By Mitchell Friedman, Ed.D., APR
Every September, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) recognizes Ethics Month. It aims to focus the attention of its members on the importance of ethics in the profession, as embodied in its Code of Ethics.
If you’re a PRSA member and haven’t recently reviewed PRSA’s Code of Ethics, now is the time to do so. It offers an excellent touchstone for gauging whether, and the extent to which, your practice of public relations adheres to critical ethical and moral norms. If you’re not a PRSA member, you ought to give serious thought to what you can turn to for guidance on thorny issues you’re likely to encounter as you pursue communications activities on behalf of your organization or clients. I‘d urge you to check out the PRSA Code of Ethics. You don’t have to be a member of PRSA to benefit from it.
Using the PRSA Code of Ethics to guide daily practice isn’t simply about “doing the right thing”—as important as that is. It also differentiates practitioners from those who proceed without considering the ethical and moral ramifications of their public relations practice. That is, “doing the right thing” can be a competitive advantage. Let me explain.
The public relations profession is open to anyone. There are no formal requirements to practice public relations. Therefore, from the earliest days of the profession, anyone could claim that the services they offered to individuals and organizations fell under the umbrella of public relations. Such ease of entry into the profession meant the skills and abilities of practitioners varied widely as did their commitment to best practices and operating within defined ethical, moral, and legal boundaries.
The internet, social media, and now artificial intelligence (AI) have empowered countless new individuals with communications tools and the ability to use them for their own purposes, with some of them claiming such use qualifies them to be labeled as “public relations professionals”. And who knows what future technologies lie ahead that may create even more individuals who claim they’re better, faster, and cheaper than more experienced and accomplished public relations professionals.
In short, it’s not enough to say you work in public relations. A true professional aspires to nothing less than excellence in practice while remaining firmly grounded in the ethical, moral, and legal framework that true public relations professionals live by. As noted above, for PRSA members, that means using the organization’s Code of Ethics as a guide. Fundamental to that Code of Ethics is the relentless pursuit of transparency while managing a client’s reputation.
Transparency literally refers to the quality of being able to see through something. In an organizational context, it refers to being open, honest, and accountable. Ethical public relations practitioners are transparent about what they do and how they do it. They urge the organizations and individuals they represent to be the same.
Transparency starts with the information we share with key stakeholders. All the openness and honesty in the world doesn’t matter if the information you share is inaccurate, incomplete, or simply false. Practitioners thus must check and double check the accuracy of the information provided to stakeholders, striving for 100% accuracy. Top-notch skills (writing, speaking, audio and video production, etc.) to communicate such information are indispensable. Equally important, we need to become experts in using the latest and greatest tools while seeking out new ones that may help us serve our clients in the future. In short, we cannot accept mediocrity in practice nor anything less than scrupulous ethical behavior lest we be lumped in the mass of so-called public relations practitioners who may or may not be as skilled or as sensitive to ethical concerns.
Turning back to transparency, remember that all it takes is one lie, half-truth, or ill-founded assertion to undermine the credibility of any public relations person. That means we must apply our critical energy to assess the veracity of what we learn about the organizations, causes, and individuals we represent. To this end, consider questions I ask when working with a new client: Is the product or service in question as new and innovative as I’ve been told? What evidence can I find to either refute or support claims about it? And once I find it, how can I persuade my client to seriously consider this evidence and modify their messaging accordingly?
Finally, as we ponder how to embrace ever-evolving technologies that pose new ethical challenges, consider the following. Every major technology shift over the last two decades—more specifically, the Internet itself as well as the emergence of social media—posed challenges to how public relations professionals conduct campaigns while adhering to best practices. It took time to effectively calibrate the impact of the developments, and we’ve made a lot of progress in doing so (although we’re still grappling with key concerns); likewise, it will take some time for the impacts of integrating artificial intelligence and data analytics into our campaigns to be fully understood.
That said, what we can do right now is identify the best tools for the job, spell out exactly how we’re using them, and be relentlessly clear and open about all of it. Such an approach remains true to the intent of PRSA’s Code of Ethics. Yet note that technologies are changing so fast that there are bound to be unintended consequences as well as downright errors in how we use tools and disclose that use to stakeholders. In such situations, admit you’re wrong, make corrections, and move on. Such humility goes hand in hand with ethical public relations practice.
