ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with interpretations that stem from an overly trusting and uncritical stance toward technology, celebrities, and other users from the same community. We turn to the history of this mode of interpretation in hermeneutic tradition. Ricoeur contrasts the hermeneutics of suspicion with readers who come at a text with hopes of revelation. The meaning of linguistic and cultural expressions is here considered disguised and distorted. However, rather than ‘excavating’ or subverting it in a hostile manner, the interpreter feels herself addressed by the text and unveils its meaning with an attitude of reverence, according to a logic of revelation. We take New Criticism’s close reading and reparative readings (Sedgwick) to belong to this hermeneutics as well. We then trace this hermeneutics of faith, trust, or restoration in the context of contemporary practices in online culture, including online fandom, echo chambers, and filter bubbles. We discuss the vital role that trust plays on the level of platform infrastructure and in relation to algorithms. After outlining these issues, we apply an exemplary digital-hermeneutic reading of the role of trust in online discussions of the already notorious case of the defamation trial of Johnny Depp versus Amber Heard.
