In today's NYT Magazine, Farhad Manjoo takes a break from his day job at Salon and writes about the difficulty in killing a rumor, a topic long of interest to communications people everywhere. Even in a connected world where Snopes can be counted on to debunk something pretty quickly, the ability of a rumor to thrive/grow/hurt is stronger than ever. Using the "obama-is-a-Muslim" rumor, Manjoo notes:
The Obama-is-a-Muslim rumor does not seem to have hurt the candidate’s fortunes, at least not yet. But the myth’s persistence illustrates a growing cultural vulnerability to rumor. Journalists typically presume that facts matter: show the public what is true, and they will make decisions correctly. Psychologists who study how we separate truth from fiction, however, have demonstrated that the process is not so simple. And because digital technology fosters social networks that are both closely knit and far-flung, rumors are now free to travel widely within certain groups before they meet any opposition from the truth.
Other research shows that people will remember as true information they've seen in the MSM, even if they have subsequently been denied and corrected ("weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq" is a good case in point). Compounding the problem, IMHO, is that information flows much more rapidly today than it did 10 years ago, so the ability to spot a falsehood and debunk it properly means showing speed and preparedness that is hard to do consistently.
There is a negative shadow side of the communications business, often exhibited in the practice during political campaigns, where the ability to manipulate in order to win is paramount, and the cost of being deliberately untruthful is small compared to the gains (if people remember the untruth, so much the better if my person wins election!).
Sadly, I tend to agree with Manjoo in how he closes:
One problem is that rumors are rarely static. “You will see them mutate,” says Bill Adair of Politifact.com. “They’ll pick up new pieces, while some pieces drop off. There’s a line that appears in one version now: ‘I checked this out on Snopes, and it’s true.’ ” At some point, it seems, someone added a line like that as a kind of defense mechanism. There’s an arms race between truth and fiction, and at the moment, the truth doesn’t appear to be winning.
Being prepared to deal with rumors from a communications standpoint is indeed hard. Some tips:
- Have effective monitoring in place, both for the mainstream media and the social media.
- Establish a way for communicating to the relevant audiences quickly. Starbucks has an interesting approach. Seriously, building a blog or website to respond to a rumor AFTER the damage is done is sort of dim. Do it now.
- Practice clarity in rebuttal. Weasel wording around a rumor only spreads it.
- Finally, keep the corporate brand/reputation clean and clear. A rumor is a lot less likely to stick if the messages coming from the company are clear and consistent over time.
That Mark Twain guy, he sure knew what he was talking about! Get the shoes on now....