The expert talked about disguising fakes as reliable data

Fake news today has ceased to be an obvious "information garbage" and has become a full-fledged product that is increasingly difficult to distinguish from reliable reports. Ksenia Lychagina, an international brand marketer, told Izvestia about this on June 10.

According to her, if a few years ago fakes could be recognized by emotional headlines, questionable sources and obvious exaggerations, today they look much more convincing. Such materials are often presented in the form of analytics, accompanied by graphs, links to "research" and comments from supposedly experts.

"Fakes have become part of the attention economy, where the key resource is not authenticity, but the ability to quickly arouse emotion in the audience. At the same time, such materials are often based on real facts that are taken out of context or misinterpreted," Lychagina explained.

The expert emphasized that it is the presence of fragments of truth that makes such messages especially dangerous: a person is inclined to trust information that confirms his own picture of the world. Emotionally charged formulations and "authoritative" markers such as links to research or expert opinions further enhance the effect of trust.

Lychagina paid special attention to the manipulation of statistics. According to her, the figures are perceived as an objective argument, even if their interpretation is misleading. So, the growth of the indicator may look significant, although in reality we are talking about insignificant absolute changes.

The expert also warned that fakes pose a risk not only to the media, but also to brands. Any company may face reputational damage due to quotations taken out of context, anonymous publications, or one-sided coverage of the situation.

According to Lychagina, the key resource for brands is the trust of the audience, which is formed through consistent and honest communication. She considers the use of manipulative techniques to be a mistake, for example, passing off individual cases as universal strategies or abusing references to "research" without verifying their validity.

According to a study by the Dela PR communication agency, which was reviewed by Izvestia on March 25, 55% of respondents have already encountered unverified data and note that it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish them from the truth. It turned out that 57.5% of Russians trust the official statements of government agencies and companies, 35% rely on scientific publications. However, 30% prefer to rely on their knowledge and intuition. Another third (30%) of Russians noted that the importance of high-quality content is growing in Telegram and expert blogs. At the same time, the credibility of word of mouth remains minimal.