The project

Numerous surveys in the social sciences point to a crisis of confidence in the authorities traditionally responsible for informing us. The media are primarily affected, but it is also the recognition of the discourse they convey from political, economic and even scientific players that does not seem to be as assured as it once was. The literature provides information on the transformations of today’s information ecosystem and on the ways in which content is circulated, particularly on digital social media, but it remains insufficient, even ambivalent, on key points concerning the ways in which audiences appropriate information and the degrees of trust they place in informational authorities.

This research partnership proposes to better understand the phenomenon by adopting a communicative reading of trust, attentive to how information circulates, is discussed, and then recognized or not by audiences. It focuses on the sociocultural situation of Quebec, where rates of trust in the media differ favorably from other contexts (United States and Europe). It has two complementary objectives: 1) to draw up a comprehensive portrait of French-speaking audiences for information, using a wide-ranging survey to identify their relationship with information and information authorities and 2) to offer partners a validated set of concrete methods for building trust with their audiences and encouraging quality online conversation around their content.

The partnership brings together representatives of media and scientific communication professionals: Agence Science Presse, the Association des Communicateurs Scientifiques, the Bell Chair in Scientific Journalism, the Fédération Professionnelle des Journalistes du Québec and Radio-Canada, the latter being the main partner as it extends an existing partnership (SSHRC Partnership Commitment 2019-2020). The partners are committed to guiding the conduct of the survey among Quebec audiences through their field experience, and to enabling the design and testing of the methods considered in the concrete working conditions of information professionals. This research partnership will make an original contribution, linking communicative qualities of content, spaces in which it is discussed and characteristics of French-speaking Quebec audiences. It will provide new insights into the meaning that audiences give to their information practices, and the various aspects that influence their experiences, in order to identify the ways in which trust is established in information and information authorities.

The results will enable us to consider ways forward in terms of content, navigation within it, relationship offered by the media to their audience, and ways of generating quality online conversation around content. These “best practices” will ensure recognition of the characteristics of quality informational content in comparison with other forms of content competing with it, and thus will encourage recognition of the value of information in democratic societies. This project is funded by SSHRC over a 3-year period (2022-2025).