Ready or not, here I come. How synthetic media challenge epistemic institutions

This editorial examines how synthetic media and deepfakes unsettle the epistemic foundations of contemporary public communication. We outline how rapidly advancing generative technologies erode long-standing assumptions about the authenticity of visual and audiovisual content and challenge the institutional capacities of journalism, science, politics, and the arts to maintain credibility and public trust. The contributions to this Special Issue demonstrate these dynamics across different national contexts and communicative domains, highlighting how synthetic media transform political campaigning, newsroom practices, audience cognition and strategies of verification. The resulting picture is one of accelerating technological complexity confronting comparatively slow-moving epistemic institutions. We therefore argue for a coordinated, interdisciplinary research agenda that addresses challenges in media reception and effects, political communication, journalism studies, visual communication, media education, media ethics, media law, and communication history. Such an agenda is essential for safeguarding the integrity of shared knowledge in an increasingly synthetic information environment.