Systemic reform and public reception: connecting identity, trust, and emotion in changing political winds

The JCOM commentary set ``Science communication in changing political winds'' MedveckyLessmollmann2026 diagnoses the current crisis at a systemic level: platforms, institutions, democratic participation, power, and communicative goals. Using the Identity-Trust-Emotion framework Uddin2026, I extend this systemic account by examining how audience-level processes may shape responses to competing claims and empowerment-oriented science communication. I apply the framework to Leßmöllmann and Medvecky's account of strategic competition for epistemic authority and Toomey and Elliott's proposal for scientific empowerment, showing how identity, trust, and emotion may help explain how systemic conditions become consequential for publics.