#WorldPRDay: The public relations industry must lead the fight against fake news

BY FATIHAH AYINDE, OYINDAMOLA ABDULFATAI AND EDWARD ISRAEL-AYIDE

The prevalence of social media has revolutionised the dissemination rate of fake news. With social media becoming the easiest way for the public to consume information, we have witnessed the propagation of fake news on a scale only comparable to the days of yellow journalism.

Fake news, spin, and disinformation spread through online channels, which eventually land offline, shape global issues as they did in the 19th century. For example, consider the difficult terrain in which world leaders and medical experts found themselves when they recognised the necessity to confront the twin epidemics of coronavirus and fake news.

In Kano, Nigeria, 74.2% of respondents in a study agreed that social media aided the spread of fake news on Covid-19. To stem the tide, communication and public awareness campaigns such as Stop The Spread (developed by the WHO and the UK Government) and the Afghan government’s Citizen’s Charter program were designed to counter the spread of false information regarding Covid-19.

The fight against fake news is urgent

Information travels faster and has become ubiquitous; this is what the world feeds on to shape perspectives. Claire Wardle, PhD of the Annenberg School of Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, argues that “the biggest shift (today) is everybody is completely overwhelmed by information. We are taking in so much more information than we ever used to.” In a news-saturated society, Wardle believes consumers have an inherently limited ability to distinguish between correct and false information.

To tell the difference, Richard Hillgrove suggests looking at other credible news outlets to ascertain the validity of the information. If it stands alone in a vacuum, there’s a good chance it’s a manufactured lie. He, however, warns that “the content might be lifted from a credible source and then de-plagiarised by being slightly rewritten.” This is the gravity of the war the public relations industry is up against.

It is why as communicators, we must exercise extreme vigilance when it comes to fake news. While speaking on a World PR Day panel, Wimbart PR CEO Wimbart Hope asked PR professionals to “interrogate the brief” to avoid being conduits for fake news. Her point is well taken because public relations experts are increasingly likely to be misled into creating or disseminating bogus information on behalf of clients.

We must fight fake news because it harms PR

Although some will not agree, the art of planned persuasion and relationship building will never die. Indeed, one of the most notable public relations functions is fostering engaging conversations that result in meaningful change. The power of this industry is required in the fight that we advocate.

Because the public relations industry is a critical media stakeholder, the profession will suffer severely if the threat of fake news is not handled. As a result, when it comes to fake news, there is no circumstance in which staying on the fence is a good move. As stakeholders, we must build the defences that help the public rebuild trust in the media.

Rachel Gilley of Clarity PR was right when she said, “To fight fake news and the spread of misinformation, as an industry, we need to uplift the content we know to be quality and ensure we look at stories with a critical lens. As we partner with clients and brands to tell their narratives, we need to take a collaborative approach with reporters, only working with the trusted publications, so we are not fuelling fake news hubs.”

In the Pedagogy of Freedom, Paulo Freire calls our attention to ethics, democracy, and civic courage and responsibility in a way that demands that citizens have a moral duty to speak against acts perpetuated with the motive to cause unrest. Anyone can call him or herself a PR practitioner, but the mark of an ingenious public relations practitioner is in their ability to conscientise society.

Apart from the moral obligation, another ground for the fight against fake news is that it directly affects the PR “market”, so much so that when it comes to publishing media content on mainstream media, for example, the public relations practitioner is limited since the public has come to associate certain media stations with fake news.

Preserving the sanctity of what constitutes authentic information tends to have a positive ripple effect on the public relations industry. Knowing that critics of public relations associate public relations with propaganda as it is, it is indefensible not to take a stand against fake news.

To present a case for fake news, consider the authoritarian government systems in many countries. Fake news is an obvious outcome of censorship and restrictions on access to information to fact-check news. Regardless, PR practitioners cannot afford a declining public trust in traditional journalism and, by extension, new media.

The public relations industry needs to realise that fake news has the power to dismantle structures and platforms used by public relations practitioners to reach audiences. Without these platforms returning to their original state, the use of crisis communications to assist organisations, clients, individuals, and others in dealing with crises will lose effectiveness.

Freire believed that “the prevalent ideas of a society are always the ideas of those groups who hold power.” It is therefore naive to think that the public relations industry can combat this threat to the profession and society on its own. This necessitates collaboration with regulatory agencies to ensure due diligence and act as fact-checking bodies before fake news and content go viral.

The public relations industry must recognise the importance of addressing this issue. It must acknowledge it as a global issue and understand that it will not be resolved overnight. We must continue to hold one another accountable in the industry to reinforce that fake news and misinformation have no place in our profession or the media.

Ayinde, Abdulfatai and Israel-Ayide of Carpe Diem Solutions Ltd write from Lagos, Nigeria