Traditionally, pr practitioners rely on which of the following to learn about ethics?

“I didn’t know you people had ethics!”

• Typical response to introduction of topic of PR ethics • Actually, we’re concerned at two levels • Ethics of the individual PR practitioner • Ethics of the organization he/she represents • Our role as “conscience of the organization” underscores our responsibility

what is morally right or wrong in social conduct, usually as determined by standards of professions, organizations, and individuals.

= Commitment to High Standards

Rewards of Ethical Behavior

• Satisfaction in doing the right thing • Ethical behavior can lead to personal and organizational success • Unethical behavior is bad for business

Potential Ethical Frameworks

• Aristotle’s Golden Mean: Take the middle course between extremes • Kant’s Categorical Imperative: Establish a principle and never stray from it • Mills’ Utilitarianism: Do the greatest good for the greatest number • Rawls’ Veil of Ignorance: Adapt an attitude of absolute objectivity • Judeo-Christian: Love your neighbor; agape

Practitioners Have Moral Obligations

To ourselves—to preserve our own integrity

To our clients—to honor our contracts and to use our professional expertise on our clients’ behalf

To our organizations—to adhere to organizational goals and policies

To our profession—to uphold the standards of the profession and, by extension, the reputation of our fellow practitioner

To our society—to consider social needs and claims

eight tips to guide you in developing your own ethical convictions and behavior.

1.  Never accept a client or a job with an organization or person with questionable character or conduct.

2.  Always be honest with everyone, especially the  media.

3.  Don’t handle competing clients.

4.  Don’t make unfair comments about competitors.

5.  Keep the public interest in mind at all times.

6.  Respect confidences.

7.  Make sure all your financial activities are “above board.”

8.  Use organizational codes—such as the PRSA Code—as a starting place, but incorporate your own standards as well.

• Personal ethics can be in conflict with organizational ethics. • Professional codes, corporate policy and law are no guarantees of actual ethical behavior. • Actual behavior is always rooted in individual choices.

• Credibility comes with total honesty. • Anything less will destroy your credibility and usefulness to your employer. • News media depend on practitioners for much of the information they pass on (usually unverified) to their audiences. • If you provide inaccurate information, they will not rely on you as a source.

Barriers to Ethical Behavior

• Dilemmas: Intel 1995 discovered its latest Pentium chip was flawed; they remained silent, undercutting their credibility • Overwork: Time crunch tempts us to cut corners • Legal/ethical confusion: what is legal isn’t always ethical, and vice versa; J&J was not legally obligated to pull Tylenol from shelves • Cross-cultural: some cultures consider bribes acceptable • Short-term thinking: short-term solutions often have long-term consequences

• Free flow of accurate, truthful information contributing to informed decision making • Promote fair competition to serve public interest • Transparency of representation • Confidentiality
• Avoid conflicts of interest • Build respect, credibility for profession • Follow PRSA guidelines

Ethical Dealings With News Media

• Trust comes only with habitual ethical performance. • A practitioner’s effectiveness with the media can be destroyed by expensive shortcuts such as… • Extravagant parties • Expensive gifts • Personal favors

• Following the letter of the law is not the same as being ethical.

• However, public relations practitioners do need to be familiar with laws covering their particular clients.

• Ethics are standards of right social conduct, empowered by character not circumstances. • The practitioner's ethical choices are viewed by the public as equal to the organization’s trustworthiness. • One's ethical practice is affected by accepted standards of conduct, individual and business ethics, trust with mews media, and relative laws.

• Understand opposing views between public relations and legal counsel • Understand the role of the First Amendment in public relations practice • Assess the impact of regulatory agencies on public relations practice

Public Relations can be a legal landmine for the uninformed practitioner

• Public relations doesn’t seem like a dangerous profession. • The product of public relations—information—can be just as dangerous as many lethal weapons. • Information used improperly or illegally can result in individuals going to jail and organizations going out of business.

• PR increasingly employed as part of legal strategy • Penn State • Lance Armstrong • “ Obamacare ” • Court of law vs. court of public opinion

• Historically an uneasy alliance • Legal position is generally that the less said about an issue or situation, the better • PR usually advises going public early, especially if reputation and/or credibility are involved • The wise manager considers both aspects, but needs to receive advice from both • Law and ethics are closely related, and PR counselor needs to be well-schooled in both • Must not assume that legal counsel is an expert in PR, media, communication law

• Do not lie to the media, even if full disclosure is not possible. • Do not allow a legal perspective on issues to solely determine corporate policy or response on any given issue.

Legal Obligations for Practitioners

• First Amendment rights • Defamation • Invasion of privacy • Copyright and trademark laws • Regulations of the SEC, FTC, FDA and FCC

First Amendment Rights and Limits

  First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects individual freedom of expression and also freedom of the press.

What Does the First Amendment Say?

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

The Constitution provides broad latitude for individual citizens to exercise freedom of expression, although this is a continuing controversy in areas such as art and religious expression.

Organizational Free Speech
(commercial speech)

Some court rulings suggest that corporations have freedoms similar to those of individuals. However, corporations have a greater potential to harm other freedoms, which often makes corporate expression more susceptible to scrutiny.

Winners In The Court Of Public Opinion …

• Quickly and publicly accept responsibility for their actions • Redress legitimate grievances regardless of pending litigation • Deal with the media, the community and the aggrieved openly, honestly and immediately

Organizations As Well As Media Can Be Guilty Of …

• Defamation – a communication that holds an individual up to contempt, hatred, ridicule or scorn • Slander—oral defamation • Libel—published defamation

        Criminal libel—may involve ‘inciting to riot’ or ‘breach of the peace’

        Civil libel—involves only defamation

• a communication that holds an individual up to contempt, hatred, ridicule or scorn

• Slander—oral defamation • Libel—published defamation

        Criminal libel—may involve ‘inciting to riot’ or ‘breach of the peace’

        Civil libel—involves only defamation

the malicious and intentional expression of opinion, information or fact for the specific purpose of damaging another person’s reputation.

Defamation

• Claims of truth are the best defense against defamation, but not a guarantee of exoneration.

The following criteria make a statement libelous:

• Publication of falsehood • Damage to reputation, persons or income • Identification of injured party • Malice or Negligence (fault) in information handling • Defamation of persons or organizations

Successful Defenses Against Libel May Be

• Truth: statements involved are truthful [and can be proven to be truthful] • Privilege: content originates in a governmental agency, but is presented fairly • Fair Comment: statements constitute ‘fair comment’ on a public issue and are supported by factual material

• Appropriation or the unauthorized commercial use of an entity’s picture, likeness, or name. • Publication of private information—publishing true information not known by a great number of people. • Requires prior consent. • Intrusion or the surreptitious observation of activities. • False light—when facts are embellished with falsehoods, or exaggerated or used out of context.

when facts are embellished with falsehoods, or exaggerated or used out of context.

Defenses of Invasion of Privacy Charges

• Obtain written consent from potential sources of legal suit. • Especially helpful in defense are signed release forms of legal responsibility.

The Freedom of Information Act

opens many governmental records to public [and practitioner] scrutiny. 

FOI Act Limits Privacy of Public Officials

• Public officials and government enjoy much less privacy than do individuals in the private sector due to the Freedom of Information Act and the Sunshine Act. • Covers the U.S. federal government. • Applies to: • Opinions in settled cases • Statements of policy • Staff manuals affecting the public

Protected Intellectual Property

Intellectual creations [original writings and works of creative art] generally are owned by their creators – individuals or organizations.  They are subject to protection under copyright and trademark law.

    Copyright refers to the legal protection afforded to the   author or of a formalized method of communication or   artistic expression such as…

  books, movies, plays, music, dances, songs, sculptures, pictures and other tangible fixed formats

You Can Use Copyrighted Material Under The Act’s Four ‘Fair Use’ Provisions If …

• Use is for non-commercial purposes • Content is not taken out of context • Credit is given to the source • The commercial value of the work is not materially reduced

  You can use material if the percentage of the work used falls within specific limits [100-200 words from a major book or article]

• Refers to the names and logos of products or product brands that are legally protected for exclusive or licensed commercial use. • Corporations often seek to protect their trademarks from others who could profit from them. • Trademark Examples: • Product names such as Kleenex • Brand names like Chevrolet • Graphic renderings of those names in specific type faces and/or with accompanying artwork

government regulatory agencies that can limit how public relations practitioners create and disseminate information are the…

• FTC • FDA • FCC • SEC • Such agencies are concerned with the legal dimensions of public relations messages and/or advertising claims.

Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

• Communication directly affecting economic exchanges or trade must be true. • Claims in ads or press releases must be verifiable.

Food and Drug Administration (FDA)

• Information about food, drugs and cosmetics must conform to federal standards for health and safety.

Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

• Regulates broadcasting including Public Service Announcements (PSAs) and required opportunities to respond to public issues.

Security and Exchange Commission (SEC)

•   Protect investors and maintain the integrity of the securities market • Timely disclosure; annual reports

• PR pros need to know laws that govern organization • Financial disclosure especially important • SEC generally governs disclosure policy • Key: All investors have right to relevant info

SEC’s overriding concern is that all investors have opportunity to learn about material information promptly

• Securities Act of 1933 • Securities Exchange Act of 1934 • Subsequent court cases • Prohibit dissemination of false or misleading information; prohibits insider trading • WSJ reporter R. Foster Winans Jr.: wrote favorable columns on companies, then cashed in when stock rose -- received prison sentence

• Laws and regulations also apply to the Internet… • Libel and slander • Copyright and trademark • And the provisions of most of the statutes and regulations mentioned earlier • From practical and legal standpoints, the Internet is a medium like any other.

Federal Trade Commission (FTC)

governs all commerical advertising and product or service news releases, typically media for marketing communications.

-advertising

Food and Drug Adminstration (FDA)

regulates labeling, packaging, and sale of food, drugs and cosmetics.

- safety and labeling

Federal Communications Commission (FCC)

regulates broadcasting, television, and radio to ensure that licences are operating in the public interest.

National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)

oversees the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, the primary law governing communications between unions and employers.

- the act deals with all aspects of union activities

Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)

enforces laws and regulations concerning the purchase of stocks of publicly owner corporations that are listed on any of the 13 largest U.S. stock exchanges or that have $1 million and 500 stockholders.

- The Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 requires public companies to be much more "transparent" in their communication with stockholders, investors, employees, retirees, and government officials.

allows access to information to obstruct terrorism.

- works at Fleishman as senior account executive
- many clients (Chevy, CityBank, Chobani)
- digital side of PR

- Wells Fargo, Corporate Communications Consultant 4, Assistant Vice President
- traditional PR job dealing with banking and bond offerings

- Beam Interactive in Boston; fairly new company with a strong drive
- 3 aspects: social media, consumer intelligence and writing briefs
- Mini USA : box apology
* make your resume custom to each job you apply for, get experience, get involved

similarities in all all 3 panelists

- Ad hoc can also mean makeshift solutions, shifting contexts to create new meanings, inadequate planning, or improvised events.
- focus on social media
- get experience, get involved, build a powerful resume
- have good writing skills and be able to use social media well

What is the primary reason that the study of ethics is relevant to PR practitioners?

Which organization's code of ethics serves as a model for US firms and PR professionals?

What is the most important skill needed to be an effective PR professional group of answer choices?

Which of the following is the best method for measuring PR campaigns?