Less than a quarter of the UK’s population now trusts social media while traditional news organisations are enjoying a significant increase in public popularity.
These were the standout messages in the Edelman Trust Barometer, the world’s largest study of trust.
The 18th annual edition of the global report, showed that in the UK trust in social media channels now stands at just 24 per cent, with the decline driven in part by their role in the spread of fake news.
Meanwhile, traditional media, which is defined as broadcasters and publishers, gained a 13-point increase in this year’s report, reaching 61 per cent – its highest level since 2012. And trust in journalists grew by 13 per cent.
Yet, at the same time, the report also suggests that increasing numbers of people are shunning the headlines altogether with more than a third of the population admitting to consuming less news than they used to and one in five claiming to avoid the news altogether. It appears that the prominence of disinformation and ‘depressing’ news has fired this particular trend.
And this all paints a rather confusing and, in places, gloomy picture when trying to analyse what this means for media spokespeople.
But, delve beneath the headlines and there are some interesting nuggets which suggest this may not be the time to be totally despondent. In fact, parts of the report show that the current trust climate also presents a great opportunity.
In particular, the report makes happy reading for experts – just 18 months on from the Brexit referendum when we had reportedly ‘had enough’ of them.
There was a 14 per cent increase in the trust of CEOs and a 10 per cent increase in trust of those at boardroom level, while technical experts and academics continue to lead the way with trust scores of 63 and 61 per cent.
That would suggest that for many organisations now is the ideal time to put their leaders and subject experts in front of journalists and showcase their expertise and promote your brand to a wider audience – provided they know how to handle the media and have had recent media training.
To live up to the trust which has been newly invested in them, they will have to ensure they do not try to evade the more challenging questions they may face from journalists.
They should also be prepared to talk to the media during times of bad news – not just when they have something positive to say – and be able to back their points up with relatable human examples.
To truly be trusted they will also need to be able to show that they genuinely believe in what they are talking about and appear natural so that the audience feels the person in front of the camera is the same person they would meet off air.
And, of course, if they are appearing on television, they must maintain good eye contact because nothing suggests untrustworthiness and a lack of credibility quite like being unable to look the reporter in the eye.
Get this right and experts and their organisations can continue to buck the trust crisis.
What makes a great media spokesperson?
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