The one eyed man is king, but only in the kingdom of the blind. In today’s fast moving social media world, are corporate communicators inhabiting such an apocryphal place when it comes to dealing with fake news?
In other words, are they merely short sighted or dealing with a more significant corporate blindness when managing fake news in Europe? This is a critical question following worrying findings from the 2018 European Communication Monitor report, which shows that a quarter of organisations have been affected by fake news in Europe in some form or other.
From the perspective of European communication practitioners, fake news is not only a buzzword in political debates, but also a daily threat for companies and other organisations across the continent. Moreover, what is the role of communication professionals, departments and agencies in generating, facilitating and/or propagating fake news?
Instances across the globe of political elections being influenced by fake news stories, fake news attacks on corporations and the interference of organised management and communication strategies (for example by Cambridge Analytica) have fuelled concern that fake news is subversive and potentially dangerous to organisations and society.