PR Ethics on an individual level

Every Public Relations organisation has a code of ethics which the members are expected to abide. The primary objective of this code of ethics is to form guidelines to educate members on how they should conduct themselves in their professional lives.

Despite these guidelines, ethics in individual practice is deeply troubling for PR professionals and consistent violation has been a matter of debate for years. Most critics have complained that the ethics ‘have no teeth’ and one cynic as quoted by PR Sourcewatch says,

‘real ethical behavior is expensive, and that's where the PR industry's ethical dilemma
originates. All of the major public relations firms routinely engage in unethical practices and they don't do it because they are evil people. They do it because their wealthy clients have problems, and cleaning up their image is often easier and cheaper than cleaning up their mess’.

True, real ethical behaviour is expensive not just in PR but in every profession. Mc Donalds' management for instance has been trying to distance themselves from claims that they promote junk food which is unhealthy and causes obesity. They have tried to cover up the crisis by introducing healthy meals which doesn't really solve the problem in the first place as most of their food is still classified as junk food. But is there an ethical way of trying to increase profits for a company that makes unhealthy food that causes disease and even death?

This is a practical example of some of the questions that a true PR professional should address before venturing into a career. Ethics in PR must begin with the individual. They must be true to themselves and adhere to their own morals and principles. Only then will the industry be in a position for regulation.

12 comments:

Julius Dake, said...

It is true that ethics is a deep seated controversy or call it a hot seat in PR.

I do not entirely agree with your quote from PR Sourcewatch that firms routinely engage in unethical practices.

Cleaning the ‘mess’ of the powerful few may not necessary be unethical.

PR exists for publicity, although some people may detest the way PR works, it is the currency for publicity.

Yiting Xu said...

About 'Ethics in PR must begin with the individual', I think that ethics in PR must begin with the regulation and must go beyond the individual.

Winifred said...

Yiting I do disagree with you. I think ethics should begin on an individual level because no matter how the industry will try to encourage members to adhere to the professional code, it will be impossible to achieve this if they are not individually challenged to uphold personal integrity.

Anonymous said...

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AB said...

Sure enough, if you do not have high moral values and practice them then you're certainly not going to be challenged to practice them when and where it is needed.

Unknown said...

I think you bring up an excellent point that many times a public relations professional's job can consist of helping a client protect or fix their image and it is many times easier to clean their own reputation than that of the client. The book 'Ethics in Human Communication' states that "when confronted with an ethical dilemma, the tendency is to set aside moral rules and principles in order to 'just deal' with the situation." I think that this supports your statement very well. I also agreed with the statement from PR Sourcewatch about how PR professionals are not evil people but simply trying to do their job. If they protect themselves before their client they probably wouldn't have many clients left. I know that many people like to think that ethics must begin with the regulation but I agree with you that it starts with the individual. We have regulations on drugs and yet they are still out there among us and always will be until everyone just decides they aren't worth it anymore. Just like in public relations; if professionals begin to pay more attention to ethical guidelines in their own office eventually that will spread out.

Johannesen, R. L., Valde, K. S., & Whedbee, K. E. (2008). Ethics in Human Communication. Long Grove, IL: Waveland Press Inc. .

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Patrick gibbons said...

I agree that it is tougher to stop the bigger companies, but one thing that I have learned that is one of the main parts of ethics is that you have to take in to affect what will help the greater good? In this case of McDonalds, it would be better for the public that they did not serve unhealthy food and that money did not play a role like it does, but that it also one of the things that you must take into consideration...who the stakeholders are.

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