Cape Town will be one of Martín Oller Alonso’s next major international stops. From 4 to 8 June 2026, he will take part in the 76th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA 2026), to be held in Cape Town, South Africa, under the theme “Communication and Inequalities in Context.”
I will participate with an international paper officially accepted by ICA: “Distinguishing news media trust, skepticism, and cynicism through elaboration: Toward a global typology of distrustors, mistrustors, automatic trustors, and engaged trustors.” The acceptance confirms his inclusion in a large international team of 50 authors, which also includes Carlos Arcila Calderón and Maximiliano Frías-Vázquez.
The study addresses one of the central debates in contemporary communication research: how trust in news media is formed today, and how it differs from scepticism, cynicism, and the cognitive elaboration through which audiences evaluate journalistic information. Based on an original survey conducted across 34 countries and territories, with 38,411 valid responses, the research develops a global typology of four audience profiles: distrustors, mistrustors, automatic trustors, and engaged trustors. The findings also show that these relationships vary significantly across national contexts, particularly in terms of levels of press freedom.
The paper’s relevance has already been underscored in the proposal reviews, which highlighted its theoretical contribution, comparative international scope, and methodological robustness. At a time marked by a crisis of journalistic legitimacy, political polarisation, and growing disputes over public credibility, the study raises a crucial question: not only whether citizens trust or distrust the media, but how that trust or distrust is constructed.
The presence at ICA 2026 will also extend beyond the conference itself. Immediately afterwards, he will participate in the annual meeting of the Worlds of Journalism Study (WJS), scheduled for 9–10 June 2026 at STIAS in Stellenbosch. The meeting will mark the 20th anniversary of the project and, notably, will be the first WJS annual meeting ever held in Africa.
