Deepfakes and Synthetic Media in the AI Era: Assessing Their Impact on Digital News Credibility

Abstract

Background: AI's swift progress has paved the way for the generation of hyper-realistic deepfakes and synthetic media, leaving us with pressing concerns over the veracity of digital news and the trust in journalism. Objective: This research examines the effects of deepfakes and AI-generated synthetic media on digital news credibility through audience awareness, loss of trust, verification behavior, and perceived risks to society. Methodology: The quantitative cross-sectional survey design was used. A structured Likert-scale questionnaire was administered online with 318 digital news consumers. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, cross-tabulation and Pearson correlation in SPSS v26. Findings: It is found that 74.2% of the respondents had seen deepfake content at least once a week, and that the level of trust in digital news dropped significantly after deepfake exposure (15.4% high trust after deepfake exposure as opposed to 43.4% high trust before deepfake exposure). There was a strong positive correlation between media literacy and deepfake detection ability (r = 0.71, p < .001). About 88% agree that deepfakes are a threat to the public's trust in mainstream media. Conclusion: While deepfakes are a serious threat to the credibility of digital news, there are steps that can be taken to minimize their effects, such as structured media-literacy education, strong fact-checking systems, and AI-based detection tools.