DiCED team member Niamh has been awarded £6000 to conduct a 3-month internship with the BBC Research and Development Team as part of the ESRC Digital Good Network (between mid-April and mid-July, following training in January). Using the May 2024 local elections as a case study, Niamh will evaluate the impacts of AI-generated imagery on democratic discourse, focusing on whether this imagery reproduces gender and racial stereotypes, and how these images are shared on social media. Outputs will include:

• a short report and checklist for journalists and technical teams on common uses of AI-generated imagery in elections. These should include a list of indicators for recognising AI-generated imagery and serve as guidance on contexts where it is likely to be found. 
• a visual literacy workshop for BBC colleagues, which covers how news organisations can critically evaluate images created using AI, and how this imagery can be used in more representative and equitable ways

We wish Niamh a great time at the BBC. We look forward to her return, to hearing how it went, and to learning more about the use of AI imagery in local elections! 

Feature image “Project 50/50” by Jason Mrachina (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 DEED), available on Flickr. Image has not been modified.

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