This article uses Northern Ireland as a research context to explore how elite discourse (from political and media actors/institutions) influences how Non-Profit Leaders (NPLs) assess the trustworthiness of government. We provide emergent themes which should aid theory development and practice in the area of political public relations by showing: (1) the value NPLs place on ‘soft’ trust qualities in trust assessments of government, namely benevolence; (2) the importance NPLs place on communicative acts which model trust (e.g. dialogue, compromise, mediation); and (3) the destructive role of divisive political elite discourse within a defective political system, amplified via the media, in NPLs’ distrust of government. The study thereby emphasises the crucial and constitutive role trust perceptions play in (in)effective political public relations, arguing that ‘trust’ must be defined by the perceiver and critically unpacked if public relations research is to fully appreciate its function. We propose that the nature of Northern Ireland’s post-conflict divided society, and political discourse in specific, makes certain trust antecedents most desirable to cross-community stakeholders. The findings contribute to further refining the concept of trust in public relations and they may also be instructive for other contexts.

本文将北爱尔兰作为研究背景，以探讨（来自政治和媒体参与者/机构的）精英话语如何影响非营利组织领导人（NPL）评估政府可信度的方式。通过显示以下方面，我们提供了一些新兴的主题，这些主题将有助于政治公共关系领域的理论发展和实践：（1）在政府的信任评估中，不良贷款对“软”信任质量的重视，即仁爱；（2）不良贷款对模仿信任的交流行为（例如对话，妥协，调解）的重视；（3）不良政治体制中分裂性政治精英话语的破坏性作用，通过媒体扩大，在不良贷款对政府的不信任中。因此，该研究强调了信任观念在有效的政治公共关系中所起的关键性和构成性作用，认为“信任”必须由感知者定义，并且如果公共关系研究要充分理解其功能，则必须严格拆开“信任”。我们认为，北爱尔兰冲突后分裂的社会的本质以及具体的政治言论，使得某些信任的先行者成为跨社区利益相关者最希望的。这些发现有助于进一步完善对公共关系的信任的概念，也可能对其他情况具有启发性。