Post-truth and post-trust: how to re-define trust in the judicial system and the media

Abstract

This article revisits the rational and symbolic elements of assumed and earned trust, and how social and political trust is intertwined with trust in the judiciary and the media, as key control points in a democratic system. As such, they are also primary targets of populist-autocratic movements. The article enumerates how the transformation of the information environment has shattered traditional structures and opened new ways of questioning existing injustices. The result is an information landscape which is not only post-truth but also post-trust. New methods and processes of institutionalising processes of earning trust and structuring distrust have become necessary.