Generative AI in Political Communication – A Conceptual Literature Review

Abstract

This article develops a conceptual literature review of generative AI in political communication. It begins by mapping the rapid expansion of research on AI-generated political content, disinformation, campaign communication, political journalism, and visual media. The review identifies three dominant conceptualizations of generative AI: as a communicative actor, as mediating infrastructure, and as a cultural producer. It then analyzes major normative debates concerning authenticity, democratic integrity, trust, and regulation. Building on these strands, the article highlights key conceptual gaps, including limited integration between political communication theory and AI research, underexplored visual and multimodal AI, insufficient attention to cross-platform dynamics, and geographic biases in existing studies. Finally, it proposes an integrated four-dimensional framework—technological infrastructure, communicative actors, political narratives, and audience interpretation—to guide future interdisciplinary research. The framework situates generative AI within multi-level political communication systems and outlines priorities for empirical, comparative, and normative scholarship in the evolving AI-mediated information environment.