involvement as a moderator between the two mediators. Through an experimental setting using ChatGPT, compared to non-conversational online resources, we discovered that GenAI chatbot use led to greater cognitive elaboration through an increased sense of message contingency, leading …

Generative Ai In Higher Education: A Comparative Study Of Chatgpt Adoption, Perception, And Use Among College Students In The Global North And Global South, Shudipta Sharma, Louisa Ha

Human-Machine Communication

Generative AI tools like ChatGPT have become the fastest-adopted technology, raising concerns about its misuse in education. This study explores ChatGPT usage for class assignments among 646 college students in the U.S. and Bangladesh, focusing on their perceptions and trust in the tool. Using the technology acceptance model, along with internet efficacy and social persuasion theories, we found that students in both countries had high levels of awareness and adoption. Individual factors did not significantly influence ChatGPT usage, while social persuasion, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and country were the strongest predictors. The findings suggest that AI technology may …

Making Sense Of The Role Of Chatgpt In Education: An Examination Of Student Views In China, Italy, Kenya, Uruguay, And The U.S., Leopoldina Fortunati, Autumn P. Edwards, Weiming Ye, Anna Maria Manganelli, Chad Edwards, Soledad Caballero, Lusike Mukhongo, Giovanni Ferrin

Human-Machine Communication

This article investigates the diffusion and adoption of ChatGPT among college students from a multinational convenience sample, informed by the scholarly literature on the diffusion and progressive appropriation of ChatGPT by students and teachers within the education sector and the strategies adopted by academic institutions. We applied a figurational approach to this study, offering two theses that try to understand the societal meaning of ChatGPT diffusion in the educational sector. Operationally, we explored university students’ behavioral intentions, practices of use, and opinions toward ChatGPT in five countries (China, Italy, Kenya, Uruguay, and the United States of America) through an online …

Coding Openai In An Open-Sourced Code Sharing Platform: Exploring The Collaboration Networks On Chatgpt Projects On Github, Jingyi Pu, Xinzhi Zhang

Human-Machine Communication

Amid rapid advancements in generative AI (GenAI) tools, individuals and organizations—including both professional and amateur developers—are actively sharing and collaboratively developing GenAI code on open-source platforms, driving the adaptation and creation of new applications. However, it remains unclear whether such collaboration disrupts existing technological hierarchies or reinforces them; addressing this question is crucial for assessing the democratizing potential of open-source practice and informing policies for equitable innovation. Drawing on world-systems theory, we examine owner-contributor networks in ChatGPT-related GitHub repositories since ChatGPT’s launch in late 2022, complemented by qualitative content analysis of major repository themes and code functions. We find that …

Lindenwood Digest, September 24, 2025, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

The Lindenwood Digest has been a digital employee newsletter since 2009.

The Role And Influence Of Media Coverage And Social Media On Suicides: A Scoping Review, Kevin Miko Buac, Janine Trixia Austria, Claro Emmanuel Monsanto, Ma. Jamaica Monique Ponce, Arnold Christopher Soriano, Mystie Suzuki, Marc Eric S. Reyes

Makara Human Behavior Studies in Asia

Suicide is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. Numerous factors contribute to suicide ideation; recent studies highlight that the media’s presentation of suicide plays a significant role in influencing suicide ideation and attempts among their audience. This study aims to evaluate the extent of the literature on traditional media reporting and social media in the context of suicide ideation and attempts, considering social media as a distinct yet relevant domain with its widespread reach and user-driven nature. The PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews was employed to retrieve relevant studies and address the following questions: (1) What potential factors …

Lindenwood Digest, September 17, 2025, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

The Lindenwood Digest has been a digital employee newsletter since 2009.

Lindenwood Digest, September 10, 2025, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

The Lindenwood Digest has been a digital employee newsletter since 2009.

Lindenwood Digest, September 3, 2025, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

The Lindenwood Digest has been a digital employee newsletter since 2009.

Automated Media: Challenges And Opportunities For Media Literacy Education, Arnaud Claes, Jerry Jacques, Antonin Descampe, Victor Wiard

Journal of Media Literacy Education Pre-Prints

This paper offers a theoretical reflection on the evolving landscape of automated media, focusing on how automation and so-called Artificial Intelligence (AI) are reshaping traditional mediarelated practices and the competences required for media literacy. It examines how automated media technologies, such as recommendation algorithms and generative AI, might reshape the critical skills necessary to navigate a complex digital ecosystem. By framing AI-driven media practices through a social-action perspective and treating media as human activities, we argue that media literacy models should encompass competences related to the operation of computational automata, particularly through the management of inbound and outbound information flows. …

Engaging Students And Stakeholders In Times Of Crisis: Hbcus Bridging Social Capital On Facebook While Navigating Physical Distancing, Pamela Peters

Journal of Research Initiatives

COVID-19 placed a strain on colleges that tend to rely on tuition, especially small HBCUs, which traditionally serve a high percentage of underrepresented students. Being away from campus, many stakeholders were experiencing higher levels of stress and anxiety. Social media offers an outlet for schools and stakeholders to stay connected during a crisis. Using social capital, this study examined how small HBCUs bridged social capital on Facebook during the year before and the first two years of the pandemic. A comparative analysis of Facebook posts of 30 HBCUs with a student population of under 2000 was conducted to determine post …

A New Era Of Zines: Taking Lessons From The Past To Combat Intellectual And Political Fascism, Catherine Kane

Book Publishing Final Research Papers

Zines have long functioned as a way to circumvent the traditional gatekeepers of news, art, mainstream narratives, and publishing. They are largely non-commercial, and their emphasis is to put the means of production and distribution directly into the hands of the individual. Although their roots are in DIY, proletariat culture, they are now the subject of study in museums, libraries, and higher education, and have been co-opted by big brands, media outlets, and publishing houses—the institutions they originally sought to undermine.

In their most authentic form, zines have represented free thinking and speech, while giving individuals and communities a rallying …

Generative Ai (Genai) For Co-Creating User Personas, Douglas Strahler

Proceedings of the New York State Communication Association

Integrating Generative AI into communication courses can really enhance the development of user personas, making the process smoother and encouraging critical insights into audience analysis. This G.I.F.T.S. presentation shows how tools like ChatGPT can support students in developing user personas while encouraging creativity and efficiency for the students. Students will be creating two personas, one human-created and one that is AI-generated, followed by conducting a comparative analysis of similarities, differences, and any potential biases. The activity underlines basic competencies in the development of user personas and ethical considerations that prepare students for the responsible use of AI with a full …

Generative Ai Risks And Resilience: How Users Adapt To Hallucination And Privacy Challenges, Joon Soo Lim

Media Studies - All Scholarship

Purpose

Design/methodology/approach

Findings

Ai, Celebrities, And Their Fans: The Cyber-Pseudo-Event*, Gabbie Iorio

Proceedings of the New York State Communication Association

Tech companies often use celebrities to facilitate adoption of new technologies, and they’re doing the same with AI. For example, Meta is employing celebrities to attract users to their AI products, not only to adopt the technology, but to provide the company data for testing and optimizing the products. Fan communities, such as Nicki Minaj’s Barbz, have also taken up AI technology as a new medium for fandom expression. This paper will explore the varying degrees of success of these applications of AI technology, while putting them in conversation with scholarship on images, celebrity, and fandom.

*Top Graduate Paper

Towards A Conceptual Framework For Perceived Effects Of Instagram Use On The Mental Well-Being Of Young Adults In South Africa, Tinaye Tanatswa Mushore, Tendani Mulanga Chimboza

African Conference on Information Systems and Technology

It is critical to explore the effects associated with frequent Instagram use, considering its increased use over time. Instagram features that drive frequent use of the platform remain unclear, despite subsequently leading to effects on mental well-being. Limited research provides in-depth context of the correlation between effects on mental well-being and frequent use of Instagram, particularly in the context of South Africa. This cross-sectional study explains the perceived effects of Instagram use on mental well-being, in relation to Instagram features that drive frequent use. Through qualitative thematic analysis, fifteen interviews from young adults between the ages of 18 to 24 …

Creepy, Invasive, And Exploitative Algorithms: A Cpm Analysis Of Users' Privacy Breakdowns And Recalibration Practices With Social Media Algorithms, Matthew J. A. Craig, Jeffrey T. Child

Human-Machine Communication

Social media content filtering algorithms can both provide desired personalized content and ads for users. However, sometimes these recommendations can resemble individual private information. How might users navigate these experiences to best manage their private information? The present exploratory study utilizes the rules- and systems-based framework of communication privacy management (CPM) theory to explore social media users’ experiences of privacy breakdowns with social media algorithms and investigates what users do in response to said breakdowns. These responses were refined using content analysis and divided into different categories of privacy breakdowns and recalibration strategies. Implications for future research surrounding human-machine communication …

The Hai-Io Model: A Framework For Understanding The Human-Ai Communication Process, Rae Francis Quilantang

Human-Machine Communication

The increasing integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into daily life calls for new theoretical frameworks that capture human-AI interaction’s dynamic, feedback-driven nature. Traditional models treat AI as a passive medium, overlooking its adaptive capabilities. This paper proposes the Human-AI Interaction Outcomes (HAI-IO) model, an interdisciplinary framework synthesizing human-machine communication, social exchange theory, dialogue systems, and computational feedback models like cybernetics and reinforcement learning. The HAI-IO model frames interaction as iterative and bidirectional—AI adapts through predictive processing while users adjust based on AI feedback. This mutual adaptation shapes trust, engagement, and system optimization. The model informs AI system design, user education, …

College Students’ Perceptions Of Artificial Intelligence (Ai) Risks And Benefits In Pakistan, Rauf Arif, Muhammad Ittefaq, Lamia Zia

Human-Machine Communication

With the rapid advancements in technology over the past 2 decades, it has become crucial to understand people’s attitudes toward artificial intelligence (AI) adoption and its associated risks. Given the increasing access to the AI technologies, it is imperative to examine how young people in non-Western societies like Pakistan perceive AI risks and benefits. We conducted an online survey of college students who had used AI technology in the past 6 months. The results of our study indicate that the majority of college students view AI technology positively and perceive it as an opportunity to enhance workplace productivity. In addition, …

Casa Renovations: Examining Social Responses To An Anthropomorphic Media Representative That Is Separate From The Core Technology Being Represented, Rabindra Ratan, Dayeoun Jang, Taenyun Kim, Kelsey Earle, Gabriel E. Hales, Yiming Skylar Lei, Chaeyun Lim, Andrew Gambino

Human-Machine Communication

To extend our understanding of CASA and account for changes in technological complexity and configuration, this research asks: Do increasing levels of social cues in a media representative that is separate from the core technology it represents lead to increased perceived anthropomorphism of the core technology? And does such perceived anthropomorphism predict positive treatment of the core technology? We conducted two complementary studies observing e-scooter use and treatment, an online experiment focused on responses to video stimuli and a field experiment focused on actual user behavior. Findings suggest that, indeed, social cues in a media representative (i.e., an e-scooter rental …

Prompted By Me. Generated By Chatgpt, David J. Gunkel

Human-Machine Communication

This essay—which is not only about human-machine collaboration but is a performance in human-machine collaboration—interrogates the shifting terrain of authorship and creativity in the age of generative artificial intelligence (GAI). Challenging both the instrumentalist view of technology and the romantic myth of the singular genius, it argues for a reconceptualization of creative production as distributed, dialogical, and co-constituted. Drawing on both theoretical innovations in poststructuralism and the practices of pre- and post-modern content creators, the essay repositions the algorithm not as a mere tool but as an active participant in the generation of meaning. In doing so, it exposes and …

College Students' Perceptions Of Artificial Intelligence (Ai) Risks And Benefits In Pakistan, Rauf Arif, Muhammad Ittefaq, Lamia Zia

Faculty Scholarship

With the rapid advancements in technology over the past 2 decades, it has become crucial to understand people’s attitudes toward artificial intelligence (AI) adoption and its associated risks. Given the increasing access to the AI technologies, it is imperative to examine how young people in non-Western societies like Pakistan perceive AI risks and benefits. We conducted an online survey of college students who had used AI technology in the past 6 months. The results of our study indicate that the majority of college students view AI technology positively and perceive it as an opportunity to enhance workplace productivity. In addition, …

Lindenwood Digest, August 20, 2025, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

The Lindenwood Digest has been a digital employee newsletter since 2009.

Lindenwood Digest, August 20, 2025, Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Digest

The Lindenwood Digest has been a digital employee newsletter since 2009.

Ddx219.2 Social Media Content Creation Example 6, Sae University College

Exemplars

This project involved creating a cohesive suite of social media content tailored to the student’s chosen creative project. The work is exemplary for its consistent visual style, platform-specific content design, and alignment with the strategic goals defined earlier. Additionally, the student demonstrated strong collaborative skills by providing thoughtful, constructive feedback to peers, reflecting both creative and professional growth.

Ddx219.2 Social Media Content Creation Example 7, Sae University College

Exemplars

This project involved creating a suite of social media content tailored to the student’s chosen creative project. The work is exemplary for its consistent visual style, platform-specific content design, and alignment with the strategic goals defined on Project 1.