Consortium on Trust in Media and Technology

We are a multidisciplinary initiative launched at the University of Florida and its College of Journalism and Communications to study trust in media and technology. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The crisis of trust in media and technology is driving us apart, contributing to a culture of contention and disinformation that puts our democracy at risk. Much of the focus has centered on journalism – “fake news,” concerns about bias, a focus on conflict. But the trust crisis isn’t only a news problem. It permeates almost every institution. Our daily lives are increasingly governed by the tyranny of the algorithm, often appealing to our most visceral emotions. The economic incentives for speaking to those impulses are powerful: disharmony is profitable. The Consortium is built to look across all communication fields, with an emphasis on better understanding how technology influences the way we interact with information. We foster a diverse community of scholars and thought leaders to study ways to build trust and apply what we learn, drawing scholars from across disciplines at the University of Florida to bring their best thinking to the task. Our Trust Scholars have come from the fields of journalism, psychology, agriculture, architecture, political science, engineering, education and philosophy. Our mission: Develop insights backed by research. Identify opportunities for practical application. Get that work into the field so that it can make a difference.