Resilient comms in an age of truth decay
How can councils build local trust and stop misinformation taking root?
We’re living through what the experts call a “permacrisis”, a world of constant headlines, emotional content and fractured attention. Many people are tired of bad news and switching off from traditional media, only to drift into spaces where misinformation spreads faster than fact.
It’s easy to see this as a digital or national problem. But the truth is, misinformation is a local issue. It thrives wherever there’s uncertainty, emotion and silence.
For local councils, that makes it part of the fabric of place-based communications. Here’s what we learned at the autumn CIPR East Anglia conference on disinformation and what it means for anyone communicating with a community.
Thanks to the conference’s speakers: Shayoni Lynn (Lynn Group), Richard Bagnall, Robin Punt (Essex Police), Sarah Roberts (Cambridge University Hospitals), Athena Dinar (British Antarctic Survey) and Paul Hutchinson (Bedford Independent).
The roots of the problem
Attention is scattered, trust is low, and everything online feels urgent.
A third of people in the UK get all their news from social media, compared with around 10% in Denmark or Japan. And we’re 70% more likely to share false news than true stories. Emotion spreads faster than evidence.
Bad actors from political groups to foreign networks are exploiting that vulnerability. Campaigns like Operation Doppelganger and the Matryoshka Network show just how quickly misinformation can cross borders and screens.
The World Economic Forum now ranks misinformation as the number one global risk for the next two years. But this isn’t just about geopolitics. It’s about neighbourhood Facebook groups, WhatsApp chats and TikTok videos about your council’s next consultation.
Think of misinformation as a local safety risk
The first shift we need to make is cultural: misinformation isn’t only a reputational issue, it’s a safety issue. False claims about housing, climate action or health can quickly become flashpoints for real-world harm.
That means it belongs on your risk register, not just your comms plan.
If your authority treats misinformation as part of its resilience planning — alongside flooding, cyber security and civil unrest — you’ll be ready to act before it takes hold.
Build resilience before you need it
You can’t stop falsehoods from spreading, but you can make your community more resistant to them.
Plant trust early. Use your owned channels — newsletters, videos, resident magazines — to show openness and reliability long before a crisis.
Use real people. People trust people, not logos. Let council officers and frontline staff be visible as individuals — especially those with warmth, humour or local roots.
Inoculate your audiences. Expose residents to harmless examples of misinformation before the real thing hits — let them spot and laugh at it. It builds awareness without fear.
Tell stories first. If you know an issue could attract rumours, shape the narrative in advance. Explain the context, the process, the “why” behind a decision — before someone else does.
In a connected ecosystem, the first narrative to take root is the one that grows.
When misinformation starts to spread
The old rule, “don’t feed the trolls”, doesn’t work anymore. False claims fill vacuums. If you leave them unanswered, others will fill the space.
When something starts circulating:
Assess quickly. Who’s sharing it? Is it deliberate or accidental?
Respond at the right level. Sometimes a comment reply works; sometimes a coordinated statement is needed.
Use emotion wisely. Facts alone rarely persuade — empathy and clarity do. Whoever tells the better story faster wins the day.
Protect your team. Build processes that let you pivot into crisis mode without burning out.
And remember: debunking isn’t your only tool. Prebunking (inoculation), content labelling, and accuracy prompts (“check before you share”) all help.
Watch where misinformation grows
Disinformation doesn’t start in the mainstream. It germinates in the corners — Reddit threads, closed Facebook groups, local “news” sites with vague ownership.
Keep an eye on those spaces. Set up alerts. Regularly Google your own organisation’s key people and venues, including in AI tools like Gemini or Copilot. Correct quietly and consistently, and make sure your own content is clear so AI models can’t misread it.
And don’t underestimate your metadata. A simple, accurate page description is now a public-safety feature.
Grow local allies
Relationships are your root system. Build strong connections with local journalists, even trainees. Offer to help them understand how local government works, and in return you gain someone who will call you before publishing a questionable story.
If you have a trusted local outlet, and the capacity, explore media literacy partnerships: small, community-focused projects that teach residents how to interrogate what they read and spot misinformation.
A closing thought
Emotion will always outpace evidence. But local government has something misinformation never will: proximity. You are close to people’s lives. You empty their bins, plant their trees, run their parks. You exist in the same ecosystem.
When councils communicate with authenticity, consistency and local character, they can still be the people the public turn to. It isn’t easy. One mistake, one bad staff member, one unpopular decision, can damage trust. A lie about your organisation can spread faster than you’d expect. But it’s vital to public work, and arguably to society, to keep going, and to communicate clearly, openly and honestly with the people your council serves.
Misinformation spreads fast, but trust, once planted and nurtured, spreads too.
Entangled Creative helps councils and community organisations communicate clearly, confidently and with local character — even when the information landscape feels tangled.