Visual Reporting at the Crossroads: AI-Generated Imagery, Public Trust, and the Future of Visual Evidence in the Age of AI

Dear Colleagues,

AI-generated synthetic imagery has evolved from an experimental novelty into a transformative force in public communication, reshaping our notions of evidence and trust. Its ability to produce hyper-realistic "evidence" at will, coupled with minimal technical barriers, challenges the fundamental principles of visual truth-telling. While synthetic images are still rare in reputable news reporting, they proliferate explosively across social media ecosystems, where the boundaries between journalism, strategic communication, and manipulation dissolve. This rapid diffusion is driven by accessible tools, polarized audiences, and unregulated digital spaces. However, as AI-generated images increasingly permeate hybrid information ecosystems, such as social media, messaging apps, and partisan outlets, they risk eroding not only trust in journalism but also trust in visual reality itself. This contributes to an epistemic trust crisis where all visual evidence becomes negotiable. This situation demands rigorous investigation into patterns of audience skepticism across media ecosystems, the real-world consequences of AI-generated disinformation, and the effectiveness of countermeasures (e.g., watermarking and literacy training). However, existing research heavily focuses on technical detection or newsroom ethics, neglecting critical questions about the societal impact of these images: How do they alter public trust? How do they empower strategic communicators?

The field urgently requires robust theoretical and methodological innovation; as such, this Special Issue aims to bridge journalism studies, visual communication, media effects research, computational science, and political theory to establish evidence-based foundations for ethical visual journalism. We seek submissions from the perspective of journalism, media and communication research or related disciplines that examine, but are not limited to, the following themes:

• Theoretical frameworks addressing the dissolution of boundaries between journalism and strategic visual communication.
• Case studies examining societal impact in crises, elections, or conflict zones.
• Empirical analyses of audience cognition, trust decay, and behavioral responses.
• Intervention research evaluating media literacy, transparency protocols, and policy frameworks.

Prof. Dr. Stephanie Geise
Prof. Dr. Mary Angela Bock
Dr. Yi Xu
Guest Editors

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