Expert: Building trust with audience reduces impact of false news

KUALA LUMPUR: The good, old fashioned way of building trust is the way to go in the age of click bait websites.

“Be transparent. Gone are the days when people will rely solely on advertising to make their purcha­sing decisions.

“Good PR is not enough. Be accountable. Be honest,” said Dr Shahreen Mat Nayan, who is a se­­nior lecturer at Universiti Malaya’s Department of Media Studies.

Respect and trust need to be earned, she said.

She said that companies must build trust with their audience in such a way that they were not easily swayed by fake news.

“Don’t just rely on expensive advertising campaigns and sweet-talking PR executives. Know your audience well,” she said in an interview.

Dr Shahreen, whose research is on how rhetoric and the media could be used as tools to promote dialogue, diversity and inclusiveness, warned that fake news and hoaxes tend to lull viewers into a “false sense of reality”.

This would then impair their decision-making and their view of the world, she added.

“This may include anything from purchasing behaviour, how minorities or marginalised groups are treated, to exercising their voting rights as citizens,” she said.

Dr Shahreen warned that it could be so bad that some media consu­mers would end up mixing up truth and falsehood, causing them to be disconcerted.

She pointed out its damaging effects by giving an example of a person who was convinced by reports that racism did not exist.

“If I don’t believe racism exists, I can refuse to believe any report on hate crimes,” she said.

One way to combat fake news, Dr Shahreen said, was to ensure the public was educated on media lite­racy.

“Do more background checks, ask credible sources.

“Do your homework. Don’t let others make the decisions for you,” she advised.