A research of synthetic media phenomenon, current examples and users reality perception in the Post-Truth Era

Expressing the prevailing spirit of the time, the post-truth has penetrated almost every aspect of life with the change in communication technologies; the modern understanding of truth based on objective data and rationality has been replaced by personal truths, feelings and beliefs; everything is possible on a virtual level; in today's society where the way individuals communicate, perceive and make sense of it has changed; the media both act as a mirror to understand this period and feed this system with all its tools Synthetic media content created by artificial intelligence technology, which is the subject of the study, is aligned with the post-truth era to the exact opposite of objective reality, including the transformation of reality, even the creation, and manipulation of new sound, photographs and images that do not actually exist. The research is designed to determine how users are emotionally and cognitively affected by synthetic reality, their perception, perspective, and interpretation. In the research, which was carried out on the basis of the phenomenology approach within the scope of qualitative research, 23 new media users were interviewed with the semi-structured in-depth interview technique, while allowing the user to experience the synthetic content. In this context, users were first asked to use the Deep Nostalgia application of a digital creation called MyHeritage to portray a deceased relative and a famous face; Synthetic commercials created with artificial intelligence technology, featuring Barış Manço by Aksigorta and Kemal Sunal by Ziraat Bank, were watched, and they were asked to evaluate the synthetic photographs of the https://thispersondoesnotexist.com site. According to the research, users are all emotionally affected; the fact that the image is produced Hyper-realistic does not eliminate the feeling of their experience; it does not consider those non-living individuals are subject to synthetic media as a violation of rights, and it is positive as long as the content serves a good purpose or is humor, entertainment oriented. It was revealed that participants who evaluated synthetic photographs as real were concerned about political, pornographic content, and fraud, which they considered unnatural nuances as effects, filters, and other interventions in the images. It has been determined that users have a view that these contents are synthetic, and that platforms will have a legitimate quality of this technology if they take responsibility by making certain arrangements and consent of the person involved in the images. Keywords: Post-truth age, new media, artificial intelligence, synthetic media, deepfake.