ABSTRACT
This introductory chapter introduces the topic of trust and distrust in the information age. These topics become especially urgent in today’s digitalized societies where competing claims are plentiful and source information can be diffuse. How do we calibrate our (dis)trust when it comes to sources of information today, given limited resources of time and attention? We signal a surplus of both trust and distrust in contemporary media culture: social media platforms often seem designed to afford ever so many ways to connect us with those who think the same and to close off a conversation with those who don’t. Platforms have not only changed where and how conversations happen: they have changed the parameters of conversation itself. Can conversation happen when we are not sure of the other’s identity? How do we know whom to trust? The chapter introduces issues in online media related to questions of trust and objectivity–think of ‘buzzwords’ like algorithms, filter bubbles, echo chambers, skepticism, mis/disinformation, and post-truth, and argues that these are ‘hermeneutic’ problems, meaning they relate to the topic and study of interpretation. Hermeneutics allows us to bring the more subjective issues of trust and interpretation back into the equation in an age when we are constantly faced with the supposed objectivity of data.
