Crisis PR in the Post-Truth Era

Abstract

The paper outlines some of the challenges that PR experts are facing in their work in the so-called „Fake News Era”, dominated by misinformation and the need for verifying the facts published in social and traditional media. The main thesis of Gьnter Bentele’s theory of public trust is used to frame the basic idea about the lack of trust in the media in general. Some of his conclusions drawn in the 1990s, are similar to the results summarized today by two reports: Cision’s „State of the Media Report” (2017) and Edelman’s „Trust Barometer” (2017). The paper also presents a few case studies, related to the distribution of fake news that damage the prestige and the reputation of the affected companies (Pepsi Co, New Balance, Ferrero Croup). It poses the question about the extent to which we can talk about corporate communication management and strategies in the post-truth era and whether it would be more appropriate to include a Rumor Management strategy in the corporate communication strategy arsenal when a corporation needs to react to a piece of fake news in the post-truth era.