This book aims to draw attention to the complex dynamics of trust contestation in public and media spheres. It examines the generation and dissemination of the knowledge and information that informs whether we trust or distrust, as well as the communicative exchanges through which this input is transformed into the shared beliefs, expectations and attitudes that sustain trust relationships over time. Turning to the many challenges to trust in contemporary democracies, we will see how new media enable or inhibit interpersonal, social and political trust, undermine existing sources of trust and at the same time define new demands on trust. This role of the media in building trust is related to the specific challenge of modern anonymous societies to build trust towards strangers, towards organisations and institutions or even towards abstract notions such as ‘state’ or ‘democracy’. In order to develop the ability to trust and distrust, an intermediary sphere of communication is required, which must be institutionalised and trusted in its own right. Accordingly, we speak of the media’s function in enabling, channelling and, if necessary, challenging trust.