 | A snippet from this blog written by Radio Relations founder and CEO Adam Cox was recently featured in PR Moment. |
There seems to be no escape from fake news. Whether it’s outraged claims of fake or biased reporting, or genuinely fictitious stories being published and believed by the public, mainstream and niche outlets across all mediums have faced a massive drop in credibility across all levels of society. While a higher level of scrutiny is generally a good thing, it can result in a paranoid populace that refuses to trust anything it hears, which we can currently see happening in some parts of the UK and America.
The amount of fake news is directly linked to the specific media type reporting it. With online news and social media there are no barriers preventing stories from being made up and distributed without a single person checking them, so there is a vast amount of completely false information out there than anyone can access.
This all changes the moment you move into radio and TV due to the regulatory body OfCom. OfCom give radio stations and TV channels a license to broadcast and that license can be revoked if the station is found to be abused or disregarding broadcast rules. It only takes one complaint to launch an Ofcom investigation so radio and TV journalists alongside producers and editors will do whatever it takes to ensure that a story is accurate before reporting. Their reputations are at stake every single day, and a single mistake could bring it all crashing down.
This all changes the moment you move into radio and TV due to the regulatory body OfCom. OfCom give radio stations and TV channels a license to broadcast and that license can be revoked if the station is found to be abused or disregarding broadcast rules. It only takes one complaint to launch an Ofcom investigation so radio and TV journalists alongside producers and editors will do whatever it takes to ensure that a story is accurate before reporting. Their reputations are at stake every single day, and a single mistake could bring it all crashing down.
This is how radio remains the credible and trustworthy medium it has always been, one of the last forms of traditional media that is held accountable to the high standards that have all but disappeared from the rest of the news and entertainment landscape.
9 in 10 UK adults listen to the radio at least once a week, and the average listening time per person is 21 hours. In 2009 OfCom carried out a study showing that radio was the most trusted source of news, 66% of people considered radio to be reliable and accurate, compared with 58% for online, 54% for TV and just 34% for newspapers. These numbers have since fallen, with a constant stream of scandals and cover-ups undermining the concept of integrity that media relies on.
9 in 10 UK adults listen to the radio at least once a week, and the average listening time per person is 21 hours. In 2009 OfCom carried out a study showing that radio was the most trusted source of news, 66% of people considered radio to be reliable and accurate, compared with 58% for online, 54% for TV and just 34% for newspapers. These numbers have since fallen, with a constant stream of scandals and cover-ups undermining the concept of integrity that media relies on.
Radio Relations was the first PR agency I created due to the fact that many clients specifically seek out radio PR due to a combination of huge audience levels and the credibility that comes from being on the most trusted form of media. Exposure does nothing is people don’t trust or like you. The essence of PR is not promotion: it’s building relationships, which can only be done by first generating trust. Radio is one of the best ways to do that, and why we’ve been specialists in the field for over a decade. We cannot simply push any story and get results, it has to be genuinely credible, interesting, and helpful to the UK public. This is why radio gets such a huge amount of respect from both the public and our clients, and why it continues to dominate the media landscape to this day.
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