Camera Journalism in the Age of Artificial Intelligence

This book explores the future of camera journalism in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). It investigates the nature of camera journalism’s truths, the knowledge it produces, and how it can maintain its authority in the public sphere. Mary Angela Bock historicizes photographic epistemology, arguing that camera journalism is distinct from other forms of journalism for the way it integrates technology with embodied practice. The book explores how synthetic imagery from generative AI stands to erode, if not eradicate, the public’s trust in photographic images, ultimately threatening the informed discourse essential to democracy. How can camera journalism reinvent itself in the face of such a threat? Bock argues for a paradigmatic shift away from technological authority toward that of the testimonies of human witnessing. Camera Journalism in the Age of Artificial Intelligence is essential reading for visual communication scholars, theorists, and graduate students.