How Publics Navigate the Digital Media Environment

At the 24th International Conference on Communication and Mass Media, held in Athens from 12–15 May and organized by the Athens Institute, Mojca Pajnik presented research developed within the Horizon project MeDeMap. The paper, Beyond (Dis)Trust: Audience’s Emotional Strategies and Epistemic Practices in the Digital Media Environment, explores how citizens navigate today’s complex media landscape, shaped by increasing polarization, misinformation, and growing public distrust toward the media.

Drawing on focus group research conducted in Slovenia, the study examines how audiences emotionally and critically engage with journalism and digital media. Rather than understanding distrust simply as an absence of trust, the research highlights how citizens employ emotional and epistemic strategies — such as selective exposure, irony, withdrawal, and verification practices — to cope with uncertainty and maintain agency in digital media systems.

The paper contributes to ongoing debates on media trust, emotions, and digital citizenship by demonstrating how affective and epistemic practices jointly shape people’s everyday engagement with news and help sustain meaningful relationships with media and journalism.