Date: Wednesday 11 June 2025, 9am-5:30pm.
Location: University of Colorado (CU) Boulder.
The question of trust in media is one of the major questions of our times. The Edelman Trust Barometer has surveyed trust in media for over 20 years, and Gallup has surveyed trust in news since the 1970s. Debates about political polarisation, hyper-partisanship, mis- and dis-information and propaganda all point to questions about trust in media in general, and in the news media in particular. With traditional media business models in a period of ongoing crisis, and the distribution of media content being subject to rapid change through digitization, platformization and social media, the historic “gatekeeper” role of traditional media brands has been losing salience, and new modes of media content distribution, from citizen journalism to the “creator economy”, are on the rise.
Communication as a discipline has long been engaged with questions of trust, although the connection has often been implicit rather than explicit. There has been a particular interest in how different media technologies reframe trust issues at macro, meso and micro levels (Flew, 2021). Trust has often emerged as a communication question in response to external developments, such as US President Donald Trump’s claims about “fake news”, arguments over fact-checking, or questions of political interference. At the same time, trust is often subordinated to other concepts, such as truth, ideology and affect. For example, Jürgen Habermas rarely refers to trust in his extended discussion of communicative rationality and its relationship to trust-telling, even though he acknowledges that the acceptance of statements as truthful is never fully a matter of their epistemic rationality, but rests upon subjective context of reception and perceptions of the speaker (Habermas, 2018).
This pre-conference will provide scholars in the field with the opportunity for a focused discussion of the relevance of the concept of trust to contemporary communication debates, particularly as they pertain to digital societies and emergent communication technologies.
Deadline for Abstracts: 31 January 2025
Abstract length: 300 words
The submission deadline has now passed. We are no longer accepting abstracts.
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Preconference Program
We click the button below to access the preconference program. While we don’t anticipate changes to the program schedule, please note the “last updated” date below the button to ensure you have the most up-to-date schedule.
last updated April 16 2025
Topics
We welcome contributions that engage with questions of trust arising within:
- media genres and formats such as news and entertainment;
- communication professions, such as journalism, public relations, policy-makers, and influencers;
- media platforms and expertise;
- trust in media, government and cultural institutions;
- technologies of trust;
- emergent debates around human-machine communication in relation to media trust issues;
- information and misinformation, including deepfakes;
- trust and the future of communications policy, regulation and governance;
- conceptualization, operationalization and measurement of trust.
Papers accepted for the preconference may be considered in a special issue of a peer-reviewed academic journal.
Registration
Registration Fee: USD $80 full fee or $40 concession. Fee includes lunch and refreshments on the day.
Pre-conference sponsors: Discipline of Media and Communications, The University of Sydney; Department of Media Studies, The University of Colorado Boulder; Department of Communication Science, The University of Amsterdam; Communication Law & Policy Division, ICA; Journalism Studies Division, ICA; Mass Communication Division, ICA; Political Communication Division, ICA.
Organizing Committee: Mark Boukes (UvA),Terry Flew (USyd), Tim Koskie (USyd), Agata Stepnik (USyd), Ted Striphas (U. Colorado).
Key Dates
31st January 2025 – Deadline to submit an abstract
21st February 2025 – Acceptance notifications sent out
4th May 2025 – Extended Preconference registration deadline
FAQ’s
Will this be a hybrid in-person/online event?
This is an in-person event only.
Is there travel support from Denver to CU Boulder?
We will be in contact with registered participants closer to the day with more information, but you will need to make your own way to CU Boulder. We recommend taking public transport like the Regional Transportation District (RTD) FF1 bus that departs from Denver’s Union Station, a moderate walk of 1 mile/1.6km from the main conference location, or 6 minutes by car service.
– Schedule information is available here (the relevant stops are Union Station and Broadway – Euclid).
– Fare information is available here. It is best to purchase a day pass on the RTD website, costing US$5.50.
Will lunch be catered for people with special dietary requirements?
Yes, we will be offering catering for special dietary requirements, but we will need to know your requirements in advance of the event. We will be contacting all registered participants before the day to capture dietary requirements, but feel free to email us directly with your needs at mediated-trust.conference@sydney.edu.au
Does the pre-conference have a travel bursary available for students/scholars?
The International Communications Association does offer travel grants and bursaries for conference attendees. Information on these can be found at https://www.icahdq.org/page/TravelGrant.
As the pre-conference itself operates on a very small break-even budget, we are not in a position to assist financially with the costs of travel. Please note that ICA membership is a condition of eligibility for ICA travel grants.
Is the pre-conference venue accessible?
The building at UC Boulder that we will be located in has an elevator servicing all floors, and room number placards include braille to accommodate those with vision impairments. We are investigating what sound augmentation services are available, and will update the FAQ once confirmed. If you have other accessibility requirements, please get in touch by emailing mediated-trust.conference@sydney.edu.au
Can I submit more than one abstract?
As you can appreciate, we are limited with the number of presentations that can fit into a single day, and we would like to ensure a diversity of voices and perspectives can be heard. While you can submit more than one abstract as lead author, we will only accept a maximum of one abstract to be presented at the pre-conference.
Questions?
Please email the conference team at mediated-trust.conference@sydney.edu.au
