Counter-terrorism strategic communication campaigns and the generative nature of trust

This paper examines how public-facing counter-terrorism campaigns are strategically constructed and communicated, to try to signal trust, as part of their wider agenda to deter terrorist risks and threats. The empirical evidence includes frame analysis of the main messaging assets across three UK campaigns, in-depth practitioner interviews, and public focus groups across different parts of the UK. Building on sensemaking theory (Weick, 1995) we present insights into sensemaking, sensegiving and sensebreaking around trust in this form of messaging, and introduce the concept of ‘sensebridging’ as a theoretical extension useful in understanding how trust deficits are negotiated by publics and tackled by practitioners through particular public relations strategies and mediums. We demonstrate how specific trust elements are ‘designed in’ to campaign assets, and how these are (re-)interpreted by publics through the lens of distant and recent histories, as well as hyperlocal presents. Viewed in this way, the paper moves beyond the idea of bifurcated trust that either is or is not present, instead arguing that trust is ‘generative’, and as such more complex, situated, and mobile. In doing so, it makes several inter-disciplinary contributions together with practical recommendations that centre on appreciating the generative nature of trust in strategic communications.