Fake News and internal communication

By Luiz Gaulia

Fake News disturb the everyday lives of companies for a long time and have given an upgrade in the gossip network

Currently, the lying narratives and fake news have gained longer legs and now run faster through companies’ hallways, gaining space and attention through digital platforms and interlocutors that never move their eyes away from the small screen. “Fake news” is a modern term, but they have disturbed the everyday lives of companies for a while. The difference is that, before digital systems gained the market and invaded the business environment, lies did not travel far. Gossip in corporations, with its many versions and perceptions of facts that happen inside companies, was boosted by the convenience of the distribution of misleading perceptions and malicious intrigues through new technological languages. Faster, they leave behind historical tracks that can gain permanent reinterpretations and return to cause damage to image, reputation and trust in the word of leaders and managers. The leading edges must be quick and hit the power of slander and fake news as a whole. Internal fake news is a threat to the work environment. And, let’s face it, with so many problems that the market lays, companies should take care that internal communication is a powerful trigger for productivity and trust on the direction the business is taking, as well as a vaccine against the proliferation of crisis – an immediate antidote against all kind of unfounded news and made-up approaches.

Transparency must be the basis of internal communication, but, as we know, if a lie has gained digital speed, the operation has not yet kept pace and many technically competent executives still have difficulties in talking openly, honestly and face to face to their employees. The situation only gets worse if the company has a few skeletons in their historical cupboards, the kind of situation that people have tried to sweep under the meeting room rug but turned into a sturdy forgotten cadaver that, suddenly, fell like a bomb in the middle of a work day – the ideal set for fake news, where the good old corridor gossip will reverberate devastatingly. That’s why it is better to take care of internal communication with proper competence: good planning, permanent feedback and efficient and frequent publications with relevant content that is connected to the work of other fields and departments. And, of course, with the same speed that the digital world requires! Think about it.

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