What happens when we can no longer believe what we see? Show the AI technologies that create
deepfakes enough images of a celebrity or a politician and they will generate a convincing
video in which that person appears to say and do things they have never actually said or done.
The result is a media environment in which anyone's face and image can be remixed and
manipulated. Graham Meikle explains how deepfakes (synthetic media) are made and used. From
celebrity porn and political satire to movie mash-ups and disinformation campaigns this book
explores themes of trust and consent as face-swapping software becomes more common. Meikle
argues that deepfake videos allow for a new perspective on the taken-for-granted nature of
contemporary media in which our capacity to remix and share content increasingly conflicts
with our capacity to trust. The book analyses how such videos deepen the social media
environment in which the public and the personal converge and in which all human experience
becomes data to be shared. Timely clear and accessibly written this is an essential text for
students and scholars of media communication cultural studies and sociology as well as
general readers.
