2026-09-20T03:02:30Z https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/129769 2026-02-05 col_2142_5131 col_2142_17395 com_2142_5130 com_2142_181 com_2142_8903

application/pdf en text Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'Closed Access', the embargo will last until 2027-05-01 The student, Maggie Zhang, accepted the attached license on 2025-05-01 at 11:30. The student, Maggie Zhang, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2025-05-01 at 11:37. This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2025-05-01 at 16:56. DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #22151 on 2025-10-19 at 19:55:38 Generative AI and co-creation on social media Zhang, Maggie Mengqing 2025-05-01 Gao, Yang Ng, Yee Man Margaret Maslowska, Ewa Liang, Hai Social media Generative AI Content creation user engagement eng This dissertation investigates the impact of Generative AI (GAI) on the co-creation of both content and identity on social media. First, this dissertation moves beyond treating humans and AI as distinct entities to propose a blended paradigm of human-AI hybrids, presented as a theoretical framework in Chapter 2. Then, two empirical studies are conducted in Chapter 3 and Chapter 4: the first study investigates how GAI assistance influences the processes and outcomes of content co-creation between humans and AI through field experiments using custom-developed browser extensions on Twitter. The second study explores the delegation of social interactions to personal AI assistants, analyzing observational data from Weibo and examining audience reactions to such identity co-creation. Overall, the findings reveal that GAI can have mixed values for content and identity co-creation. 2025-05 Thesis https://hdl.handle.net/2142/129769 Copyright 2025 Maggie Zhang Inst of Communications Rsch Communications and Media University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Ph.D. Dissertation