Consumer trust in social media is on shaky ground: between AI-generated content and increasingly lax rules around fact-checking, it’s hard to know what to believe online.
Ciaran R. Maidwell believes that in today’s misinformation era, there’s a growing movement to return to the basics.
Legacy media
Recognising this, brands are turning back to public relations – particularly earned media – in pursuit of credible third-party endorsement of their products, services, and expertise. And, since everything is connected nowadays, media coverage has the added benefit of boosting a brand’s search rankings – making PR an important part of any effective digital strategy.
Legacy media remains the dominant news source for South African consumers, according to WhyFive’s 2025 BrandMapp survey, with 43% reading free news online, 40% tuning into the radio to listen to the news and 35% still watching traditional TV news. By contrast, only 20% of consumers say they get news from TikTok, 21% from YouTube, and 19% from X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram. Not only is this a huge relief (because social media shouldn’t by anyone’s primary news source), it’s also a wake-up call for brands.
While owned digital channels, like social media and websites, provide an opportunity to connect directly with audiences, consumers understand that there is an agenda (i.e. sales) behind every post and every interaction. Anyone can say anything they want on digital platforms – true or not. But journalists and the free media are held to a different standard. There remains a strict code of conduct when it comes to fact-checking and objective reporting. As a result, third-party validation from trusted journalists and outlets carries more weight and more credibility than any ad or paid placement ever could.
At Be-cause, this trend has manifested as a sharp spike in clients coming to us looking for assistance with traditional PR during 2025 (by crafting press releases, op eds, and industry reports to get their brand in the media). Over the past few years, the major focus was social media management and content creation, but brands have come back around to realise that coverage in trusted media publications is critical to building the one thing that every consumer is hungry for: authenticity.
Genuine expertise
The stories gaining traction aren't the polished corporate announcements of the past. Journalists are responding to data-driven insights, fresh perspectives on industry trends, and genuine expertise that solves real problems. The brands succeeding are those offering media something their readers actually need to know - not just what the brand wants to say.
With the proliferation of ChatGPT-written captions that all sound kind of the same and ring as false in our ears, it’s only those brands that have managed to sound truly human and uniquely themselves that continue to excel online (my personal favourite – the UK-based Surreal LinkedIn page is a masterclass in making it feel like there are real humans behind a brand). This has always been true in the traditional PR space, which is why you’ll find that any good PR practitioner already knows that the key to success is cutting the fluff. People are quick to spot spin and overly polished messaging. They want to engage with brands that are real, transparent, and aligned with values they care about.
It's also why more people are returning to physical spaces – and, often, preferring them – for events, for collaborative meetings, for making friends. Perhaps there are just some things we feel as innately more authentic than others – including news published by a long-standing media publication that has a reputation for accurate, fair, and unbiased information.
A key point here is that legacy media is not necessarily so ‘traditional’ anymore. Especially when it comes to the delivery of the news. Digital transformation in the media industry means that today you can easily find your top legacy news titles across multiple platforms, with the advantage of standing out as long-lived, reliable brands.
The people who control AI algorithms also know this, which is why nearly all citations in ChatGPT answers are pulled from media mentions (in other words, articles, reports, podcast interviews). Brands that want to show up in searches are working hard to land meaningful press hits that will get their insights and answers listed when answering consumer questions. This means that a thought leadership piece in a top business publication can reach decision-makers more effectively than sponsored posts. Businesses of all sizes are finding that strategic PR placements can have way more impact than paid social media alone.
Value
To accomplish this, it’s critical to make sure your brand has something valuable and genuinely insightful to share. The media landscape continues to shrink and face pressure, both locally and abroad. Putting real effort and adding genuine value in press releases and op eds is the only way to get placed in big publications. At the same time, this almost makes media placement more valuable – because your brand is taking up space in a shrinking pond, demonstrating to customers and stakeholders the value of your expertise.
The overall takeaway? We're witnessing a fundamental shift in how brands approach credibility. As digital noise increases, the premium on authentic, third-party validation will only grow. Those who’ve been paying attention are already adapting their strategies accordingly; those that don't risk being drowned out by the very platforms they're trying to master. The future belongs to brands that understand that in a world of infinite content, finite credibility is the ultimate currency.
