Is that Ethical?

Ethics is always an interesting debate, there is no correct answer as your values and ethics are entirely yours. You can argue your side until you’re blue in the face but that doesn’t mean you’ll change opinion. 

The Cambridge Online Dictionary defines ethics as ‘a system of accepted beliefs which control behaviour, especially such a system based on morals’. But where do we develop our ethics? Is it through our parents? Through the media? Through friends? From life experience? The typical nature vs nurture debate. 

Personally I think it is a combination of all of the above, nature and nurture. We begin life following our parents perceptions of right and wrong, and this is developed as we make friends and begin school. The media, the programmes we watch and the magazines and books we read all affect the things we value. Life experience changes the way see the world and the values we have. Many people agree that your ethics change throughout your life, the things you value when you’re young and single are likely to be different when you have a family to think of. So are your personal values the same as your professional values? Do your values affect the work you do? 

In PR you may be asked to do things which conflict with your values, for example in today’s seminar we discussed working on a campaign relating to bearskin hats, would you refuse if you were vegetarian or against wearing fur? Or as a professional do you believe you have to put your personal ethics aside? 

In PR we aim to follow the Pillars of Public Relations (I say aim because people do seem to miss occasionally!).

•    Veracity (tell the truth)

•    Non-malfeasance (do no harm)

•    Beneficence (do good)

•    Confidentiality (respect privacy)

•    Fairness (be fair and socially responsible)

Although these pillars work as a useful guideline for PR practitioners they can also cause conflict. Take the scenario we looked at in today’s seminar, It has come to light at the hospital where you are the PR team that one of the breast screening machines is faulty, In this scenario 1,000 women need to be recalled to the hospital to be re-screened. This situation would be difficult to manage as the pillars of Veracity, Non-malfeasance, and Confidentiality all come into play. You need to do no harm and tell the women affected whilst at the same time protecting their privacy from the media, to whom you should tell the truth. As you can see this is where following an ethical guideline becomes difficult and you need to use your own integrity to best resolve this problem. 

It looks as though working in PR will definitely test your moral compass! 

What is PR?

What is PR? this is a question with a lot of different answers, as I have discussed in previous posts pinning a single definition to the area of PR has proven difficult over the years. L’Etang suggests that ‘Public Relations involves the communication and exchange of ideas to facilitate change’. Whereas The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) explains that “public relations is about reputation - the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you.” There are differing opinions of what PR is throughout the academic literature. Many critics accuse PR of being spin or fluff, a tool used to pull the wool over the publics eyes and deem it an unnecessary venture. However I feel that the PR practitioners working for international cooperations with their seat firmly set in the boardroom, earning six-figure sums, would beg to differ. 

When we look back at the history of PR it is closely linked to Propaganda and this where some of the unrest surrounding PR stems from. Harrison discusses the origins of propaganda, ‘The word itself  originated in the Roman Catholic Church of the Seventeenth century, when the Congregation of the Propaganda was formed.’ The congregation were in charge of converting unbelievers on behalf of the church. Their role was based heavily on persuasion. Goebbels was the lead Nazi Propagandist in Hiltler’s Germany in the 1930’s and he used propaganda for power and social control. Due to the manipulation of the truth used historically in propaganda it is typically regarded with disbelief and distrust. Because of PR’s close link with propaganda and it’s negative connotations many people believe PR to be a waste of time. 

In my opinion PR is largely based on communication, and this is a skill we all value. Without good communication skills we would find everyday life a lot more difficult, PR is merely communicating to a larger audience typically on behalf of someone else. This does not mean PR has to be considered any less trustworthy than the communication you have with your flatmate or your mum! 

Today people have access to information from all over the world thus the ‘social control’ element of propaganda is no longer such a threat. It is harder to lie to a nation that can access information through hundreds of channels without getting up off of the sofa. 

This does not mean I am naive enough to think that we are always told the whole truth, I simply think that PR should be a way of communicating not brainwashing. 

PR time

Third year has started with a bang with lots to do and little time to do it in!

In this series of blogs I will be discussing the views on PR ethics, particularly PR and Propaganda. Are they one and the same?

I'm hoping for some comments and critique on my posts so please feel free to discuss and comment.

Next post to follow soon,

Amy