The rise of fake news has led to journalists becoming much more conscious about what they publish, celebrity content director Jack White revealed in this Cision webinar.
Discussing the findings of Cision’s 2018 State of the Media report, both White, who works across Now, Women’s Own, Woman, and Women’s Weekly, and Sean Allen-Moy, account director at W Communications and a former journalist, agreed that the impact fake news has had on trust in journalism is the biggest issue facing the industry.
After the study showed that 51% of journalists surveyed in the UK thought that fake news would make readers more sceptical, White said: “When we talk about how fake news is affecting the media, I think that in many cases audiences don’t believe anything anymore. These days, our news stories have to be immediately believable.”
Allen-Moy added: “We see Donald Trump using the term ‘fake news’ and think it’s a bit of a joke and flippant, but if the most powerful man in the world can describe CNN as fake then it gives licence to people to doubt the news. He’s effectively created catchphrase to any story or piece of information we don’t want to believe.”