The British royal family learned the hard way: in the modern media world, if you don't fill an information vacuum, others will fill it for you, and it's not likely to be pretty.
A montage of the front pages of some of Britain’s Sunday newspapers pictured in London, Sunday, March 24, 2024. Support has poured in from around the world for Kate, the Princess of Wales, after she revealed in a candid video message that she is undergoing chemotherapy for cancer following major abdominal surgery. A montage of the front pages of some of Britain’s Sunday newspapers pictured in London, Sunday, March 24, 2024.
It was, in part, entertainment for some people with too much time on their hands. Except it involved real people with real lives — and, it turns out, real medical challenges.and would not be doing any public events until after Easter. There was relatively little online chatter, or official updates, until it wasThe palace hoped a photo of Kate, Princess of Wales, would calm speculation.
Then came the grand, unforced error — the palace releasing a photo on March 10 of Kate and her children that it laterEven before that, a ham-fisted public relations strategy by the royal family’s handlers had lost control of the narrative, said Peter Mancusi, a journalism professor at Northeastern University and a lawyer with his own business in crisis counseling.
“It’s just human nature, and it’s the nature of a lot of companies when bad news hits, to go into a defensive crouch,” Mancusi said. “But hope isn’t a strategy anymore.”Despite the temptation to ignore rumors and conspiracy theories, it’s best to respond quickly with clear and verifiable information, said Daniel Allington, a social scientist at King’s College in London who studies disinformation.
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