Time for Trust

Prof Terry Flew
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Governments, the economy and civil society depend on the public’s trust to work effectively – but this trust is declining in an age of polarisation and misinformation. The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that this “malady of mistrust” is as damaging as COVID or climate change.  We don’t talk much about trust – but we certainly notice when it breaks down, in corporate scandals or political coups. But in a time when many are losing faith in our most vital institutions, how can the bonds of trust be rebuilt? In Time for Trust, Terry Flew will explore these themes with leading experts on trust, from academics and journalists to community leaders, both from Australia and around the world.  Professor Flew holds a prestigious Laureate Fellowship from the Australian Research Council. He’s particularly interested in “mediated trust” – that is, forms of trust and mistrust as they are expressed in and through the digital media technologies we use to make sense of the world.  From trust in news to trust in digital platforms, from trust in corporations and governments to trust in AI, “Time for Trust”  will ask – who, and what, do we trust, have we lost that trust, and can we get it back? And are technologies bringing us together or driving us apart? Join us for a fascinating journey through one of the most important issues facing people and societies everywhere. Because Billy Joel was right – it is a matter of trust. Time for Trust is brought to you by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney, and the Australian Research Council. It's produced by Dominic Knight, and recorded on unceded Gadigal Land. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

  1. 2D AGO

    How Hollywood packages the truth – Is film undermining trust?

    Is cinema a vehicle of truth or does it promote false beliefs?  Associate Professor of Film Studies Bruce Isaacs doesn’t believe in historical truth in the film image.   “I don't think cinema looks for that. What it seeks to show is a kind of aesthetic truth. Films straddle this very interesting tension between being truthful to history and yet in some way intensifying that experience.”  Hollywood has a long and complicated relationship with trust, ideology, and reality. A relationship that has only intensified as the Trump administration polarises America and the world.  Professor Isaacs explores whether film is corrosive of trust, why movies are such fertile ground for conspiracies, and the political anxieties driving recent Hollywood films like Civil War, Eddington, and One Battle After Another.  Hear more from Professor Isaacs on his podcast Film Versus Film.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    48 min

  2. JAN 12

    Dr TJ Thomson on how AI is making it harder to trust visual journalism

    Dr T.J. Thomson is an associate professor and Australian Research Council DECRA Fellow at RMIT, where he co-leads The News, Technology, and Society Network. His research is united by its focus on visual communication. He’s the author of a number of books and edited colllections, including Everyday Visual News: Audience Expectations, Engagements, and Meanings (Routledge, 2026), The Routledge Companion to Visual Journalism (2025), and To See and Be Seen: The Environments, Interactions, and Identities Behind News Images (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019). He joins Terry to explore the evolution of visual journalism—from the days of specialist photojournalists to today’s multi-skilled reporters—and the growing role of generative AI in shaping news imagery, along with its impacts on trust, authenticity, and ethics in journalism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    26 min

  3. 12/01/2025

    Prof Karin Wahl-Jorgensen on how boutique media are leveraging audience trust

    Karin Wahl-Jorgenson is Professor, Cardiff School of Journalism, Media and Cultural Studies, Cardiff University where she has also been University Dean of Research Environment and Culture. She is the incoming President-Elect of the International Communication Association. Her research has been focused on the relationship between citizenship, media and emotion - and how it is affected by rapid technological change and innovation. She has recently been working on the experiences of local news entrepreneurs, and is currently developing a new research project on “boutique media”, including the appeal of news influencers, podcasters and Substack newsletters. She has written five books; Emotions, Media and Politics (Polity Press, 2019),  Digital Citizenship in a Datafied Society (Polity Press, 2019, co-authored with Arne Hintz and Lina Dencik), Disasters and the Media (Peter Lang, 2012; co-authored with Mervi Pantti and Simon Cottle), Journalists and the Public (Hampton Press, 2007) and Citizens or Consumers? (Open University Press, 2005; co-authored with Justin Lewis and Sanna Inthorn).  She joined Terry on the Sunshine Coast in Queensland, Australia where she was the keynote speaker at the Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand Communications Association conference. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    40 min

  4. 11/18/2025

    Prof Andrea Carson on fake news, fact-checking and front pages

    Professor Andrea Carson joins Terry for a wide-ranging discussion about trust in politics and the media which reports on it, from mis- and dis-information to the fate of fact-checking units and how our front pages impact Australian elections, along with the impact of AI and social media on our rapidly changing mediascape.  She is Associate Dean, Research, Industry and Engagement with the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and a Professor of Political Communication at La Trobe University, specializing in the news media’s role in politics and quality of information in the public sphere. In 2024, she was a visiting research fellow at the University of Oxford with the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, where she studied public trust in electoral bodies during elections, especially in the context of disinformation. More broadly, her research examines media trust, political communication, gender politics, and regulating digital platforms. She has worked on comparing different regulatory approaches to handling misinformation and disinformation. She has authored and co-edited several important books, including Investigative Journalism, Democracy and the Digital Age (2020) and Undercover Reporting, Deception, and Betrayal in Journalism (2023). Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    44 min

  5. 10/10/2025

    Prof David Nieborg on whether we can trust platform companies

    In recent years, an increasing amount of cultural production has transitioned to platforms like YouTube, Instagram and TikTok. But can we trust these platforms to do the right thing by their creators and users – and what happens when these companies come into conflict with national governments, as has happened in Australia, Canada and elsewhere?   David B. Nieborg is a Professor of Media Studies at the University of Toronto. He is a Senior Fellow at Massey College and a Faculty Affiliate at the Schwartz Reisman Institute. He held fellowships with the Jackman Humanities Institute and the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. His previous affiliations include MIT, the Queensland University of Technology, the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Utrecht University, and the University of Amsterdam. David published on the game industry, app and platform economics, and game journalism in academic outlets such as New Media & Society, Social Media + Society, Internet Policy Review, and Media, Culture and Society.   He is the co-author of Platforms and Cultural Production (Polity, 2021), which is translated in Italian and Chinese, and Mainstreaming and Game Journalism (MIT Press, 2023). His teaching and research interests include social media, platforms, globalization, the media industries, games, cultural production and journalism. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    40 min

  6. 09/12/2025

    Prof Terry Flew on how AI is changing communications

    On Wednesday 20 August 2025, Prof Terry Flew delivered a guest lecture in Charles Sturt University's 'Thoughts On The Beyond' series, celebrating 50 years of communications scholarship at the university. Entitled 'AI and Communication: Trust, Ethics, Justice and Policy', the talk outlines some of context for, and themes of, the work Terry is doing as part of his ARC Laureate project researching mediated trust, with a particular focus on the significant impacts of AI. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    28 min

  7. 08/24/2025

    Prof Alexandre Lefebvre on the liberal values that underpin social trust

    Alexandre Lefebvre, Professor of Politics and Philosophy in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney, argues that liberalism isn't just a political ideology having to do with individual rights, parliaments, and courts. He says its core values permeate throughout much of our society, and offer a personal belief system that’s fundamental to many of us, whether religious or otherwise. Yet, at a time of increased populism and authoritarianism, these fundamental values – and the social trust that is built on them – are facing fresh challenges. Alexandre joins Terry to discuss these issues, which feature in his recent book, Liberalism as a Way of Life. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    48 min

  8. 07/02/2025

    Prof Nick Couldry from the LSE on how social media has failed society

    Nick Couldry is Professor of Media, Communications and Social Theory Emeritus and Professorial Research Fellow in the Department of Media and Communications at the London School of Economics and Political Science. As a sociologist of media and culture, he approaches media and communications from the perspective of the symbolic power that has been historically concentrated in media institutions. He is interested in how media and communications institutions and infrastructures contribute to various types of order – social, political, cultural, economic, and ethical..  In the past 10 years, his work has increasingly focussed on data questions, and ethics, politics and deep social implications of Big Data and small data practices. He is the author or editor of 17 books and many journal articles and book chapters. He has recently co-founded the Tierra Comun tri-lingual website (Englosh, Spanish and Portugese) to encourage networking with and among Latin American scholars and activists interested in data colonialism.  Nick Couldry’s most recent book is The Space of the World: Can Human Solidarity Survive Social Media and What if it Can’t? It is the first of a three-book series titled Humanising the Future.  We are at the International Communications Association’s 75th annual conference in Denver, Colorado, where we will discuss his most recent work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

    48 min
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Trailer

About

Governments, the economy and civil society depend on the public’s trust to work effectively – but this trust is declining in an age of polarisation and misinformation. The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that this “malady of mistrust” is as damaging as COVID or climate change.  We don’t talk much about trust – but we certainly notice when it breaks down, in corporate scandals or political coups. But in a time when many are losing faith in our most vital institutions, how can the bonds of trust be rebuilt? In Time for Trust, Terry Flew will explore these themes with leading experts on trust, from academics and journalists to community leaders, both from Australia and around the world.  Professor Flew holds a prestigious Laureate Fellowship from the Australian Research Council. He’s particularly interested in “mediated trust” – that is, forms of trust and mistrust as they are expressed in and through the digital media technologies we use to make sense of the world.  From trust in news to trust in digital platforms, from trust in corporations and governments to trust in AI, “Time for Trust”  will ask – who, and what, do we trust, have we lost that trust, and can we get it back? And are technologies bringing us together or driving us apart? Join us for a fascinating journey through one of the most important issues facing people and societies everywhere. Because Billy Joel was right – it is a matter of trust. Time for Trust is brought to you by the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Sydney, and the Australian Research Council. It's produced by Dominic Knight, and recorded on unceded Gadigal Land. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Information

  • Creator
    Prof Terry Flew
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    22
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © Prof Terry Flew
  • Show Website
    Time for Trust