Communication expert’s have stressed the need for balanced information at The 2024 Peer Public Relations Conference (PPRC) organised by the school of Media and Communication in Pan Atlantic university Lagos.
The impactful one day online conference held on Thursday, had in attendance stakeholders and professionals from notable media and PR organisations.
While Speaking on the theme “Crisis in the Age of Misinformation and Disinformation”, the key note speaker, Barr. Ime Asibong. FCIS. Secretary of Ibom power company, described some crisis situations stating how misinformation and disinformation can impact negatively on individuals or company reputation if not managed properly. This he said can affect public trust and lead to financial instability.
Misinformation is the dissemination of inaccurate information without an intention to deceive but disinformation is an act used by competitors or opposing parties aimed at causing deliberate disrepute on an individual or company’s image.
As emphasis, he cited an example of what transpired between Dangote and Government, alleging that the companys fuel had sulfur and is not suitable for vehicles but Dangote had evidences proving their product is good.
He disclosed that with the current digital advancement, managing crisis communication is no longer a walk over but an absolute necessity because social media tools like Twitter, facebook are being used to manipulate the public with false information which has led to environmental incidences, financial loses and market crash.
However, he advised that in order to guarantee personal or organisation crisis management communication, the following steps should be taken into consideration
*Effective plan
*Robust Risk Analysis plan
*Accessment
*Audit Identification
*Stake holders and target Audience
*Develop messages that can curb misinformation as banks do to control
fraudsters
*Transparency and honesty in monitoring and adaptation.
The discussion asserted that everyone is entitled to freedom of expression, but harps on the need for balance between ones freedom of expression and committing slander or libel by defaming others image. Participants especially those in the media were advised to avoid publishing biased stories and remain transparent by gathering facts before publishing.
In the very insightful panel session which featured Mr. Keni Akintoye, Digital Media and Communication, Mr. Adegoke Oyeniyi. Founder Uk – based tech PR Africa and Mr. Obinna Chima, Editor, ThisDay on Saturday; Participants were made to understand that the biggest risk for companies now is cooperate image and how it can be protected especially by collaborating with emerging technology like web sites such as “Newsguard” used by Journalists to identify reputable sites and fact checking organizations like Africa check.
Earlier, the coordinator of the conference. Mr. Solomon Nkwagu mentioned that though in Nigeria, companies are faced with unique sets of challenges when it comes to crisis communication, good reputation can impact largely on life success.
Corroborating with the coordinator, Mr. Keni Akintoye warned participants not to be malicious in order to gain trust from the People while Mr. Adegoike encouraged organization’s like media houses to sign deals with tech companies like Google to get data to work with.
The conference however ended with an interactive session and participants applauding the organisers for successfully conducting an impactful event of such magnitude.
Story By Evelyn Akpa