Student Defense: Jun Luo
May 16 @ 1:15 pm - 2:15 pm
- Ph.D. Candidate: Jun Luo
- Date & Time: Friday, May 16, 2025, from 1:15p – 2:15p PT
- Location: Rolfe 2303A
- Advisor(s): Jungseock Joo, Stuart Soroka
- Dissertation Title: Media Bias and Trust in the Generative AI Era: Examining AI-Generated News, Minority Representation, and the Impact on Public Trust and Radicalization.
- Abstract: While a growing body of research has examined how algorithmic decision-making reinforces social inequality across various domains, less attention has been paid to the implications of AI in news production. This gap is critical, as large language models trained on news content may inherit and amplify long-standing media biases rooted in the structural forces that shape news coverage. This dissertation addresses these concerns by investigating three key questions: whether media ownership influences negative and dehumanizing portrayals in news and contributes to real-world extremist behavior; whether AI models fine-tuned to generate news reproduce similar biases; and how attributing news authorship to either humans or AI affects perceived credibility. The investigation reveals three key implications for media, politics, and society. First, biased portrayals of minority groups in conservative local news can contribute to extremism and hate. Second, while AI-generated news does not show greater bias than human-written content, its replication of dominant framings and positive tone raise concerns about its influence on audience perceptions of contested issues. Third, the inability of audiences to reliably distinguish between AI- and human-authored news signals the growing normalization of AI journalism and underscores the need for greater transparency and accountability in AI-powered journalism.
- Biography: Jun Luo is a PhD Candidate in the Department of Communication at UCLA. Her research examines AI in journalism, media influence on radicalization and hate, and public trust in AI-generated news. She has received awards and research support from the UCLA Initiative to Study Hate, the UCLA Graduate Division, and the Luskin Graduate Fellowship. She is an incoming Assistant Professor in Computational Social Science and Intercultural Communication at The Chinese University of Hong Kong (Shenzhen), starting Fall 2025.
