How Advertisers Should Act in This Time of Recycled News, Rumors and Lies

If this werenamp8217t so serious it would be a fascinating social experiment amp8212 but the fact is the Coronavirus COVID19 pandemic is awful and no amount of social media posts of families playing singing or making amusing models out of their pets can mask the fact that people are becoming very ill and many are dyingIn the middle of all this how should advertisers behave amp160How are we all behavingThe first thing we are all doing is becoming obsessed with the news amp160Overall TV viewing figures in the UK for example are up by around 32 percent yearoveryear amp160Thatamp8217s not Netflix amp160Not YouTube amp160Not Facebook video amp160Itamp8217s TVIn fact in the UK we seem to have stopped the war on the BBC possibly because when the nation comes together it comes together in front of the BBC amp160Hopefully we wonamp8217t immediately forget the good work the BBC is doing keeping the nation informed on local services local radio and so on as well as on the national feedsNewspapers off and online seem to be doing well but not as well as might be expectedThis could be the result of something rather interesting advertisers not wanting their ads appearing within any story containing the word Coronavirus amp8212 the argument being that it canamp8217t be a good thing to be associated with bad news amp160In online media this means that programmatic algorithms are set to blacklist any sites or elements of sites where the banned word appearsThis is so absurd as to be almost comicalFirst surely even online evangelists would concede that leaving everything up to an algorithm with no human intervention as certainly seems to be the case here is crazyYes it makes sense to blacklist a site spreading false information and rumors but presumably quality news sites are blacklisted tooCertainly thatamp8217s what Newsworks the UK trade body responsible for marketing the newspapers and their associated websites is getting at in their campaign to back not block news and to support journalismAs Tracey de Groose executive chair at Newsworks saysamp160amp8220Against a backdrop of Brexit climate change and the current Coronavirus pandemic we are living in unprecedented and anxious times and the news industry is playing a vital role in peopleamp8217s lives by providing information and advice they can rely on amp160Amid a growing awareness of the pervasiveness of fake news and misinformation the nationamp8217s appetite for trusted news is at an alltime highamp8221amp160amp160Newsworks is calling on advertisers to back journalism an admirable sentiment amp8212 although why advertisers should back any newspaperamp160refusing to publish its sales data such as The Telegraph through the official channels is not clearI donamp8217t remember Newsworks being quite so vehement in advising advertisers how to behave on that occasion although I think they39ve had a word or two to say about the efficacy of Facebook39s dataTo repeat Tracey amp8220Amid a growing awareness of the pervasiveness of fake news and misinformationamp8230amp8221Arenamp8217t some Newswork members just as guilty amp160Hereamp8217s the center spread from last weekendamp8217s Mail on Sunday and be assured I could have chosen any number of images hereAdvertisers can make up their own minds whether they wish to advertise within content that seeks to defame someone or some organization without due cause amp160For the benefit of the many Cog Blog readers not in Europe Michel Barnier is the European Union39s chief Brexit negotiator and as such not our tabloid newspapers39 favorite personFake news and misinformation along with content created to scaremonger is not unknown territory for members of the press nor indeed for several other mainstream media channels I could mentionThe point is The context within which ads are seen does matter amp160But context always matters not just when our national newspapers and their trade body decide that it doesDon39t stop now Read more on ad industry issues and trends from Brian Jacobs inamp160The Cog BlogPhoto creditamp160Annie Spratt UnsplashClick the social buttons to share this story with colleagues and friendsThe opinions expressed here are the author39s views and do not necessarily represent the views ofamp160MediaVillagecomMyersBizNetamp160

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How Advertisers Should Act in This Time of Recycled News, Rumors and Lies

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Brian Jacobs

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How Advertisers Should Act in This Time of Recycled News, Rumors and Lies

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