Why The Public Relations Industry Must Fight Fake News

— To fight or not to fight? The Public Relations Industry must decide.

The advent of social media has revolutionised the speed at which false information is disseminated. Our world has come to witness the perpetuation of fake news on a scale worse than what was experienced during the days of "yellow journalism.’' As far back as 1898, Spain and the US would go to war over what was termed as "yellow journalism" then, and now, it appears as though humans never learn from history. 
The sad reality is that fake news as it is known today is not synonymous with any one continent. It is a problem prevalent across the world and Nigeria is no exception. For the past 5 years, Nigeria has suffered from an epidemic of state and individual sponsored fake news. And then, to make matters worse, it has become almost impossible to spot fake news in public discourses due to the level of sophistication. 
Now, as a producer of media content whether online and/or offline, mistakes are bound which is why misinformation; false information that is spread with no deliberate intent to mislead and, disinformation; deliberately manipulated narrative or facts are quite different from fake news for the sole reason that fake news is purposefully crafted, sensational, emotionally charged, misleading or fabricated information that mimics the form of mainstream news intending to damage the reputation of a person or entity, or making money through advertising revenue.
Understanding that there is a degree of deliberateness required before it is termed fake news is important. Because it is on this note that the public relations industry must abandon all forms of apathy and fight against this growing menace in society. Some of us might not know this but the art of planned persuasion and relationship building will never get old, this is why public relations is still considered an industry of the future. And amongst the wide range of public relations functions, one of the clearest is starting engaging conversations that institute fundamental change.
When Lai Muhammed, minister of information and culture at a one-day symposium themed "Information as a Public Good" mentioned, "fake news is threatening the reputation of the Nigerian media" he was by no means exaggerating. When he further mentioned that, "media stakeholders need “weed out” persons who are involved in spreading fake news, adding that such acts can lead to “civil unrest” and negatively impact national cohesion.”, he categorically understood the implication of a general indifference and that it is a luxury we cannot afford as a nation.
Because the public relations industry is an important stakeholder of the media, the industry stands to be impacted significantly should this menace fail to be confronted. So when it comes to fake news, there is no scenario where sitting on the fence is a wise strategy for the public relations industry. In the Pedagogy of Freedom, Paulo Freire calls our attention to ethics, democracy, and civic courage and responsibility in a way that demands that citizens have a moral duty to speak against acts that are perpetuated with the motive to cause unrest. Anyone can call him or herself a PR practitioner but the mark of an ingenious public relations practitioner is in their ability to conscientize society.

Apart from the moral obligation, another ground for the fight against fake news is that it directly affects the PR “market”, so much so that when it comes to publishing media content on mainstream media, for example, the public relations practitioner is limited since the public has come to associate certain media stations with fake news. The preservation of the sanctity of what constitutes authentic information tends to have a positive ripple effect on the public relations industry. Knowing that critics of public relations associate public relations with propaganda as it is, it is indefensible to not take a stand against fake news. 
To make a case for fake news, considering the authoritarian system of governance in most African countries, it can be argued that with all forms of censorship and limitations on access to information to fact check news, fake news is an unavoidable consequence. Regardless, PR practitioners cannot afford a declining public trust in traditional journalism and by extension, New Media. The public relations industry needs to realise that fake news has the power to dismantle structures and platforms used by public relations practitioners to reach audiences. Without these platforms returning to their preserved state, the use of, for example, crisis communications as a tool to help businesses, clients, individuals etc to address crisis situations will lose its effect. 
Freire believed that “the prevalent ideas of a society are always the ideas of those groups who hold power.” It would then be naive of me to assume that the public relations industry can fight this threat to the profession and society by itself. This makes it imperative to collaborate with regulatory agencies such as the National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) which is the broadcast regulator of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, to ensure due diligence and act as fact-checking bodies before the false information gets out at all instead of waiting till the fake content goes viral - borrowing from the online parlance - and then limiting access to it or turning a blind eye if it supports the government's agenda.
In all, the public relations industry needs to recognize the urgency to address this challenge if Nigeria is to remain a society where law and order, rule of law and security remains a reality.