Hoax Releases Take No IQ

The infamous prankster behind the urban fox hunting hoax once said: “If you want to make something news, all you have to do is put it on the internet”. Seriously, anything goes. The power of the internet enables a simple tweet, blog or amateur website to easily become front page news. Well, that’s a bit of an exaggeration, but the increasing frequency of hoax stories gaining legitimate media coverage do suggest it’s getting easier to get almost anything reported, as long as almighty Google concurs.

Most recently, the media-elite likes of CNN, the BBC, the Telegraph and Forbes fell victim to a prankster when they all reported the results of a survey that found Internet Explorer users had lower IQs than any other browser users. As it turns out Internet Explorer users were able to breathe a sigh of relief, as this turned out to be a hoax press release from ‘ApTiquant’ - a fake research specialist - who fooled the media giants with a make-shift website and a well written press release. As thousands of disgruntled IE users questioned the findings the BBC decided to do some investigating of their own. According to Professor David Spiegelhalter of Cambridge University, the statistics were “implausible”. The story was swiftly rubbished and the journalists who acted as puppets for the hoaxer were left a radiant shade of fuchsia.

The ease with which the rogue release penetrated the newsrooms of the UK highlights a cause for concern in the media world. Not to suggest reporters have been transported back to a 1940s newsroom where the phrase “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story” echoed around Fleet Street, but it seems some journalists have forgotten the simplest of rules: check your facts. Hacks aren’t checking the credibility of their sources before sending the story to print, and this isn’t a first time offence.

Back in February, the Media Standards Trust decided to play a hoax of their own to test the naivety of the media. The organisation investigated how many articles had sections cut-and-pasted straight from their original hoax press release, using their Nick Davis inspired website churnalism.com. They fabricated a spoof story to try and fool the British press into reporting them as a legitimate newsworthy article and found alarming results. The Sun reported on the new craze of ‘the Penazzle’ – the male alternative to the crystal accessorising offered by the Vajazzle; a bogus Facebook-led campaign to return the new stray cat at 10 Downing Street to its rightful owner hit the Metro and BBC 5 live; and the fake ‘alarmed chastity garter’ made worldwide news. These all showed that journalists are all too eager to cut, copy and paste without corroborating their source material. Three-nil to the Media Standards Trust, who successfully showed idle journalists that they shouldn’t take the latest social media trend as a reliable news source.

The first rule of PR is: you do not annoy the journalists. The second rule of PR is: you do not annoy the journalists. Successful PR is built on strong media relations and transparency, and news reporters need to be able to trust the releases they receive. If time-wasting pranksters cause hacks to lose faith in the fail-safe press release, there could be precarious consequences for relations between the PR and media industries.

The IE IQ hoax demonstrates the potential danger pranksters pose to the PR world. Sniggering at the misfortunes of the journalists who got it wrong can feel shamefully good, particularly at a time when their reputations are in tatters after the phone hacking fiasco. However, mockery plays straight into the hands of the hoaxers. Journalists need to build up their defence strategy through careful research and corroboration.

Creating a hoax release is very easy – too easy – as literally anyone can do it. Generating interest in them is also relatively easy, as the more shocking the better; hoaxers can roam free through their imagination for the most bizarre concepts, unlimited by truth. However, as they say, “the truth is stranger than fiction” and finding a scoop backed up by real statistics, communicating real issues and based on a real investigation, is what people want. It may be more difficult to find the interesting stories but credible, creative news generation – the business of PR people – is highly valuable, and it takes skill to achieve coverage when being honest.

Taking a release at face-value is dangerous, leaving journalists open to hoaxes. Moreover, the net isn’t a trustworthy source for information in isolation. Tarnishing all journalists with the ‘lazy’ brush is unfair though. In the 24/7 internet age journalists are under huge pressure to deliver current and quick news. Hacks have been rendered constantly on deadlines and whilst it may not be surprising that mistakes get made, it is surprising the levels of senior news authorities that these imaginary tales can pervade. A firmer line has to be drawn, for it was only the BBC who rang the alarm on the IE findings.

After all, if everything published on the internet was reported as true, the world would have far more to worry about than the latest accessory for the nether regions and the Prime Minister’s new cat.