To Some Public Relations is Unethical: In Reality, It Cleans Up the Unethical Mistakes Made by Others

For years now, public relations practitioners have faced scrutiny claiming their profession is unethical. In oppressors’ opinion, public relations is a deceitful practice that misleads people, but this accusation is false. According to the PRSA, the definition of public relations states “Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other.” In addition, there is a public relations code of conduct which sets guidelines for the field. One of those guidelines declares “A member shall not engage in practice which tends to corrupt the integrity of channels of public communication.” . These guidelines set examples of how public relations practitioners should conduct their business affairs and reveals that they want to be true to their audience. Granted there are a few exceptions that stray away and fall into bad decisions. This small percentage should not have the control to create the entire image for all of public relations. In reality, the opposite of that situation is what most organizations strive to do with their public relations department. Steven R. Van Hook of All About Public Relations, claims “The Public Relations department is frequently the ethical heart of an organization.” Although it would be naïve to assume corporations and celebrities are the only people utilizing the benefits of public relations, the average every day citizen also partakes in the world of public relations. Hook articulates this opinion by declaring “PR is for us regular folks.” Despite having to work in a scandal obsessed industry, public relations as a business manages to maintain a respectable reputation that steams from basic principles.

If there are any questions as to the integrity of public relations tactics then the underlying issues leading to the public relations move needs to be examined, in particular, the actions of the journalists. In today’s competitive society, a journalist can overstep their boundaries and break their code of ethics to get the story. One of the most common examples of journalists disregarding their ethics can be found in the celebrity fascination the media has creating by invading celebrities’ personal lives. The latest development in this celebrity phenomenon is the controversy surrounding Britney Spears and her newly bald head as shown in the picture to the left. It is apparent the media’s overwhelming amount of attention and intrusion into her life pushed her to extremes that otherwise she may not have done if the media intensive spotlight had not been on her. Public relations practices are affected by this kind of content negligence, and it forces practitioners to switch for adaptation mode to crisis management mode. Crisis management is overtaking public relations due to the media, so really the media needs to reevaluate their values instead of the public relations industry.

Now that crisis management has taken a forefront in the public relations world, all practitioners must learn all the elements it entails. “Because of the way the modern media operates -- feeding on a staple diet of bad news, pouncing on any slips or slurs of the tongue -- every word uttered either at work or at play could catalyze a personal or corporate PR disaster,” this is how Gerry McCusker, a public relations analyst, believes the public relations field is changing. If someone wants to study past crisis management accounts then they should look into Levick Strategic Communications, the company displayed on the right. Levick was the crisis agency of the year in 2005 and their clients include Enron and Napster. This corporation believes “crisis management can no longer be a separate item, handled by a sequestered team.” It is clear the public relations community has had to adapt to the low tactics of the news society. Before public relations practitioners could concentrate on getting their client’s professional message out to their peers, and they were questioned about their ethics at that time. Now that the focus of public relations has been switched to crisis management the examination of public relations’ intensions is more severe. It is not the public relations profession’s fault that journalism, especially entertainment journalism, has shred some of their morals in order to make a deadline. Pubic relations is just adapting and moving with the change of the industry.