Will PR practitioners be more ethical or pretend to be more ethical?

By: Jackie Sears

Public relations practitioners tend to get a bad name for themselves because of the way the media and how Hollywood portrays it as an “image making” career. From an outside perspective, public relations might look exactly like the previous statement. Contradictory to that belief, PRSA has stated that PR as a profession and its reputation is founded on a platform to protect integrity and public trust (PRSA). This is grounded in the PRSA Code of Ethics, which “promotes advocacy, honesty, loyalty, professional development and objectivity”.

The field in which public relations practitioners work within is one where ethical dilemmas are around every corner and cannot be avoided. Since this line of job has an intertwine of media and business environment, there have been instances of poor management correlating with problems of not being ethical in the field (Lee, 2012). Public relations may be founded on being honest and objective, but has leaned more towards loyalty of the client, prioritizing the client over applying the professional ethical code (Harrison, 2005). This is found in the practices of virtue-based PR ethics, which only focuses on what is ethical for an individual instead of what is the correct thing to do.

Studies have been researched over public relations and whether or not it remains ethically driven.  As of today there is not an abundance of support for ethics training and baseline education of current practitioners. If this is true, it highlights a misunderstanding of the career that needs to be reinterpreted and valued in current and future public relations practitioners. The value of following the code of ethics needs to be placed in top of mind in order for practitioners to make ethical decisions applied in difficult situations that aren’t being used today. In the end, it will be harder to dig the firm out of an unethical situation ignored by the PR practitioners rather than be ethical and honest with the public in the first place.

PR practitioners will be more ethical because of all of the training we receive as students studying the field and case studies that have been done about other companies that are made available to the public. The code of ethics may not offer what to do in certain difficult ethical situations, but there is never a new problem that a PR firm or organization has not faced. This highlights the importance of studying what other firms have done and taking note of what to do in crisis communication plans. There is never a way to be ready for a crisis or how to handle an ethical situation, but there is a way to take in consideration of the client, the public and the reputation of the PR firm through research and doing what is right. It is important to be loyal to your client, but if your client isn’t able to ethical and loyal to its audience, it is important to consider dropping the client or confronting the client to stand up for ethical practices.

Sources Cited:

Harrison, K., & Galloway, C. (2005). Public relations ethics: A simpler (but not simplistic) approach to the complexities. Retrieved from http://www.prismjournal.org/fileadmin/
Praxis/Files/Journal_Files/Issue3/Harrison_Galloway.pdf

Lee, S. (2012). Ethics Management in Public Relations: Practitioner Conceptualizations of Ethical Leadership, Knowledge, Training and Compliance. Retrieved from https://learn.unt.edu/bbcswebdav/pid-3447337-dt-content-rid-47298209_1/courses/JOUR.4470.001-NT752.1161.1/PREthics2.pdf

PRSA. (2009-16). Ethical Guidance for Today's Public Relations Practitioners from PRSA. Retrieved from https://www.prsa.org/aboutprsa/ethics/#.Vvk9Hz_NWCS