Building Techno-Scientific Trust in Adaptation to Sea-Level Rise in the Dutch Online Media.

In this article, we analyse how different adaptation strategies to sea-level rise (protection, accommodation and retreat) are presented and legitimised as approaches to climate-change resilience in the Dutch media. To examine how these strategies are positioned within media narratives, we draw on conceptualisations of trust, which help clarify why certain options gain greater legitimacy or credibility in public discourse. The analysis builds on three forms of trust: generalised trust, system trust and process-based trust. We find that Dutch media representations strongly legitimise technical and engineering-based protection measures, often at the expense of accommodation or retreat. Media narratives construct a clear hierarchy in which protection is most preferred and trusted, accommodation occupies a secondary position, and retreat is framed as least credible or desirable. This hierarchy is reinforced by depictions of substantial financial and institutional capacity to support large-scale technical solutions. Overall, the media reproduce trust in continuity and business-as-usual thinking, presenting futures that extend established socio-technical practices rather than imagining more transformative or disruptive adaptation pathways.