Synthetic Realities. Generative AI and Digital Visual Literacy

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Generative AI is redefining our networked image cultures by making visual content infinitely more flexible and adaptable, further blurring the lines between recorded footage and virtual worlds. As social media platforms are increasingly flooded with AI-generated visual content, often incorporating religious iconographies and modes of representation, new forms of digital visual literacy are thus required not just for identifying misinformation but also to navigate these emergent synthetic realities. Employing methods of digital ethnography and visual culture studies, the project aims to explore how younger online audiences engage with AI-generated religious visual content. It seeks to understand the perceptions of realism and visual truth attached to religious images and videos found online, the verification and interpretation strategies deployed, and how awareness of generative AI influences their understanding of reality as mediated by visual media.