Why fake news is also changing PR

Communications managers are under more pressure than ever to be credible. 2016 was the year of fake news. Whether it was the US presidential election, Brexit or the refugee debate in Germany: on the internet and in social media in particular, all of the year's major developments were accompanied and possibly influenced by a multitude of fake news stories.What impact do such news stories have on communication? This is what News Current and has developed a Whitepaper created. In addition to interviews with dpa editor-in-chief Sven Gösmann and British journalist Paul Holmes, the dpa subsidiary also highlights five reasons why fake news is changing communication in the long term.Fake news...1. ...are inflaming the current debates. Targeted misinformation is increasingly poisoning the social climate.2. ...undermining the credibility of all media and thus indirectly damaging the PR industry.3. ...must be quickly refuted, for which companies need tried and tested strategies.4. ...can be combated with tried and tested virtues such as skepticism, honesty, transparency and trustworthiness.5. ...forcing the PR industry to focus even more on higher standards in terms of facts and their interpretation.More reaction and credibilityThe interviews with Gösmann and Holmes both show that honesty is the best approach. "What's more, companies need to be able to react in real time. This requires their communications department to be fully informed at all times - they need to know all the facts so that they can publish them quickly. They also need certain decision-making powers so that they don't have to approve official reactions before they publish them," explains Paul Holmes, founder and CEO of PR industry service The Holmes Group. The big problem is that fake news is spreading rapidly thanks to social media, and the lack of credibility means that survey figures or graphics have to be questioned more frequently. "For communication as a whole, this means that we need to do even more research and rely on clean, solid facts and lines of argument. In addition, the topic must become an important part of the professional training of communications consultants," advises Alex Wallrabenstein, Chairman of MSLGroup, also an interviewee for the white paper.