It all depends on the environment

2024 is a football year, an Olympic year, a US election year - and the "Year of the News". For twelve months, the partners of the #UseTheNews media initiative in the DACH region will be drawing attention to the importance of trustworthy information and promoting the safe use of news, especially among young people. A broad alliance of private and public stakeholders, media companies, associations and institutes is supporting the initiative. A dedicated campaign and many other activities will give reputable media a platform - and help young people to distinguish them from fake news.

"False information spreads faster than the truth."

An important effort that is probably more relevant than ever in 2024: misinformation is on the rise, as are technologies that make it appear ever more credible. It spreads like wildfire - yes, even faster than the truth. At an event on current challenges in the field of digital communication, experts from the agency Masterplan Media cited a study by the MIT Sloan School of Management, according to which online fake news reaches users six times faster than facts. And on Platform X, falsehoods are 70 percent more likely to be replicated than the truth.

Democracy and advertising

A problem that not only affects society and democracy, but also the advertising industry: "The topics of brand safety and fake news are very important to us as an agency and one of the biggest challenges at the moment," says Masterplan Media Managing Director Carsten Riemann-Kafsack. "As a media agency, we are obliged to generate the greatest possible advertising success for our clients from the resources we use. Alongside other factors, the environment in which an advertisement is placed plays a key role in determining the chances of attracting attention and the duration of viewing of the advertising media used and is therefore a fundamental factor for advertising recall and advertising impact."

An analysis by Comscore and the Newsguard platform, which indexes trust ratings for news and information websites, shows that around 2.6 billion US dollars flow to publishers of misinformation and disinformation worldwide every year in the form of programmatic advertising - from false health claims, anti-vaccination myths, election misinformation and partisan propaganda to other facets of "fake". Misinformation about the Israel-Gaza war alone supports 349 (!) globally known companies with programmatic advertising, according to Newsguard.

Influence on brand perception

Another loss is not so easy to quantify: namely the influence that this type of advertising has on brand perception in various dimensions. The Magna media network from IPG and Zefr, a provider of brand safety and suitability indicators, have now jointly investigated this. For the "Ads in Misinformation" report, the study authors conducted an analysis with more than 2,000 social media users. The participants saw different ads in the context of real and fake news on topics such as health, climate or politics, as well as AI-generated texts.

It turned out that brands that advertised in the context of fake news had a higher recall value than those that appeared in standard environments - especially in the political sphere. Brand recall is a KPI that many would like to see, but not in this case: brands that appear in the context of misinformation are seen as less trustworthy - even by customers who regularly buy this brand. In other words, brands are losing influence on respect and trust among their most important clients, the study notes. 63% of respondents believe that misinformation has a negative impact on the perception of the brand. "It is a fake story. It makes the brand look fake, too," said one of the respondents.

"Only when consumers are able to distinguish real news from fake news will fake news no longer stand a chance."

The authors of the study paid particular attention to the area of sustainability and wanted to know: What is the impact on brand perception of a "green" brand that advertises in the context of fake news on climate change and environmental issues? It turned out that these brands also lose credibility - almost half (44%) even question the brand's sustainability efforts. Magna and Zefr state: advertising in the context of fake news means wasted advertising expenditure. The two companies therefore recommend that brands invest in tools and strategies that ensure their ads end up in a safe environment.

Support tools and providers

These are, for example, ad verification platforms such as Integral Ad Science (IAS) or DoubleVerify, which help advertisers to ensure that their ads do not appear on problematic websites. Tools such as Zefr assess the suitability of advertising with regard to the content on which it is to appear. Other providers specialize in the detection of fake news and disinformation - such as Newsguard, a rating system for the trustworthiness of websites and reliable sources. Many platforms and publishers also offer their own solutions to ensure a safe environment.

Masterplan Media uses a combination of different components. According to Carsten Riemann-Kafsack, it is important to discuss the topic transparently with clients as a consulting agency - because security is also a question of price. "It's better to do without unreflected mass reach, but to advertise in the right environments," says the expert. Ultimately, the challenge is to appear "brand-safe" and effective at the same time. And for this to succeed, everyone is called upon: publishers, who must ensure the safety of their environments, agencies, who must verify suitable sources and exclude unsuitable ones - and the brands themselves, who should not only focus on quantitative reach, but also on its quality.

A journey on the "Fake Train"

And last but not least, the consumers themselves. Because only when they are able to distinguish real news from fake news will fake news have less and less of a chance. The German Federal Agency for Civic Education is therefore promoting greater news literacy with an unusual format: in "Fake Train", a new game show that has been available on Amazon Freevee since the beginning of June, the well-known Youtuber Rezo takes prominent passengers (including influencer Twenty4Tim, rapper Xatar, stand-up comedienne Parshad Esmaeili and Youtuber Rewinside) on a train journey and puts their knowledge of fake news, disinformation and conspiracy narratives to the test. If they manage to debunk the lies, they will reach the next stop - on the long journey towards the truth.

INTERVIEW

"Everyone must make a contribution"

Roland Ehrler heads the Swiss Advertising Client Association (SWA), the most important client association in the Swiss advertising industry. In this short interview, he explains what can be done to combat fake news in the advertising environment.

m&k: Roland Ehrler, fake news and disinformation are an ever-growing problem - to what extent for advertising clients too?

Roland Ehrler: Credible media are attractive advertising platforms for advertisers. In this sense, fake news and disinformation also harm the advertising environment and thus the communication of advertisers.

How can the industry take countermeasures, what is currently being done?

First and foremost, it is up to news publishers to ensure that no fake news is spread. This is the responsibility of national publishers and international platforms. There are also country-specific initiatives - in Switzerland, for example, "Digital Ad Trust Switzerland" - with which the advertising inventory of publishers can be regularly certified. And finally, advertising clients and their commissioned agencies can ensure that their advertising does not end up in the environment of fake news when purchasing online.

Where do clients see the biggest challenges?

I don't know of any company that wants to support fake news. Unfortunately, especially with programmatic bookings, there is no 100% certainty that advertising will not be delivered in such environments. The same applies to ad fraud or brand safety. This is due to the complexity and size of the World Wide Web. Even if the online industry's control options are constantly improving.

Whose responsibility is this issue? Is it the platforms, the media agencies - or the companies themselves?

Quite simply. Everyone is in the same boat here and it is therefore a shared responsibility of the industry. Everyone has a part to play in keeping fake news under control.

This article first appeared in the m&k print edition 6-7/2024.