Visual Media Literacy in the Age of AI-Generated Content

Dear Colleagues,

This Special Issue seeks to address the ongoing development and impacts of AI-enabled visual identity manipulation, and the use of AI to create, alter, or exploit visual identification using artificial images created by software like Dall-E, DeepBrain, LumaAI, and more. It aims to investigate not just high-profile or celebrity deepfakes but also the pervasive, frequently temporary harms seen in daily situations, such as, but not limited to, online employment identity theft, dating app mimicry, revenge films, and influences derived from visuals generated by artificial intelligence. The primary objective is to establish a critical and empirical basis for identifying the emotional, ethical, and social ramifications of abusing synthetic visual identities; another is to examine how platform management and legal frameworks are (or are not) tackling these issues; and a third is to develop a strong, multidisciplinary model for visual media literacy that enables people to identify, understand, and negotiate a media landscape that is fast becoming dominated by artificial intelligence.

While the existing literature has made significant progress in identifying deepfakes, regulating data protection, and countering textual and video content disinformation, there is still a huge knowledge gap regarding the displayed, human-centered effects of visual identity manipulation, particularly for vulnerable and non-famous populations. It is still necessary for media literacy research to fully address the special requirements of synthetic imagery, where manipulation can become practically inseparable from reality. Thus, by shifting the focus from technical detection and forensic analysis to cultural interpretation, personal vulnerability, and ethical literacy, this Special Issue expands and improves existing research and provides much-needed insight into how AI is not only changing information but also what it means to be seen, believed, and represented in the digital age.

Dr. Jacob Groshek
Guest Editor

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• AI-generated images
• visual misinformation
• deepfakes
• media literacy
• algorithmic authenticity