The trust relationship between science and digitized publics II (TruSDi II)

• Applicants: Professor Dr. Lars Günther; Dr. Anne Reif; Professorin Dr. Monika Taddicken
• Subject Area: Communication Sciences
• Term: since 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 456602133

For societies, (digital) media plays an increasingly important role in obtaining information about science; however, in the context of digitized publics, a decline of trust in science is often discussed. Therefore, in our predecessor research project, we focused on the trust relationship between science and digitized publics. This relationship has been inadequately theoretically described so far and there has been no empirical clarity on a decline of public trust in science as well as explanatory factors for dynamic trust relationships. From our developed theoretical model, we derived an empirical design and applied a mixed-methods approach, using differentiated instruments. Building upon the results of the previous project, we identified relevant research gaps that we intend to address in our follow-up research project. This involves expanding the theoretical model to include the differences in topics (climate change, artificial intelligence), continuing the exploration of dynamic changes in trust in a longitudinal design, expanding on the role of key events, and further differentiating digital contexts. Overall, the follow-up research project also considers the levels of users, contents, and societal structures, and proposes a work program characterized by a mixed-methods approach that establishes synthesis across levels and research modules. Through the planned research project, insights into the significance of individual experiences and key events for trust relationships will be generated. It will examine group-specific and dynamic changes in trust in science longitudinally, explore the role of multimodal trust cues, and finally investigate trust relationships in social media regarding personal relevance and opinion leadership. The research program builds on the findings of the predecessor research project but extends and integrates the individual subprojects, while also creating synergies across the projects. This approach ensures that the analysis of the trust relationship between science and digitized publics, as a research subject in the altered conditions of science communication, is theoretically and empirically adequate.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants
• Co-Investigator: Professor Dr. Peter Weingart