Generative Logic and the Mediatization of Politics: Deepfake Parodies and Political Reinterpretation in China

This study revisits the theory of the mediatization of politics in the era of artificial intelligence (AI), questioning its applicability beyond Western democracies and proposing an extension through the concept of generative logic. Drawing on the analysis of AI-generated parodies in China’s cyberspace, it examines a distinctive mode of political communication in which foreign political figures’ faces are superimposed onto characters from Chinese historical television dramas. These satirical videos construct five patterns of analogical displacement, enabling users to reinterpret international affairs through culturally familiar frameworks. Rather than merely destabilizing truth boundaries, this content reflects a locally embedded form of AI-mediated political expression shaped by the interplay of political logic , media logic , and generative logic . We conceptualize this configuration as a multi-logic communicative structure that sustains a stable yet dynamic mode of political discourse in authoritarian contexts. The findings contribute to a broader understanding of how generative technologies reshape political engagement, symbolic meaning-making, and mediated reality across diverse political systems.