"You are fake news", that's how President Trump responded a few months ago to Jim Acosta, CNN's White House correspondent. Much has been said to describe President Trump's lack of respect for journalists, his continuous attacks on the liberal American press, or his outbursts in meetings with foreign correspondents. In his limitless cynicism, Trump's strategy involves trying to turn the content of the best American press into fake.
And worse than that, the perversion of Trump and his electoral team, which had the infamous Steve Bannon at its head, is that they have given ideological coverage and legitimized the use of "fake news" as a legitimate instrument to achieve their political objectives. In a world where mainstream media have lost some of the respect of their audiences, Trump's team managed to create a parallel reality through falsehoods and half-truths that helped them swing the presidential election in their favor in decisive states.
But beyond moral and political criticism, Donald Trump brought to the table a serious problem that affects governments, companies, media, and many professional groups equally: the lack of credibility with the public.
Intentional false information and biased half-truths have always existed, whether as a weapon of war in various conflicts or to sell more newspapers, books, or, more recently, gain television audiences. The problem now is their rapid dissemination and the lack of time and resources that citizens and media have to verify such information. Chasing, refuting, or eliminating a fake news story is almost impossible today. They are like the flu virus; once they are out, their spread is very difficult to stop.
The only way to effectively counteract the flu virus is through a vaccine, adapted to the form the virus takes each winter. The same happens with fake news. To counteract them, we must resort to a vaccine that we have to perfect day by day, because if there's one thing they do well, it's mutating and constantly changing their skin.
Whether public or private, the only possible vaccine for organizations is reputation. The short, medium, and long-term commitment to building a bond of trust with citizens—whether voters or clients—based on transparency, empathy, and the transmission of knowledge (just the opposite of what fake news does).
Let's take the banking sector as an example, a private sector, but regulated and essential for the economic functioning of a country. The fall of Lehman Brothers in September 2008 initiated the perfect storm that ended in the great crisis from which we are just now recovering.
The consequences for banking reputation have been more pronounced in Spain, where a financial crisis was compounded by an economic, political, and social crisis. And where entities of dubious viability contaminated the entire system and generated a fantastic context for the propagation of fake news and political populism.
Many entities have realized that the path to recovering prestige is to improve their reputation. BBVA or Caixabank are being good examples, changing their communication policies and putting many of their resources into the personal and financial education of their clients.All of that is still being paid for by the sector (even those who are doing their homework well), as demonstrated by the latest reputation studies, which place trust in banks below political parties or unions. Nor does the institutional and legal instability that Spain is experiencing help, as demonstrated by the management of the Supreme Court's ruling on the IAJD, which once again puts the main entities in the media spotlight.
Fortunately, many entities have realized that the path to recovering prestige is to improve reputation. BBVA or Caixabank are being good examples, changing their communication policies and putting many of their resources into the personal and financial education of their clients.
This new policy is at the base of many of the American banks that survived the 2008 crisis. The case of Regions Bank is paradigmatic; to strengthen the relationship with clients, they began to provide financial education and focused on finding ways to improve people's lives by solving concrete financial problems and not just satisfying their conventional needs.
The result: more clients, better informed, and the bank with the highest reputation in the United States in 2015 and 2016. This is what business strategy guru Michael E. Porter calls shared value. Undoubtedly, the best way to end the harmful effects of fake news is for our institutions to be able to generate this vaccine, which is none other than creating a bond with society based on empathy, trust, and mutual recognition through the transmission of knowledge.
Related content:
- Article by Tom Standage in The Economist.
- Study on the "Influence of fake news on public opinion" by Estudio de Comunicación and Servimedia.
- Article from the blog Piedras de papel on trust in institutions.
- Study by the Reputation Institute on American banks.
- Ted Talk by Michael E. Porter on the concept of shared value.