Public Channel

Call for Abstracts: MedieKultur. Special Issue: 'Trust and Distrust in Public Communication'.

Special issue editors: Susanne Kjærbeck, Sanne Vergod Knudsen and Niels Møller Nielsen, Roskilde University, Denmark. 

We welcome contributions for a Special Issue on 'Trust and Distrust in Public Communication' to be published in MedieKultur. Journal of Media and Communication Research.  Abstracts may be written in English, Norwegian, Swedish or Danish.

View the full call in Danish and English here: https://www.mediekultur.dk/announcement/view/1354.

In many countries – probably Nordic countries in particular - there is not only a long tradition for and experience with a prioritised welfare model and a comprehensive public sector; these societies have also been able to take pride in strong public support and trust in their institutions (Petersen et al. 2011). Citizens' trust is therefore a crucial social and economic resource for the welfare state and has always been a precondition for the endurance and legitimacy of the public sector.However, in recent decades most instances of the public sector have undergone profound transformations due to political, financial communicative and media-technological dynamics. Consequently, it is now necessary to ask whether – and how – trust in these reshaped public sectors is being unsettled, displaces or transformed along with it. These tendencies are visible in communication from public authorities, in science and expert communication, in health communication, in schools and universities, and elsewhere. At the same time, it is also relevant to ask whether skepticisms, distrust, and controversy might function as constructive forces in situations where the welfare state or democratic systems appear skewed or even eroded. And is trust always a positive force in contexts marked by conflict, global social change, professionalized communication, digitalization, and new technologies such as artificial intelligence

Possible topics welcomed in this special issue include, but are not limited to:

• Citizens' trust as a social resource for the welfare state - and how this trust is changing
• Personal encounters with trust and public institutions.
• Technology and trust: digitalization and automation of communication.
• Trust and distrust: Boundaries and operations. 
• Politicization, negotiation, and communication of trustworthiness 
• Artificial intelligence and trust in public institutions

Abstracts (500 words) plus references and a short biographical note should be submitted by September 1st to abstracts-trust@ruc.dk.  Authors will be invited to submit full articles based on the focus and quality of abstracts. Deadline for full articles is January 17, 2027. Notification of acceptance will follow shortly thereafter.