It is only a little over a year since the Facebook Cambridge Analytica data scandal erupted on the news but it has caused a major perception shift among internet users. Even those who were apathetic about social media usage are made more aware of its privacy infringing properties. Many have expressed being more cautious of their data footprint and declared on the increased value they have placed on privacy.
Yet, Higher Engagement on Social Media?
However, according to The Guardian, the number of daily active users has shot up across all social media platforms with average revenue per user being 19% in 2018, and overall revenue for the last quarter of 2018 is 30.4% more on the same quarter in 2017. This then brings into question the privacy paradox: why are people more engaged than before on social media despite being made more aware of its potentially unscrupulous terms and conditions as seen from countless data leak reports?
The Data-Anxiety Wave
While looking at the types of data leaks and social chatter that centers around data and privacy concerns could lead us to understand the causal relationship between the two, it would be more insightful to examine the way the narratives of the leaks have influenced internet users’ impression of data-driven behemoths like Facebook, Google and Apple. For instance, the only derivation from the types of data leaks such as the infamous Cambridge Analytica data scandal and the more recent WhatsApp security breach would be the increased in awareness of such cases that are occurring due to the prevalent use of social media. This would then put tech giants’ privacy terms under scrutiny as they are conduits to which data are channelled and distributed to businesses at a profit.
The increase in data leak reports has pushed data security watchdogs to be on their toes leading to more cover stories divulging data-exploiting activities. These essentially generate a hotbed for chatter on the technology that allows for data mining to occur. As seen in the buzz clusters, keywords for “Data” and “Privacy” generated similar topics of conversations where online users remain concerned about how their data have been misused through smart phones, along with the operating soft wares and services that run on it for two consecutive months.
The Law of Supply and Demand
This is of no surprise once we delve deeper into the narratives that instigated the data-anxiety wave where privacy is fetishized. News headlines as illustrated the figure below, consistently featured tech giants’ surreptitious tendencies to harvest data, focusing on their instrumental role in disseminating the data collected to companies and, even the government. The underlying message that may have been missed is the market forces responsible for such behaviour. Tech giants are merely the middle man, supplying a type of good – personal data – to interested buyers. The buyers are almost always spared from antagonistic journalism and eventually overlooked as allies to the process of data exploitation.
Unmasking the Illusory Nature of Data-Anxiety Wave
Pinning the privacy paradox onto cognitive dissonance experienced by online users as they are unable to connect data-harvesting intermediaries to their end consumers, could explain the rise in social media engagement despite the prevalence of data leak cases as observed by the study reported by The Guardian. This is good news for businesses who have been partnering with data-mining companies as it buys them time to reassess their marketing strategies, focusing on gaining the consumers’ trust. If internet users remain willing to share their personal details in exchange for customized content on their dashboards, it is up to businesses to retain such consent by focusing on integrity in their operations through contractual transparency. They ought to work towards unmasking the illusory nature of the data-anxiety wave brought about by negligence on the tech giants’ part by taking the lead in revealing the true benefits of data sharing – a more efficient market where research has been conducted through the provision of personal data.
Instead of endlessly promoting privacy,
maybe it is time we address the elephant in the room and embrace it: data and
its prime influence in the digital age.
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The way different audiences perceive the same piece of news can be very different, depending on their culture, the way the news is being communicated and any number of contingencies.
These disparities can mount up until, in the end, these audiences are living in completely different realities.
One of the biggest challenges for PR professionals in the region is the hardening of "siloed realities." Audiences are fracturing into smaller, self-affirming groups that rarely overlap. If your communications strategy relies on a one-size-fits-all message via mainstream media, the content might not have many takers.
The great divergence: the voice to parliament
A vivid example of this is Australia’s "Voice to Parliament" referendum.
If audiences were only exposed to the major broadsheets or watched traditional evening news, the conversation often centered on legal structures, constitutional law, and high-level political endorsements. The nature of these discussions were formal and policy-heavy.
But on social media, specifically TikTok, the reality was entirely different. The "No" campaign gained massive traction through short, punchy, and often emotive content that bypassed how complex the policy discussions were entirely. Creators or influencers spoke directly to fears about land rights and personal costs, arguments that were barely present in the "mainstream" policy debate.
This resulted in a campaign that validated the opinions of audiences exposed to the mainstream media , but completely neglected what audiences were speaking about on social media. The two spaces were in their own siloes, the audiences never really spoke to each other and they just echoed within their own walls.
The language of silos regionally
When we zoom into Southeast Asia, these silos are often built around language and culture. A corporate crisis plays out very differently in a multi-lingual market like Malaysia or the Philippines.
As a comms director, relying solely on English-language monitoring, would end up missing a large part of the broader conversation.
Breaking the walls
How do we connect these separated worlds? We need "bridge builders."
The era of the generic corporate spokesperson is fading. To navigate silos, brands need to engage personalities who have credibility across the divide. This might mean identifying a "Key Opinion Consumer" (KOC) who is respected by both corporations and everyday users. Or finding a financial influencer who can translate complex corporate sustainability goals into language that resonates with sceptical Gen Z investors. Many accounts on Instagram and TikTok in the financial education space have much larger audiences. The late-millennial and Gen-Z crowd realise that they’re probably falling behind in the best ways to work their money, and so they create short, quick and punchy content that leads to their younger audiences taking action on their finances and that it’s actually not super difficult to just start.
The media should not be treated as a ‘single entity’. There is no singular media anymore. There are only clusters of communities, and our job, as communicators, is to find the keys to unlock each one.
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Blog
The danger of “siloed” audiences – and how to bridge them
We analyse why audiences consume news in siloes and what are the possible connectors or bridges that could bring them together.
The media landscape is accelerating. In an era where influence is ephemeral and every angle demands instant comprehension, PR and communications professionals require more than generic technology—they need intelligence engineered for their specific challenges.
Isentia is proud to introduce Lumina, a groundbreaking suite of intelligent AI tools. Lumina has been trained from the ground up on the complex workflows and realities of modern communications and public affairs. It is explicitly designed to shift professionals from passive media monitoring back into the role of strategic leaders and pacesetters.
“The PR, Comms and Public Affairs sectors have been experimenting with AI, but most tools have not been built with their real challenges in mind.” said Joanna Arnold, CEO of Pulsar Group.
“Lumina is different; it is the first intelligence suite designed around how narratives actually form today, combining human credibility signals with machine-level analysis. It helps teams understand how stories evolve, filter out noise and respond with context and confidence to crises and opportunities.”
Setting a new standard for PR intelligence
Lumina is centered on empowering, not replacing, the human element of communications strategy. This suite is purpose-built to help PR, Comms, and Public Affairs professionals significantly improve productivity, enhance message clarity, and facilitate early risk detection.
Lumina enables communicators to:
Understand & Interpret: Move beyond basic alerts to strategically map the trajectory and spread of narrative evolution.
Focus & Personalise: Achieve the clarity necessary to execute strategic action before critical moments pass.
We are launching the Lumina suite by making our first module immediately available: Stories & Perspectives.
In the current fragmented, multi-channel media environment, communications professionals need to be able to instantly perceive not just how a story is growing, but also how it is being perceived across different stakeholder groups.
Stories & Perspectives organizes raw media mentions into clustered, cohesive Stories, and the Perspectives that exist within each, reflecting distinct media, audience, and public affairs angles. This unique functionality allows users to:
Rise above the noise: Instantly identify which high-level topics are gaining momentum or fading from attention.
Get to the detail, fast: Uncover the influential voices, niche communities, and specific channels actively shaping the narrative.
Catch the pivot point: Precisely identify the moment a story shifts—from a strategic opportunity to a reputation risk—or when a new key opinion former begins guiding the conversation.
"Media isn’t a stream of mentions," said Kyle Lindsay, Head of Product at Pulsar Group. "But rather a living system of stories shaped by competing perspectives. When you can see those structures clearly, you gain the ability to understand issues as they form, anticipate how they’ll evolve, and act with precision. That’s what we mean when we talk about AI built for communicators, and that's what an off-the-shelf LLM can't give you."
The Lumina Roadmap: AI tools for the future of comms
The launch of Stories & Perspectives is the first release of many. Over the upcoming months, we will systematically roll out the full Lumina roadmap, introducing a comprehensive set of AI tools engineered to handle every phase of the communications lifecycle.
The full Lumina suite will soon incorporate:
Curated media summaries: AI-driven daily summaries customized specifically to the priorities of senior leadership, highlighting only the most relevant stories.
Reputation analysis: Advanced measurement tracking how critical themes like ethics, innovation, and leadership are statistically shaping corporate perception.
Press release & media relations assistant: Tools designed to accelerate content creation and craft hyper-focused, personalized pitches that reach the precise contacts faster.
Predictive intelligence layer: Technology engineered to track and anticipate story momentum and strategic change before the window of opportunity closes.
Intelligent agents: Background agents continuously scanning all media channels for emerging key spokespeople and previously undetected reputation risks.
Enhanced audio, broadcast & crisis detection: Complete, real-time oversight of all channels—including audio and broadcast—enabling rapid context building and optimal crisis response delivery.
Want to harness the power of Lumina AI for your PR, Comms, or Public Affairs team? .
Complete the form below to register your interest.
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Blog
Announcing Lumina: The purpose-built AI suite for PR, Comms, and Public Affairs
An intelligent suite of AI tools trained on the language, workflows, and realities of modern public relations and communications.
