Call for Papers

International Communication Association (ICA) 2025
Pre-conference: Media, Trust & Technology
June 11, 2025, 9:00am-4:00pm
University of Colorado (CU) Boulder
https://www.icahdq.org/

Deadline for submission of abstracts: January 31, 2025

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 polarization, 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 former 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 abstract submission portal will open shortly.

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 pre-conference may be considered in a special issue of a peer-reviewed academic journal.

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
11th April 2025 – Pre-conference registration deadline

QUESTIONS?

Please email the conference team at mediatedtrust.conference@sydney.edu.au