Thesis
The art of staying (in) power: women digital artists and generative A.I. in the media industry
Master of Science (M.S.), Drexel University
Aug 2026
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17918/00011551
Abstract
The rapid integration of generative artificial intelligence (genAI) across the film and television, book design, and gaming industries illustrates a structural change in creative labor, representation, and artist protection, vastly shifting the creator economy in the United States. Through empirical research and interviews with industry practitioners, legal experts, and digital artists, this study investigates how women digital artists unequally navigate the expansion of AI-generated content within the media industry, analyzing the technological landscape that actively intensifies preexisting gendered and economic disparities. Research reveals that genAI functions not as an isolated technological shift, but as a tool that is accelerating market displacement in the media industry, disproportionately impacting women artists. High administrative hurdles such as the U.S. Copyright Office registration process systemically exclude independent creators from major legal remedies, online opt-out frameworks leave digital artists vulnerable to technology companies using their art without consent, while algorithmic feed biases, and market pressures synchronously compound double-burdens on women digital artists, expanding beyond online spaces and into in-person interactions. In response, women artists are encouraging counteractive measures through self-publishing, de-digitizing, and utilizing process verification to defend human authorship and artistic agency. Ultimately, protecting the creative autonomy of women digital artists requires moving beyond reactive technological and legal patches toward proactive data transparency, collaborative policy action, feminist ethical frameworks, and a structural reevaluation of authentic human storytelling that guarantees equal representation.
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Details
- Title
- The art of staying (in) power
- Creators
- Carson Cynclaire Wheeler
- Contributors
- Pamela Yau (Advisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Drexel University
- Degree Awarded
- Master of Science (M.S.)
- Publisher
- Drexel University
- Number of pages
- v, 52 pages
- Resource Type
- Thesis
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Arts Administration; Arts and Entertainment Enterprise; Drexel University; Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts and Design
- Other Identifier
- 991022206179804721