Editor’s Note: To commemorate PRSA Ethics Month, PRSAY is running a month-long series of posts on important issues facing the public relations profession. This is the first post in the series. An archive of ethics-related posts can be found here.

Can behavior in social media be policed? Who’s in charge if you can? Can there be an ethics code in such a wild and woolly atmosphere? Are there any ethical expectations in social media beyond those already described in the PRSA Code of Ethics, Professional Standards Advisory PS-8,”Deceptive Online Practices and Misrepresentation of Organizations and Visuals.”

Continue reading " Social media and ethics, who’s in charge? "

Editor’s Note: To commemorate PRSA Ethics Month, PRSAY is running a month-long series of posts on important issues facing the public relations profession. This is the first post in the series. An archive of ethics-related posts can be found here.

An interesting situation bubbled up in the Wall Street Journal over the summer regarding an intern and her fabrication of content for an article she was assigned to write.

In a nutshell, she made a lot of stuff up…she got caught…she got fired.

Case closed?

As a public relations professional now teaching the next generation(s) of practitioners, my response is, “No and no.”

Continue reading " Ethics and Internships…Where Does the Responsibility Lie? "

Editor’s Note: To commemorate PRSA Ethics Month, PRSAY is running a month-long series of posts on important issues facing the public relations profession. This is the first post in the series. An archive of ethics-related posts can be found here.

In this presidential election year, I’ve been thinking a lot about ethical leadership, not only among our elected leaders, but also among leaders in the public relations field. They have the power to inspire and motivate the new professionals who work for them, encouraging them to make ethical decisions on behalf of their clients.

Continue reading " Ethical Leadership in Public Relations "

Editor’s Note: To commemorate PRSA Ethics Month, PRSAY is running a month-long series of posts on important issues facing the public relations profession. This is the first post in the series. An archive of ethics-related posts can be found here.

At PRSA we take ethics seriously and hold our members to a high standard. Our Code of Ethics details acceptable behaviors for public relations professionals. Ethics is about more than adhering to words on a piece of paper, it is about acting in good conscience and advising others to do the same. The message that results from such actions is not always the most positive or favorable but it is inherently right and forever respected.

Continue reading " Ethics and the Catbird Seat "

Confession: my name is Steve, I am 38-years-old and, and … I am a public relations professional.

Sixteen years ago I thought I was doing a filthy job. I was a journalist: knocking on the doors of just-bereaved parents, phoning ministers of religion for comments on the sin stories I was about to break, stitching up civic dignitaries by quoting them well out of context.

In the past few weeks, given what has happened with U.K. newspaper The Independent’s sting on PR agency Bell Pottinger, I could be forgiven for thinking my hands are dirtier now than they were back then. PR professionals have long faced questions about the moralistic implications of what they do, but rather than the mysteries of the “dark arts,” observers’ thoughts have been drawn to misconceptions of illicit foulness dripping from our greedy hands.

All of which is, in my experience, untrue. In fact there’s a very British word for it: bollocks.

Sure, some PR professionals have always been willing to take on lucrative contracts from dubious sources. None of us are utterly holy, or at least if any of us are I haven’t met them yet. We have all, if we’re honest (and we should be) told untruths — or been extremely liberal with the truth — to protect the interests of clients.

But Pottingergate has ruffled the feathers of many agency top brass and senior managers. The reason is this: we had enough on our plates with the fact that if PR agencies do not fundamentally modernize the basis of their commercial success, they will die. Now we have another challenge: not only must we modernize, we must also sanitize.

Where Should the Line Be Drawn on Ethics?

A lot of senior, well-paid people in public relations have tried to wear the ethical badge in recent years. Without ethics, we are unable to continue to operate in a transparent age when clients require a responsible approach to communication, they say. They’re right, but ethics is a relative term, certainly in the public relations field. The industry organizations have rightly stood up and been counted on this, but PR professionals must figure out themselves where the line must be drawn on what is ethical and what isn’t. Whereas the British media at the moment faces the threat of imposed legislation to govern its conduct, the PR industry  must develop a form of self-regulation.

My bet is that the answer will be driven by market forces rather than a consensus view on ethics.

Continue reading " Time for PR to Cleanse Itself of Ethical Transgressions "