FSS-DCOM-DSOC Seminar: “Mediated Trust: Communications, Technologies, Institutions”, by Prof. Terry FLEW

In this presentation I will critically explore the concept of mediated trust. The term has been used with regards to debates about scientific expertise (Eyal, 2019; Schafer, 2016), technologies of trust such as Blockchain (Bodo, 2021; Werbach, 2018) and post-truth debates (Fuller, 2020; Harsin, 2024; Kalpokas, 2019). It draws upon classical and contemporary theories of trust associated with Weber, Simmel, Giddens and Luhmann, but also with the concept of mediatization (Couldry & Hepp, 2017). I will explore the ways in which mediated trust sits within a field defined around communications, technologies and institutions, while also noting that each of these three parameters are mutually interacting and implicated in the development of the other.  I will use the concept to consider how digital technologies and artificial intelligence are reframing understandings of trust, particularly with regards to human-machine communication.

Terry Flew is Professor of Digital Communication and Culture, Australian Research Council (ARC) Laureate Fellow, and Co-Director of the Centre for AI, Trust and Governance at the University of Sydney. His books include The Creative Industries, Culture and Policy (SAGE, 2012), Global Creative Industries (Polity, 2013), Media Economics (Palgrave, 2015), Understanding Global Media (Palgrave, 2018), Regulating Platforms (Polity, 2021), and Digital Platform Regulation: Global Perspectives on Internet Governance (Springer, 2022). He was President of the International Communications Association (ICA) from 2019 to 2020, and is an ICA Fellow, elected in 2019. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities (FAHA). In 2011-12 he chaired a review of the Australian media classification system for the Australian Law Reform Commission. His Australian Research Council Laureate Fellowship is a five-year study (2024-2028) of Mediated Trust: Ideas, Interests, Institutions, Futures.