Cross-posted from the FIR Podcast Network

First-time panelist Liz Scherer joined Howard Greenstein and David Spark for a deep dive into fake news.

• “Post-truth” was the Oxford Dictionaries’ word of the year. (One of the finalists was “alt-right.”)
• Fake news is more viral than real news.
• Fake news is coming for companies; in fact, PepsiCo and its CEO, Indra Nooyi, are experiencing it right now.
• Does the rise of fake news and the balkanization of news mean the end of mass persuasion for PR?
• What is Facebook’s role and responsibility in addressing fake news that spreads on its site?
• Mark Zuckerburg says he wants to banish fake news from Facebook, but it’s hard
• Did a fear of conservative backlash stymie Facebook’s efforts to curtain fake news during the election?
• A group of renegade Facebook employees has met in secret to come up with solutions to present to management.
• Dan York reports on the recent meeting of the Internet Engineering Task Force, Facebook Live’s apparent roll-out of its two-person streaming capability to non-verified users, and Twitter’s adoption of QR codes.
• In the wake of the election, what’s the future of data and polling?
• Two “State of Social Media Reports” have been released: one from Pew Research, the other from Buffer.

Connect with our panelists on Twitter at @howardgr, @lizscherer, and @dspark.

Links to the source material for this episode are on Contentle.

Special thanks to Jay Moonah for the opening and closing music.

About today’s panel:

Howard Greenstein is a marketing technology strategist, working with companies to form strategies for online communities, social networking, blogs, and other media. He helped found the Social Media Club, which he served as CEO and executive director. Currently, Howard is chief operating officer at DomainSkate, which helps companies protect themselves from brand fraud and cybercrimes. And he is an adjunct lecturer at Columbia University.

Liz Scherer is a digital communications strategist specializing in health & wellness, nonprofits, regulated industry and agriculture. A pioneer in the social web healthcare movement, Liz has been involved in moving the envelope in terms of health and gender equity and is a former social media advisory board member for Health Justice CT. She is especially interested in how novel & emerging players are ultimately impacting agility marketing and in the disruption of content/communication-driven customer experiences. In addition to her extensive experience as a strategist, Liz has worked as a journalist, medical writer, copywriter and blogger and maintains active memberships in the National Association of Science Writers, the Association of Health Care Journalists and Journalism and Women’s Symposium. Currently, she is a curator of Emerging Infectious Diseases for univadis.com’s Clinical Essentials, and recently took a role to direct strategic communications for a mHealth publisher. Liz sits on the Advisory Board for the Center for Health, Media & Policy, Hunter College, NYC. In her spare time, she mentors health start-ups at GA/1776 DC and Village Capital, and is active in the D.C. Tech Community.

David Spark is a veteran tech journalist and founder the brand journalism firm Spark Media Solutions. Spark has worked with brands such as IBM, Microsoft, HP, and Indycar Racing. He’s reported on the tech scene for more than 18 years in more than 40 media outlets, and is the author of “THREE FEET FROM SEVEN FIGURES: One-on-One Engagement Techniques to Qualify More Leads at Trade Shows” available at ThreeFeetBook.com.