Anticipating media attacks
The development of the Internet has enabled smear and disinformation campaigns to be set up at a very little cost. Such ease has led to campaigns being more broadly disseminated geographically, and involve a wider range of campaign instigators and targets. Business groups and public figures are therefore no longer protected from becoming the potential victims of highly orchestrated and powerful media attacks, which are both national and international in scope and that are instigated by a group of detractors, a competitor or even a government.
The spread of unfounded rumours, moreover, costs much more than the reputation of the companies and people who have been victims of such campaigns; it can also lead to a substantial loss of market share, the disaffection of investors, high staff turnover, the loss of customers to competitors, and have untold repercussions on an individual’s private life.
It is because customers of Hington Klarsey are aware of these issues that they now wish to protect themselves against this type of media attack, which can seriously damage their brand image.
Hington Klarsey works hard to anticipate, prevent, or at least limit, the impact of media attacks perpetrated against its clients in traditional media channels and via the Internet.
Preventive action through on-line software surveillance and off-line information gathering allow Hington Klarsey to swiftly identify the authors of a smear campaign and to map the ‘hot spots’ as soon as any damaging information is released.
The volume of potentially damaging information that needs to be processed, the speed of dissemination and the range of sources of such information is constantly increasing, which makes it difficult to effectively manage media threats. By swiftly detecting the early signs of a malicious rumour or a smear or disinformation campaign, we can take prompt action and develop effective response strategies.