The rapid advancement of generative AI has fundamentally altered the information landscape. Images, videos and synthetic media generated by artificial intelligence and algorithms that once required significant technical expertise and resources to produce can now be generated in seconds, and with results of increasing realism that make them extraordinarily difficult to identify as artificial. Journalists are called to a complex task when it comes to identify, verify such materials, especially when they could be used in news stories. Deepfakes, AI-generated footage, so-called "AI slop" and manipulated visual content have moved from a theoretical threat to an everyday editorial challenge, expanding the possibilities of information disorder, mis- and disinformation. The consequences are most acute precisely when the stakes are highest. Breaking news events, armed conflicts, natural disasters, major political crises, have become fertile ground for the rapid spread of AI-generated and manipulated visual content by different actors, compressing verification timelines and placing unprecedented pressure on journalists and editors. The integrity of the information environment depends, in no small part, on newsrooms having the tools and skills to respond. This workshop equips participants with practical, applied skills in visual verification with a strong focus on the vetting and verification of AI-generad visual content and offers an overview of how genrative AI has changed and accelerated complexities of information quality and trustworthiness. In particular, workshop participants will learn how to interrogate images and video for signs of AI generation or manipulation and familiarize with state-of-the art techniques and practices in this area.
The workshop brings together two complementary perspectives. Dr. Manisha Ganguly, award-winning investigative journalist at The Guardian, brings frontline expertise in open-source intelligence (OSINT), visual verification and disinformation analysis. Through case studies drawn directly from her own reporting, she will walk participants through the methodologies and tools she uses to verify content and detect AI-generated material. Dr. Philip Di Salvo, Senior Researcher and Lecturer at the University of St. Gallen's Institute for Media and Communications Management, contributes a research-based perspective on the relationship between journalism, AI risks and information disorder. The workshop runs over one and a half days, combining remote and in-person learning. An initial online session of four hours serves as onboarding and introduction through scenario mapping and group exercises. A full in-person day then follows: Dr. Di Salvo will open with the theoretical landscape, how AI-generated content enters the news cycle, why it spreads, and what frameworks exist for understanding information disorder. Dr. Ganguly will take participants through hands-on practical sessions in which they work through real newsroom scenarios, applying verification techniques and AI detection tools under simulated deadline pressure.
By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:
Onboarding, welcome and scenario mapping, with Dr. Philip Di Salvo
This online opening session introduces participants to the workshop's core themes and establishes a shared working framework for the day and a half ahead. After a brief welcome and presentation of the programme, participants will be guided through a series of scenario mapping exercises designed to surface the range of verification challenges they encounter, or are likely to encounter, in their professional practice. Drawing on real-world examples of AI-generated content in circulation, the session invites participants to collectively map the information landscape they operate in: where disinformation enters the news cycle, how it travels, and at what points verification decisions become critical.
Design Thinking Lab | MCM Institute | Universität St. Gallen, Blumenbergpl. 9, 9000 St. Gallen
Session 1 – “When AI Meets Disinformation: An Introduction to the Synthetic Media Challenge”, with Dr. Philip Di Salvo (University of St. Gallen)
The session offers a systematic theoretical introduction to the ways in which generative AI is reshaping the information ecosystem, with particular attention to the mechanisms through which synthetic media contributes to the spread of mis- and disinformation. Drawing on current research and documented case studies, it maps the principal phenomena at stake - from AI-generated text and deepfakes to synthetic audio and automated content farms - examining not only how they are produced, but why they spread, what vulnerabilities in the media environment they exploit, and what forms of harm they generate at the individual, institutional and societal level. Rather than treating these as isolated technical developments, the session situates them within the broader landscape of information disorder, tracing the structural conditions that make generative AI a particularly consequential actor in the contemporary news cycle. Against this backdrop, it addresses the role journalism is called to fulfil: not merely as a verification mechanism, but as a critical institution whose capacity to maintain epistemic standards is increasingly central to democratic life. The session is designed to provide participants with the theoretical infrastructure needed to approach the practical sessions that follow with analytical clarity and methodological rigour.
Session 2 – "The Verification Frontline: OSINT, Synthetic Media and the Journalist's Toolkit", with Dr. Manisha Ganguly (The Guardian)
This hands-on session translates conceptual understanding into operational practice. Led by Dr. Manisha Ganguly, whose investigative work has taken her across conflict zones, human rights emergencies and state violence, the session introduces participants to the verification methodologies and OSINT techniques that define the current state of the art in investigative and frontline journalism. With a particular focus on AI-generated images and video, participants will be guided through real newsroom scenarios and editorial workflows, examining the decision points at which verification becomes both most demanding and most consequential. Rather than presenting tools in the abstract, the session embeds them in the conditions under which they are actually used: under deadline pressure, with incomplete information, and with significant editorial and ethical stakes. Case studies drawn from Dr. Ganguly's own reporting practice, across some of the most prestigious news organisations in the world, provide the connective tissue between methodological instruction and lived professional experience. By the close of the session, participants will have developed both a practical toolkit and a sharper sense of the judgements that no software can make on a journalist's behalf.
Dr. Manisha Ganguly is an award-winning investigative journalist and filmmaker covering conflict and the intersection of emerging technology and rights. A pioneer in using open-source investigations (OSI) to expose war crimes, her reporting has produced evidence cited by the United Nations and UK Parliament, and underpinning cases that led to EU and US sanctions. Her work has led major international broadcasts (300 million viewers) and front-page coverage (14 million readers) across four wars. She is currently writing her first book, The Age of Impunity. She is an investigative correspondent and the lead for visual forensics at The Guardian, and previously worked as investigative producer for the BBC, introducing open source investigative workflows across the newsrooms. She is a European Press Prize laureate, a two-time Amnesty International Media Awards winner, a Forbes Under 30 honouree; and served for three years as a judge for the News & Documentary Emmy© Awards. Manisha is an honorary senior research fellow at City University of London’s School of Journalism. Her PhD, funded by the University of Westminster, was the first to study the impact of OSINT and AI on investigative journalism and crisis reporting.
Dr. Philip Di Salvo is a Senior Researcher and Lecturer at the Institute for Media and Communications Management (MCM), University of St. Gallen (HSG), Switzerland. His research focuses on investigative journalism, internet surveillance, the intersection of journalism and hacking, and black box technologies. He has held visiting fellowships at the London School of Economics (2021–22) and Harvard University (2024), and previously held research and teaching roles at the Università della Svizzera italiana (USI), where he earned his PhD in Communication Sciences in 2018. As a freelance journalist, he has contributed to Wired, Motherboard/Vice and Esquire and the Swiss public broadcaster. He is the author of two books, Leaks. Whistleblowing e hacking nell’età senza segreti (LUISS University Press, 2019) and Digital Whistleblowing Platforms in Journalism. Encrpyting Leaks (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020).
This workshop is designed for journalists and editorial staff at every stage of their career. It is intended as an entry-level programme, and will speak most directly to participants with limited prior experience in AI verification or OSINT techniques. No technical background is required: the course is built around accessible, practical tools and real-world scenarios from the outset. While the programme is grounded in the needs of working journalists and structured around newsroom contexts, participants from neighbouring fields where visual verification and media literacy are increasingly relevant, including policy, public communications, academia and civil society, are warmly encouraged to apply. The workshop is conducted in English and is limited to 20 participants.
The course fee is 550 CHF and includes access to all sessions, as well as lunch, on day 2. Selected participants will be contacted by the organization with instructions for payment in due course.
For any questions or further information about the course, please contact Dr. Philip Di Salvo at philip.disalvo@unisg.ch
Please submit your application by May 15th using this form. In your application letter (maximum one page), please describe your background and explain your motivation for participating in the workshop
The “Leading Journalism in the Age of AI: Insights and Strategy” Professional Journalism Workshop is organized by the Chair of Media and Culture (=mcm3) at the Institute of Media and Communications Management, Universität St. Gallen, led by Prof. Veronica Barassi. At the =mcm3 we conduct interdisciplinary and cross-cultural research, which is grounded in the belief that we need culturally sensitive, human-centered and context specific approaches to study the technological and communication transformations of our times. Additionally, The =mcm3 has always been engaged in different teaching and research activities that focus on the future of journalism and the ways in which it is being transformed by emerging technologies as well as by social and cultural transformations. It is for this reason, that in the last years we have strengthened our teaching portfolio in this area (including executive education) as well as invested in research that explores the impact of AI and algorithmic technologies on journalists. Since 2019, the =mcm3 has partnered with the MAZ –Institute for Journalism and Communication in Lucerne andthe Akademie für Publizistik in Hamburg to offer a high-end executive education program tailored to journalistsaspiring to strengthen their leadership skills. The Leadershipfor Journalists program provides an intensive, year-longlearning experience that equips media professionals with the essential knowledge and practical expertiseneeded to navigate the evolving media landscape inmanagement positions. The =mcm3 is also responsible for the teaching program Digital Communication and Journalism(DCJ/ Digitale Kommunikation und Journalismus, DKJ) is an additional qualification for HSG master’s students, who are interested in an interdisciplinary extension of theirmain studies towards journalistic news work and publiccommunication. The program is academically overseen and managed by =mcm3. It educates its participants in journalistic research and writing techniques as well as corporate communication, public relations, and the use of digital platforms. Enrolled students complete six courses (18ECTS) and graduate with a specific certificate, that functionsas a minor to their major master program. The =mcm3 is also committed to fostering research on the multiple ways in which journalism is being transformed by the rise of data-driven and AI technologies as well as by algorithmic logics.