[Commlist] CfA 2025 Conference of the Italian Association of Political Communication (AssoComPol)

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CfA 2025 Conference of the Italian Association of Political 
Communication (AssoComPol)

Theme: Media and politics: Reconfiguring authority and trust.

3-5 July 2025, University of Milan, Italy

https://www.compol.it/eventi/convegno/convegno-2025/

In recent years, political communication has undergone a profound 
transformation, shaped by the interplay of media innovation, evolving 
public expectations, and shifting socio-political dynamics (Humprecht et 
al. 2022; Štětka & Mihelj, 2024). Traditional authority structures are 
being reconfigured as new actors and platforms redefine who holds 
influence and credibility in the public sphere (Bartsch et al. 2022; 
Carlson, 2017). Trust – essential for democratic processes and discourse 
– has become a central focus, as audiences increasingly navigate a 
fragmented and contested information ecosystem. Simultaneously, 
political trust faces significant challenges, with growing polarization 
and skepticism toward institutional actors. These developments compel us 
to interrogate the evolving dynamics of trust and authority: who is 
trusted, how trust is built and maintained, and how authority is 
conferred and legitimized in mediated political contexts. By exploring 
these questions, we can better understand the mechanisms underpinning a 
functioning public sphere and identify pathways for fostering democratic 
resilience in an era of rapid change.

Media trust represents a pivotal dimension of political communication, 
encompassing the audience's confidence in the accuracy, fairness, and 
reliability of news media. As articulated by Strömbäck et al. (2020), 
media trust significantly shapes how individuals engage with and 
interpret media content, influencing broader patterns of media 
consumption and public opinion formation. Tsfati et al. (2022) argue, 
research must move beyond general notions of media trust to explore 
topical media trust—how trust varies across specific issues and 
contexts. This approach not only reveals the complexity of audience 
perceptions but also provides a richer framework for analyzing trust’s 
role in mitigating issue-based misperceptions and fostering informed 
public discourse. Recent work by Garusi and Leonhardt (2024) advocates 
for a processual understanding of trust, highlighting trust-building as 
a dynamic and iterative procedure rather than a static condition (see 
also the related Eyal 2024). This perspective underscores the importance 
of examining how trust is cultivated through ongoing interactions 
between media organizations and their audiences, particularly in 
contexts emphasizing transparency and constructive journalism.

The legitimacy and stability of democratic systems does not depend only 
on media trust, but also on more generalized levels of political trust, 
broadly defined as citizens’ confidence in political institutions and 
actors. In an era of increasing polarization and institutional 
skepticism, understanding the factors that influence political trust has 
become paramount and media trust emerges as a key determinant in this 
equation, as the media serves as the primary conduit through which 
citizens encounter political information. As Hanitzsch, Van Dalen, and 
Steindl (2018) highlight, public trust in the media and political trust 
are deeply intertwined, often reinforcing or undermining one another. A 
decline in media trust can erode confidence in political actors, while 
skepticism toward politics can amplify doubts about the media’s 
credibility. This nexus underscores the importance of examining trust as 
a multidimensional phenomenon, where the interplay between media and 
politics shapes the broader contours of public opinion and democratic 
engagement.
Authority is a foundational concept in understanding the structure and 
dynamics of public discourse. As explored by Carlson (2017), authority 
represents the capacity to be recognized as a legitimate source of 
knowledge or power in a given context, often contingent on social norms, 
institutional structures, and cultural expectations. In the digital era, 
journalistic authority—historically rooted in professional norms and 
organizational prestige—faces significant challenges. The 
democratization of information production and dissemination has 
disrupted traditional hierarchies, forcing journalists to continually 
renegotiate their legitimacy amidst increasing competition from 
non-traditional actors and platforms. Carlson's work highlights the 
importance of viewing authority not as a static property but as a 
dynamic process shaped by interactions between journalists, audiences, 
and the broader information ecosystem.

Building on this perspective, Bartsch et al. (2024) introduce the 
concept of epistemic authority in the digital public sphere, emphasizing 
the role of credibility in the negotiation of truth claims. Their 
integrative framework underscores the complexity of authority in a 
fragmented media landscape, where trustworthiness must be earned and 
sustained across diverse and sometimes polarized audiences. Wahl 
Jorgensen (2024) further advances this discussion by exploring how 
entrepreneurial journalism leverages local knowledge to assert epistemic 
authority, demonstrating the evolving strategies employed by media 
actors to legitimize their claims. Finally, Vos and Thomas (2018) 
emphasize the discursive nature of journalistic authority in the 
"post-truth" age, where the traditional boundaries of expertise are 
increasingly contested. Together, these perspectives highlight the 
pressing need to analyze authority as a relational and contextual 
phenomenon, particularly in its implications for public trust and the 
functioning of democratic discourse.
However, despite their centrality, the concept of media and political 
trust, and their interconnections with conferred authority remain 
underexplored in key areas. Current research often overlooks the dynamic 
and relational nature of trust, failing to adequately account for how it 
evolves over time and across different media ecosystems. Moreover, 
studies have yet to fully integrate the impact of digital and 
algorithmically driven platforms, which have redefined the boundaries of 
journalistic authority and credibility. To advance the field, it is 
crucial to develop innovative frameworks that address these gaps, 
emphasizing the interplay between structural factors—such as ownership 
models and regulatory environments—and individual-level perceptions 
shaped by identity, ideology, and lived experience.
Starting from this framework, or also beyond this framework, we 
encourage the submission of papers investigating the trends linked to 
media trust, political trust, and authority as well as their 
interactions in the field of political communication. We are interested 
in both theoretical essays and empirical studies, and we welcome 
different methodological approaches and research designs (quantitative, 
qualitative, and mixed-methods). Issues of interest include (but are not 
limited to):

- Changes and trends linked to media trust, political trust, 
institutional trust and authority as well as in their interactions.
- How the artificial intelligence environment, the role of data, 
platforms, algorithms, shape and change trust in the new political 
communications environment.
- Relationships between media and political trust from one side and 
trust in platforms from the other side.
- Trust and public opinion dynamics, voting behavior, electoral 
campaigns in democracies facing a crisis of trust.
- Electoral abstention: trust as precondition for electoral 
participation and democratic processes.
- How trust and authority is conferred according to new (digital) 
political communication actors (such as digital parties, social digital 
movements as well as “social journalism”).
- Which strategy apply political actors to increase trust.
- Epistemic authority in digital political communication: How authority 
is constructed, contested, and legitimized in the digital public sphere, 
with a focus on journalistic, political, and algorithmic actors. 
Distrust and communication strategies for gaining consensus from parties 
and movements of the radical sovereignist Right-Wing in Europe, 
especially from a Comparative Perspective (e.g., RN in France, AfD in 
Germany, FPÖ in Austria, Vox in Spain).
- Comparative approaches to media and political trust: Examining how 
trust and authority vary across cultural, national, or institutional 
contexts and their implications for global political communication.
- Actors and issues of the EU - supranational and national - political 
debate, with a particular focus on EU institutions, especially, though 
not exclusively, in electoral contexts.
- The role of misinformation, disinformation, polarization as well as 
incivility in trust dynamics: How affect trust in media, political 
actors, and institutions, and strategies to mitigate these effects.
- Public perception of journalistic authority: How audiences evaluate 
the credibility and legitimacy of journalistic actors in a fragmented 
and polarized media environment.
- Trust-building strategies in mediated political campaigns: Exploring 
innovative methods used by political actors to build and maintain trust 
through traditional and digital media.
- Trust and authority in times of crisis: Investigating how trust in 
media and political institutions fluctuates during crises (e.g., 
pandemics, natural disasters, or political instability).
- The role of influencers and alternative media in shaping authority: 
How non-traditional communicators (e.g., influencers, citizen 
journalists) redefine authority in the public sphere.
- The emergence of innovative forms and practices of political 
participation and the empowerment of digital citizenship as a product of 
online trust networks.
- Intersectionality in trust dynamics: How factors such as gender, race, 
class, and ideology interact to influence trust in media and politics.
- Ethical challenges in fostering trust: Analysing ethical dilemmas for 
journalists, political actors, and platforms in building or maintaining 
public trust and authority.
- Future-oriented perspectives on trust and authority: Conceptual and 
methodological innovations for studying trust and authority in rapidly 
evolving media and political environments


Useful information
Paper proposals should include name, affiliation, and email address, a 
title, an extended abstract (600/800 words excluding references), and 
bibliographical references.
Authors should also explicitly indicate whether they request the paper 
to be considered for publication (after the conference) in “ComPol - 
Comunicazione Politica”, the flagship journal of the Italian Association 
of Political Communication at the end of the abstract. In the case of ex 
aequo in the evaluations provided by referees, priority will be given to 
authors who have expressed interest for publication on ComPol - 
Comunicazione Politica.

Useful information on how to write an abstract for AssoComPol 
conferences can be found in the section “Abstract instructions”: 
https://www.compol.it/eventi/convegno/convegno-2025/

- Deadline for submission of proposals: March 21
- Notification of acceptance: April 15
- Full papers must be submitted by June 16 in the conference paper room 
(accessible by login)

Scientific Committee: Roberta Bracciale, Patrizia Catellani, Cristopher 
Cepernich, Gianpietro Mazzoleni, Marco Mazzoni, Rossella Rega, Cristian 
Ruggiero, Sergio Splendore, Augusto Valeriani.
Local organizers: Giorgia Aiello, C.W. Anderson, Mauro Barisione, 
Federico Boni, Diego Ceccobelli, Giulia Giorgi, Paolo Natale, Milan 
School of Media and Communication (MSMC).
Secretary: Junio Aglioti Colombini, Alice Fubini, Antonio Martella, 
Melissa Mongiardo, Celeste Satta.

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