Is PR really dead? Truth and Trust
There’s been a lot of talk over recent years about the death of PR. The traditional media landscape has undoubtedly changed. Social media, influencers, creators and algorithms have transformed how stories are discovered, consumed and shared.
But if PR is supposedly dead, why does trust matter more than ever?
In an age of misinformation and declining confidence, PR professionals have even more of a responsibility to be truth bearers: people who make sure that accurate, factual and properly evidenced information reaches journalists, audiences and, ultimately, the wider public.
The latest evidence makes the situation particularly compelling. The Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report 2026 found that 73% of Britons distrust news on social media, while 77% are concerned about fake news and misinformation. Yet established news organisations continue to command considerably more trust. In the UK, public broadcasters including the BBC, ITV News and Channel 4 remain among the most trusted news brands, alongside the Financial Times.
Overall trust in news has fallen, but Reuters notes that trust in individual news brands has changed relatively little. That tells us something important. People may be increasingly sceptical about the information environment around them, but they still look towards trusted journalistic brands when they want to know what is actually true.
This is not to suggest that social media has lost its relevance. Quite the opposite. Ofcom’s News Report 2026 found that 60% of UK adults access news through social media and video-sharing platforms, while 82% access news online. The BBC nevertheless remains the UK’s most-used news provider, reaching 77% of adults across its television, radio and online services. When BBC news encountered through social media and video-sharing platforms is included, that rises to 80%.
That doesn’t necessarily mean people are sitting down to watch a traditional television bulletin or buying a newspaper. News is increasingly encountered through feeds, clips, posts, links and videos. The trusted news brand may remain the same, but the route by which people reach it has fundamentally changed.
Part of the reason for that enduring trust is the regulatory and editorial framework surrounding professional journalism. Broadcast news in the UK is subject to Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code, which requires news to be reported with due accuracy and due impartiality. The newspaper and magazine sector operates differently, with much of the press voluntarily self-regulated through IPSO. Its Editors’ Code requires publishers to take care not to publish inaccurate, misleading or distorted information and to correct significant inaccuracies promptly. None of this means traditional media gets everything right, but there are established editorial standards, complaints mechanisms and consequences that are not equivalent to the experience of seeing an unverified claim appear in a social media feed.
A social platform can distribute content created by millions of individuals, organisations and anonymous accounts without those people being subject to the same journalistic codes that govern a broadcaster or newspaper. That distinction matters when misinformation can travel further and faster than a carefully checked correction. The result is an information ecosystem in which anyone can potentially become a publisher, but not everyone is a journalist.
And this is where I believe PR has a crucial role to play. As communications professionals, we sit at an important junction between organisations, journalists and the public. The information we provide to a journalist can become a headline, a broadcast, a social post, a search result or a quote repeated thousands of times. We therefore cannot treat accuracy as a nice-to-have. It has to be the foundation of what we do.
As a Chartered PR Practitioner, I also have a professional obligation to uphold the standards set out in the CIPR Code of Conduct. That means acting with integrity, honesty and respect for the truth, and recognising the responsibility that comes with professional influence.
We need to interrogate the claims we are given, challenge questionable statistics, check sources, distinguish fact from opinion and resist the temptation to dress something up as more significant than it really is. If we send something to a journalist, we should be able to stand behind every material fact in it. Our job is not simply to get coverage; it is to help ensure that the coverage is truthful.
That responsibility becomes even greater when we consider how people respond when they encounter information they suspect may be false. Reuters’ research shows that, when checking questionable information, people are more likely to turn to trusted news organisations or official sources than to social media itself. The media brands that have invested in credibility over decades can become a kind of truth-checking infrastructure for the public. That makes our relationships with journalists more important, not less.
So, is PR really dead? I don’t think so. I think the opposite is true. PR has rarely been more important.
Social media absolutely has its place, and it can be an incredibly powerful way of reaching people of all ages. But whether information is consumed through a newspaper, a broadcast, a website, TikTok, Instagram or LinkedIn, our responsibility remains the same. Tell the truth. Check the facts. Give journalists information they can trust. And understand that every piece of communication we put into the world has the potential to shape what somebody else believes to be true.
In that sense, PR isn’t dead at all. It has a vital role in protecting something that is becoming increasingly precious: trust.
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