| Abstrakt: |
In today΄s modern societies – frequently described as information, communication, media or knowledge societies – people perceive and experience world affairs largely mediated, through public communication. The construction of public communication involves the production of information by public relations prior to their publication on the one hand, the selection and construction processes which create media realities on the other hand. Because mediated information is usually not directly or immediately verifiable, trust – particularly public trust – appears to gain more relevance in such societies than it does in others. For the same reason individual political and economic actors as well as corporate agents (organizations) increasingly rely on the attribution of (public) trust. Consequently, academia is challenged to investigate phenomena such as trust and credibility more thoroughly than has been the case thus far. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
