Fake News is Real!

The US President is pretty fired up about Fake News. It’s something he regularly tweets about and in his anger at some of the world’s media outlets, he has gone so far as banning them from press briefings.

While we might not agree with everything Trump says or does, we can agree on the shift in the media’s reporting over the past few years.

Fake news is real. And anyone can become a victim. Just one look at some of the national media websites (and their print versions, to a lesser extent), reveals a whole host of stories that have not been unearthed by a hack on the street, or through an undercover tip off.  They’ve been lifted straight from social media.

We live in a much more immediate world, and media titles need to find content for clicks - quick. This means that some staff are hired for their search skills more than their writing prowess. Searching for a good headline, and a quick image-led story that can be shared then replaced, is their job.

And the source? Anything that gets a lot of likes or shares on Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Snapchat, Instagram…. It’s all out there to be used; most of it’s public domain after all.

This is why social media training and crisis PR training are some of the services we provide. As students live their lives through their devices, it’s imperative that schools keep on top of the latest platforms and put out positive messages on the ones they use. And that they have a strong PR team ready to deal journalists enquiring about a picture or story that has travelled a little further than intended.

Something that your students film or photograph could end up on the pages of a national newspaper. Are you ready for that?

For queries on our services, call us on 07803 537 246.