Plus: How will Astronomer address that CEO/Coldplay moment?; fewer big organizations are talking about sustainability.
What happens when words start to become murky or lose their meaning, or even worse, when they become a tool of weaponization? What does this say about the message you’re trying to create and how could that reflect on your organization?
Recently, NewsGuard, a company that rates information reliability, retired the words “misinformation” and “disinformation” as they now offer more obscurity than clarity, McKenzie Sadeghi, the AI and foreign influence editor at NewsGuard, told Nieman Lab.
From the article:
“The words misinformation and disinformation once served a purpose. They gave name to a crisis that many had not yet recognized: an onslaught of falsehoods flooding the digital ecosystem, often with malign intent,” she said.
“These words have now been politicized beyond recognition and turned into partisan weapons by actors on the right and the left, and among anti-democratic foreign actors.”
Fake is another example of a word that tends to obscure more than clarify, she said.
Sadeghi also pointed out that the threats these words describe have only increased.
“The company is ‘retiring these words as primary labels’ nonetheless because ‘the words no longer help us explain these threats’; they’ve transformed from descriptors to partisan signals.”
In the future, communicators should think carefully about what they’re trying to say more plainly, or in other words, “describe what a piece of content actually does, such as whether it fabricates facts, distorts real events, or impersonates legitimate sources,” she said.
To mitigate the issue, Sadeghi suggests using shorter, clearer terms with intent, or words that are more difficult to hijack.
Why it matters: If something is false, say it’s false or untrue, she said. While initially helpful, overtime both “misinformation” and “disinformation” have perpetuated narratives that are not entirely accurate. In one instance, Sadeghi pointed to the Courier Newsroom for masking “hyper partisan content in the language of ‘fighting misinformation.’”
In the past, “these terms helped distinguish between honest mistakes (misinformation) and intentional, agenda-driven lies (disinformation), and helped define a complex information landscape,” she said. “But as the landscape and political climate have changed so has the language.”
PR pros can benefit from ditching the buzzwords and overused tropes in order to make your message clearer and easier to understand, and less likely to become politicized.
When creating your message, think about impact. Think about how a phrase may have changed over time and if it poses any risks. If your message is clear and precise, it becomes easier to make your point but also leaves little room for misinterpretation of what you really mean.
Editor’s Top Reads:
- By now, you’ve probably seen the video and the memes of Astronomer tech CEO Andy Byron getting a little too cozy with Chief People Officer Kristin Cabot, during a Coldplay concert. Intraoffice dating is usually not recommended, especially when one of the parties involved is married, as Byron is. No doubt this is a truly embarrassing matter that has played out on the public stage, and one that was further fueled by the internet. PeakMetrics reports that, “By 2:00 PM ET (July 17), conversation around the ‘Astronomer CEO affair’ had spiked from virtually zero to over 78,000 posts on X between 7:00 AM and 2:00 PM ET. At its height, the topic hit 14,218 posts per hour.” Since the debacle, two fake statements floated around socials claiming to be responses from Byron, but Astronomer’s Director of Communications Taylor Jones debunked the statements’ accuracy claiming that neither Byron nor Cabot have made any public statements regarding the issue, according to Men’s Journal. This is a tricky situation no company wants to find themselves in. Astronomer is likely weighing its options on how to address the situation, including if they need to take internal disciplinary actions, including termination. Organizations facing crises should be timely with their response, transparent with how they plan to move forward and reaffirm their organization’s standards for conduct. While they might not have all the answers right now, simply acknowledging that in a statement can go a long way.
- Like DEI, some large corporations who’ve committed to sustainability efforts are now talking less about it or reframing their ESG departments as “energy utilization” departments, according to Fast Company. A survey of 400 companies with revenues over $1 billion found that 87% were still investing in their long-term sustainability goals, but they aren’t so quick to report on it. Richard Eyram, chief customer officer at EcoVadis, told the news outlet that, “Some organizations that have had sustainability ingrained in their ethos for decades aren’t holding back [on the work], but they do say that they likely won’t publish a sustainability report this year,” he said. “Or they’ve taken things off of their website because they just don’t want to be in the line of fire, so to speak, with anything politicizing sustainability.” This tracks with how organizations are concerned with becoming an unwitting target in a highly polarized political climate. What was once a highlight of an annual report is now less likely to make the call at all, he said. Organizations have to weigh the risks here. Staying silent can offer a certain amount of protection and keep them away from unwanted negative attention while still doing the work, but at the same time, they must defend their values in order to maintain loyalty and trust from their stakeholders.
- Olympia Pharmaceuticals recently launched an educational website, OlympiaYou, that will provide education and resources about sexual health. In doing so, the company said it hoped to destigmatize sexual wellness and encourage its customers to seek proper education instead of getting lost on Google search. From the release: “We know how intimidating it can be to speak up about sexual wellness. OlympiaYou makes the process feel less clinical and more human, while also making sure people are informed and heard.” The site makes it easy to search topics and find necessary information, the release stated. As an organization, this is smart not only because it can add to the company’s bottom line by drawing in new customers, but it shows a dedication to accurate information and education while promoting transparency around a subject that can be difficult to discuss. Using words like “less clinical” and “more human” highlights Olympia Pharmaceuticals’ brand values while keeping the focus on the customer, i.e. feeling heard.
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