One of the big rumors going around the internet this week was about NBC setting up a reunion special of Friends to air on Thanksgiving 2014, which has since been debunked.
According to an April 8 report on Examiner.com, the rumor started from an unattributed image posted on the Facebook page of KHTT Tulsa’s “Morning After Show“.
Posted on a Sunday afternoon with no background information or a followup, the “K-Hits” rumor quickly went viral online. But at what cost?
While the post brought attention to the morning show are people in Alabama or New York really going to be converted into listeners because of a fake rumor? Or will some listeners not believe the show when they break an actual story for previously crying wolf?
It seems like the goal of many radio stations right now is to get their social media page to have that big viral post. Whether its an impossible math question or a cute kitten meme, many stations are constantly looking for the easy way out when it comes to generating social media awareness. Social platforms like Facebook and Twitter are merely newer methods to interact and cultivate your audience. If you wouldn’t flat out make up fake news stories on the air and report them as fact, then why would you do it online?