In the mid-2000s, comedian and talk show host Stephen Colbert coined the phrase "truthiness." It was a funny joke about a not very funny phenomenon. We've seen the negative effects of living in a post-truth world ever since. As Andy Norman wrote in Scientific American (May, 2021), "The idea that beliefs should yield to evidence is the linchpin of the mind’s immune system. Remove it, or even chip away at it, and an Internet-connected mind will eventually be overrun by mind parasites. When this happens to enough minds, all hell breaks loose."
Organizations that, in the good old days, operated mostly without much controversy (e.g., hospitals, social service agencies, schools), now find themselves in a defensive position, trying to find a shared perception of reality with the public. Add in social media comments sections, rants on message boards, and the echo chamber created by algorithms. You can't blame a strategic communicator for feeling defenseless against misinformation and the rage that comes with it.
So what to do? First, keep calm. And yes, carry on. But carry on in a different way. During my M.A. in Strategic Communications program the same themes replayed, regardless of the course. In a post-truth world, organizations need to build trust with their publics, and trust comes from:
engaging in constructive dialogue, which means listening as well as talking
being transparent about what is known and what is not known
expressing humility if mistakes were made
recognizing the humanity of the other side of the argument, while disputing the argument itself
Building trust is a constant process, not a one-shot deal. But organizations who can communicate in this way will find it easier to take the air out of irrational or false opposition and move forward with doing work that makes a difference.
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