Navigating the post-truth era: Upholding integrity as the communicator’s highest duty

All this makes the work of public communications professionals more challenging than ever before. It’s no longer just about managing reputations or mitigating crises; it’s about discerning what’s real, what’s manufactured, and then acting with integrity when the lines are blurred. Here are five key steps to maintaining ethical standards for communications professionals in a post-truth era. 

Learn how to identify mis- and disinformation 

While misinformation is info that’s unintentionally false, disinformation is deliberate, with a goal of eroding trust. Disinformation relies on several key tactics. This includes: 

• Cherry-picking facts and presenting them out of context 
• Creating a false equivalency to give baseless claims unearned credibility 
• Deploying a “firehose of falsehoods” to overwhelm the public with a high volume of conflicting information 

Disinformation creators exploit credibility by impersonating legitimate sources or using front groups to lend false authority to their message. They craft narratives that resonate with the pre-existing biases and emotions of a target audience, making the message more persuasive than fact-based analysis. Social media algorithms add fuel to the fire by amplifying disinformation, prioritizing engagement over accuracy to spread lies with unprecedented speed. Recognizing disinformation when you see it is the critical first step toward building resilience against it. 

Recognize the double-edged sword of AI 

AI, like social media, also acts as an accelerator, enabling more widespread dissemination of disinformation. But it also offers essential defense tools. This is why AI is a double-edged sword. AI has revolutionized the scale and sophistication of false narratives with deepfakes, synthetic voices, and realistic text, all of which are becoming indistinguishable from human content. The digital “evidence” we once relied upon, such as photos, videos, and audio, is now easily fabricated. AI tools also allow bad actors to generate vast amounts of content at negligible cost, fueling widespread and rapid dissemination. This speed and sophistication mean that individuals and brands are now highly susceptible to targeted attacks that are difficult to debunk quickly, potentially causing irreparable reputational harm before a credible defense can be mounted. 

Despite its threats, AI is also essential for defense, as it can be used for detection, verification, sentiment analysis, and identifying trend abnormalities. Communicators have a duty to advocate for and responsibly implement AI tools in their own work—not to automate deceit, but to automate fact-checking, risk assessment, and defense. In this sense AI has simultaneously erased our ability to consistently trust digital evidence while providing us with a means to verify its authenticity. Our success depends on our ability to manage and deploy this technology in an ethical manner. 

Maintain your ethical compass 

The challenge we face is not just technological; it’s societal. Dishonesty has become more normal, resulting in declining trust in institutions. Countering this requires a deliberate recommitment to professional ethics. It requires vigilance, because the path to major ethical breaches often begins with minor compromises—slightly exaggerated statistics or strategic omissions. Public communicators must champion a culture of transparency within our organizations, pushing back against internal demands to spin information beyond the bounds of truth. The Public Relations Society of America’s (PRSA) Code of Ethics is a great tool to help guide communicators’ decisions and help them build a culture of truth by being internal advocates of transparency and integrity. 

Conduct an ethical risk assessment 

A key component of a strong early warning system is an ethical risk assessment of the message. This is a systematic, proactive process to identify, analyze, and evaluate potential ethical dilemmas or harmful consequences before they happen. Key elements of an assessment include: 

• Accuracy review: Is the message factual? Are you omitting information that would fundamentally change the audience’s perception? 
• Transparency check: Are all sources, sponsorships, and conflicts of interest clearly disclosed? Is the intent of communication honest? 
• Fairness and impact analysis: Could the message cause harm (financial, emotional, or reputational) to any specific stakeholder group? Does it exploit vulnerabilities? 
• Integrity alignment: Does the proposed action align with the organization’s core values and professional codes of conduct? 
• Mitigation strategy: If a high-risk situation is identified, what concrete steps will be taken to modify communication to eliminate or drastically reduce the ethical liability? 

By integrating an assessment like this into the communications workflow, PR moves from being reactive reputation repair to proactive integrity stewardship. 

Intervene! 

Effective ethical intervention requires heightened sensitivity to red flags. Things to look for: 

• Unusual secrecy 
• Pressure to bypass standard ethical or legal reviews 
• Significant discrepancies between public claims and internal realities 
• Silencing of employees who raise ethical concerns 
• Rapid or unverified claims rooted more in emotion than evidence 
• Fundamental inconsistencies in core messaging 
• Attacks that disproportionately focus on discrediting messengers rather than addressing the substance of their claims 

Combat these practices by proactively verifying facts from multiple, independent, and credible sources, and integrating professional fact-checking tools into your daily routine. 

Identifying the problem is only half the battle; communicators must have the courage and skill to intervene. Here are some key actions to take: 

1. Prepare and frame: Gather irrefutable facts and frame the intervention not as a moral challenge, but as a reputational or legal risk to the organization or client. 
2. Escalate appropriately: Begin privately with the key people, then escalate through designated channels (Legal, Ethics Committees, or HR). 
3. Offer solutions: Never present only the problem. Propose clear, ethical alternative strategies that achieve organizational goals while maintaining integrity. 
4. Establish non-negotiables: Define clear ethical boundaries early on. If someone insists on deceptive practices, the ultimate intervention may be the difficult decision to terminate the relationship to protect one’s professional integrity. 
5. Pre-bunk: Anticipate potential false narratives related to your brand and preemptively publish factual, detailed information that inoculates the audience against future deceit. 
6. Prioritize transparency: When confronted with uncertainty or error, prioritize swift, complete, and honest disclosure. Transparency is an antidote to cynicism. 
7. Share counter-narrative: When responding to falsehoods, focus on facts, credible evidence, and the consistent amplification of third-party experts and reliable sources. Don’t simply repeat the lie to debunk it; replace it with the truth. 
8. Empower audiences: Provide stakeholders with the tools and language to spot misinformation themselves, making them partners in defense. 

By deepening our understanding of today’s communications landscape, responsibly managing the power of AI, diligently performing ethical risk assessments, and possessing the courage to intervene, public sector communicators not only protect their organizations but also reaffirm the essential, ethical mandate of all public relations professionals: to commit to truth, transparency, and integrity. This is not just good practice; it is our highest professional duty.