2023 Laureate Profile: Professor Terry Flew

Administering Organisation: The University of Sydney

Fellowship Project Summary

FL230100075 - Mediated Trust: Ideas, Interests, Institutions, Futures

Professor Flew will examine the role digital technologies and communications play in building or eroding societal trust, using case studies of news, digital platforms (such as social media), corporations and the World Health Organisation. This research will produce a world-first integrated framework for evaluating the relationship of communications to trust in the age of digital platforms and define a new direction for communication and media studies. Through reports, briefings and major events for the media and digital industries this work will help Australian policymakers, businesses and opinion leaders evaluate the effectiveness of regulation and governance in a digital age. Trust in applications of digital technologies is increasingly critical to trust in government itself, as seen negatively with the Robodebt scheme, or more positively with digital economy strategies, and this project will provide conceptual foundations for advancing a digital trust agenda.

Australian Research Council funding: $3,107,127