The Firestorm
What it is, how to spot it and
BY ERIN ZARANEC
KENT STATE UNIVERSITY
“Truth is the foundation of all effective communications.
By being truthful, we build and maintain trust with the
media and our customers, clients and employees. As pro-
fessional communicators, we take very seriously our re-
sponsibility to communicate with honesty and accuracy.”
The Public Relations Society of America’s Statement on
Alternative Facts, written by Jane Dvorak, APR, Fellow
PRSA, PRSA chair, made headlines in Politico and Fortune,
among other publications.
Waynesburg University in Pennsylvania, Ohio University
in Ohio and other Chapters published information about
fake news on Chapter blogs or incorporated the topic into
programming. The University of Nevada, Reno, incorpo-
rated the topic into its Regional Conference sessions.
While the spread of false information is not a new idea,
fake news took the internet by storm in 2016 with entire
websites being built strictly for the dissemination of fake
news stories.
“Fake news is information manipulated to look like cred-
ible news,” said Rick Batyko, APR, Fellow PRSA, and 2017
National Board of Directors member. “It is spread online
with the hopes that other people will spread it further.”
According to The Washington Post and Buzzfeed, the
writers of fake news content are making $5,000 to $10,000
a month from advertising dollars spent on fake news sto-
ries. The more controversial the news topic, the more eye-
balls on the page, the more ad revenue the writer receives.
“The fact is that clickbait, which used to take form in
outrageous headlines we all knew were fake, has now em-
boldened others. People started seeing that there were
advertising dollars to be had, which has led to the place
we are now,” said Dr. Cheryl Ann Lambert, an assistant
professor at Kent State University’s School of Journalism
and Mass Communication.
The controversial 2016 election cycle provided the per-
fect opportunity to drive attention to fake news stories,
with the top fake headlines of the year including the Pope
endorsing then-Republican nominee Donald Trump, Hil-
lary Clinton operating a child labor ring in a pizza shop
and then-President Barack Obama banning the Pledge of
Allegiance in schools.
Buzzfeed took the lead in analyzing fake news head-
lines, using statistics provided by websites like Facebook,
where fake news often goes viral. According to Craig Sil-
verman, Buzzfeed news media editor, one fake news story
about Barack Obama banning the Pledge of Allegiance
generated more than 2.1 million shares, comments and
likes in two months. In the same timeframe, a credible
news story from The New York Times received 370,000
engagements.
“People are realizing that there are real implications
to this now,” said Jan Leach, associate professor at Kent
State University’s School of Journalism and Mass Commu-
6 WWW.PRSSA.PRSA.ORG/FORUM
nication and the director of the school’s Media Law Center
for Ethics and Access. “There’s the possibility of skewing
a whole election. There’s people who, so enflamed, would
and could do just about anything because they’re so pas-
sionate. B ut their passion is based on information that’s
just not true.”
Misplaced passion was seen by mainstream media in
December 2016, when an armed man arrived at a Wash-
ington, D.C., pizza shop to personally investigate claims
that then-Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton was oper-
ating a child labor and pedophile ring from the business.
The man was placed under arrest and no one was harmed,
but his actions were fueled by a fake news story.
Even after the arrest and debunking of the story, Buzz-
feed reported that 63 percent of voters still believed parts
of the Clinton conspiracy were true.
SELF-SELECTION CAUSING FALSE PERCEPTION
According to Leach, self-selection and confirmation bias
are playing a large role in the consumption of fake news.
“There are now new definitions of fake news coming
out. Some people are considering fake news to be any-
thing that publishes information or any ideology that they
don’t agree with,” she said.
When social media algorithms and advertising revenue
are based on eyeballs on a screen, polarized social media
becomes a large-scale issue.
“Suppose your brand starts getting trolled by fake news.
What are you supposed to do with that when you’re man-
aging the brand? How do you get information out there
when people and algorithms are self-selecting,” Leach
said.
While it may not lead to fake news, knowing your biases
is important when consuming and writing news content.
Pulitzer Prize winner and syndicated columnist Connie
Schultz currently works as a professional-in-residence at
Kent State’s School of Journalism and Mass Communica-
tion, teaching journalism curriculum in the undergraduate
sequence.
“In my classes, we spend so much time talking about
knowing your own values and own biases so they don’t
get in the way of you doing your job,” Schultz said. “The
goal is fairness, and we can’t be fair if we aren’t aware of
our own biases. I see the students working so hard in this
regard. I see millennials, in general, as a generation of
integrity.”
STOPPING THE SPIN: THE INTERSECTION OF PUBLIC
RELATIONS AND FAKE NEWS
While fake news may cause some issues for public re-
lations practitioners, it also provides an opportunity for
practitioners in the field.
“Fake news provides public relations professionals with
an opportunity to distinguish themselves and separate
themselves from those who are creating and spreading
SPRING 2017