Legal and Ethical Foundations

PR is a mix of journalism, psychology, and lawyering - it's an ever-changing and always interesting landscape. There are many points of view about PR and what it can, can't, and should do. 
        - Ron Torossian




The saying goes: I am a jack of all trades, but a master of none, but I'd rather be a jack than a master of one. Such a focused amount of versatility in a profession is advantageous. Repetition is what makes a master - meaning: public relations practitioners become masters of all. PR practitioners are writers, researchers, psychologists, persuasive communicators, philosophers, planners, marketers, and leaders. Essentially, they are the superheroes of the professional world and they do not sleep. 

Literally.

        Even though this all really sounds amazing and, truly, this is a great profession to get into there are costs. Just as when Jafar wished for phenomenal cosmic power he also received an itty, bitty living space. Public relations practitioners are provided with a plethora of opportunities to grow and be all that they can be, but they are also bound by just enough wiggle room to get by. Keep this post in mind all of the time. 

           Public relations practitioners often deal with a plethora of ethics and legalities:

Privacy:

If people are to become who they wish to be they require a certain degree of privacy to develop that person apart from observation (Patterson & Wilkins, 2014, p. 110). The right to privacy is a complicated moral issue that must be dealt with delicately. As it is, "privacy is linked to our ability to 'become' human and retain some element of dignity while doing so" (Patterson & Wilkins, 2014, p. 113) and any intrusion thereof is inherently unethical. There are however some circumstances that change privacy in individuals. There are public figures who choose to discard the safety of their privacy in their pursuits and accidental public figures who are thrust out of their safety by chance. Ethical consideration and moral reasoning of every case is a priority and the judgement is up to you. You can learn more about invasion of privacy here.

Defamation :

"There is always a delicate balance between one person's right to freedom of speech and another's right to protect their good name" (Reuters, 2016). Defamation is the act of damaging the reputation of an individual through libel or slander. Slander is spoken defamation and libel is published defamation. Then there is also the lesser known false light tort which is when information about an individual is published that is false, misleading, or information obtained from an invasion of privacy. 



Copyright: 

Essentially, copyright is a law that protects the intellectual property of the creator and are protected from unauthorized use. A copyright doesn't last forever and usually protects the author's original expression of ideas (not the underlying idea) for their lifetime plus fifty years. So if I created a microwave that made things colder instead of hotter (my dream) then that work is protected by copyright until fifty years after my death. The idea of the Flashfreezer is not protected by copyright, only the output. You should also familiarize yourself with the fair-use act - which states that it is fair to use copyrighted material for nonprofit or noncommercial purposes such as education, research, or thumbnail photos and other fair ways to use copyrighted material that doesn't hurt the creator. 



Corporate and Commercial Speech:

Overall, public relations is based on strategic communication (if you haven't by now familiarized yourself with the Constitution it couldn't hurt). There are laws for organizations due to the very fact that their speech has the ability to impact public opinion. These laws include concepts of corporate speech, which limit what companies may or may not say or advocate, and commercial speech, which is a regulation on how much and what an organization can do to advertise a product or service. Commercial speech is limited in its protection by the 1st Amendment and states that advertised products have the freedom to promote themselves in anyway as long as the information is not false or misleading. Commercial speech also includes political speech which is not limited in anyway (can be false, misleading, or defamatory leaving injured individuals with only an option to sue). 




            These are only a few of the aspects of the many legalities we, as public relations practitioners, must keep in mind in our endeavors. The legal system governs so much of our lives as it is and you can imagine the red tape in corporate society. Additionally, not only do we serve our clients but we also serve the public which means we need to remain sensitive to both sides ethically and legally. Think of this job as saving the day and these few examples are regulations on how and when you can use your abilities. Essentially, everything a public relations practitioner does revolves around the act of communication and these are a few examples of the legal and ethical foundations required to survive in strategic organizational communication.

References

First Amendment lecture: Commercial Speech. (2013, December 20). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgZyjpl3WkM

Flynn, M. K. (2014, Fall). Are We Really Effective PR People or Just Busy? Retrieved from https://www.prsa.org/Intelligence/TheStrategist/Articles/view/10806/1100/Are_We_Really_Effective_PR_People_or_Just_Busy#.WBL0I_krLIU

Haber, F. (2016, April). What is Fair Use? Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfxIg-atmgM

Johnson, B. (2010, December 10). First Amendment Center. Retrieved October 28, 2016, from http://www.firstamendmentcenter.org/advertising-first-amendment-overview 

Moore, J. (1990, Summer). The Ethics of Privacy Protection. Retrieved October 28, 2016, from https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/bitstream/handle/2142/7714/librarytrendsv39i1-2h_opt.pdf?sequence=1

Patterson, P., & Wilkins, L. (2014). Media ethics: Issues and cases. Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown.

Reuters, T. (n.d.). Invasion of Privacy - FindLaw. Retrieved October 28, 2016, from http://injury.findlaw.com/torts-and-personal-injuries/invasion-of-privacy.html

Reuters, T. (2016). Defamation Law: The Basics - FindLaw. Retrieved October 28, 2016, from http://injury.findlaw.com/torts-and-personal-injuries/defamation-law-the-basics.html

Torossian, R. (2011). Public Relations Advantage Over Marketing & Advertising: Image Is Everything ! Retrieved October 28, 2016, from http://www.businessinsider.com/public-relations-advantage-over-marketing-and-advertising-image-is-everything--2011-10

Tysver, D. (n.d.). BitLaw. Retrieved October 28, 2016, from http://www.bitlaw.com/copyright/fair_use.html 

The Power that Binds

Every profession has some tie to a form of philosophy. “Law is equated with justice; medicine with the duty to render aid. Journalism, too, has…the communication of truth” (Patterson & Wilkins, 2014, p. 21). Public Relations seems to encompass a strategic approach to each of those philosophies while encompassing ethics. Technological advancement has thrown the abilities to adhere to these codes into chaos. Is it still considered rendering aid if a doctor performs a mercy killing or keeps a child on life support for years? What does the advancement of technology mean for those of us in public relations?

It is not a secret that technology enhances our lives and the roles we play in our professions. For example, computer databases and online services allow public relations professionals to monitor issues through social media, conduct primary, secondary, and tertiary researches, and review subtle changes in public opinion. Using technology, a PR professional no longer needs to rely on the media alone to get their message out, especially in a time of a crisis. Where it was once known for the public relations department to approach the media during a crisis to get their word out, the use of websites, social media, e-mail, and the like can get the first message to the public in a controlled form of media. But Jeff Ghannam sees it differently: “We need to be plugged in – I understand that – but I think we are beginning to suffer from a backlash and we are losing personal connections that are so important to our business” (Jones, 2014, 1:55 – 2:13). In short, while the availability of technology certainly makes gathering data and communication easier it comes at the sacrifice of personal involvement.

Our philosophical principle of ethics can be compromised when overlooked during the employment of technology. In media relations, “journalists preferred to receive information via email” (Johnson, 1997, 218) which, while making communication faster/easier, removes the personal touch from between the public and journalists. Technology just shows the lack of personal touches that are important to social development – in relating to the public. It is pertinent that you constantly remind yourself that technology has a time and place. While it is important to utilize technology to do what needs to be done faster and more efficiently, do not let it come at the sacrifice of a personal touch. Our personal touch directly correlates to our philosophy of ethics – put the technology in your hands but don’t let it bind them.

References

Johnson, M. (1997). Public Relations & Technology: Practitioner perspectives. Retrieved October 27, 2016, from http://www4.ncsu.edu/~mjohnson/pdfs/publicrelationsandtech.pdf

Jones, M. (2009, May 14). Technology: Public Relations blessing or curse? Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRJi1b8VRmI 

 Patterson, P., & Wilkins, L. (2014). Media ethics: Issues and cases. Dubuque, IA: Wm. C. Brown. 

PRSA pt II: Be a Hero

Be a hero.

Save the day.

            Aunt May told Peter Parker that there was a hero in all of us. Every individual has an internal viewpoint of the kind of hero they would like to be. Heroes are great benefactors of mankind and we need heroes so that we can have someone to emulate in shaping our identity. As heroes shape their own codes of ethics, they, in turn, shape society.

            That being said, a hero is a leader and as every individual longs to be a hero they wish to be a leader. Grasping the importance of ethical leadership in the world is quite simple: We need leaders with good ethics so that we may shape ourselves and in turn shape others. This dissemination of morality is the precursor to peace. The problem lies in the fact that when we unbutton our shirts, there isn’t a symbol of morality on our chests.

            The PRSA’s Code of Ethics sets the foundation of ethics for each professional. When you are in trouble and face moral hurdles you have somewhere to turn – but that is the problem: somewhere, not someone. There will be times when you will be faced with a problem and will be required to act immediately, and in that time it will be far easier to ask yourself what would my hero of choice do? It is when you stand apart from everyone else’s point of reference and take matters into your own hand that you become a leader, not a follower.

            Not just leadership, but servant leadership is a requirement in building your own code of ethics. Why? The foundation of servant leadership is empathy - a quality which the PRSA Code of Ethics forgets to add to their overall structure. Empathy is just as important in organizational communication as it is in the changing of the world. Without empathy we can each shape our own personal code of ethics without considering the ultimate good of humankind. What this means is that both heroes and villains adhere to their own code of ethics, but only one of the two serves eudaimonia. 

            This is the missing piece to the PRSA’s Code of Ethics. Before the PRSA’s Code of Ethics asked the professional to serve both the public and the organization – a man cannot serve two masters without some internal guiding principle that can aid them in times when they were required to choose one over the other. This small revision forces the individual to look internally when making a decision and, when exercised, will be a reference point more easily accessible than the Code of Ethics itself. Additionally, while the public relations professional's mind is shaped to benefit the organization, their heart, so to speak, will be shaped to benefit those individuals around them – the public. That is where we will find the hero in all of us. 

References

 Davenport, G. (2014, August 3). Servant Leadership. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuphbBv4vDg

 Britannica, E. (n.d.). Eudaemonism. Retrieved October 20, 2016. Retrieved from 

https://www.britannica.com/topic/eudaemonism#ref273308

PRSA pt. I: Making it Simple

      If law is about what people must do and ethics is what people should do, then ethics begin where the law ends. The PRSA’s Code of Ethics, the COE, then are the basic guidelines for ethical behavior which starts with the law. You can view the full PRSA Code of Ethics here, but below are the basic infrastructure of the COE.

      The ethical public relations practitioner, according to the PRSA Code of Ethics must:

      Be honest and accurate in all communications while avoiding deceptive practices by acting promptly.

      Protect and advance the free flow of accurate and truthful information while concurrently protecting the interest of the public while advocating and acting in the best interest of their client, employer, or organization.

      These are the undertones of the PRSA's COE advisory. It could be said that it could be condensed further into the phrase: 'if it feels wrong, don't do it', however, each individual is primed and shaped differently throughout their lives. This means that allowing individuals to act according to their own conscience results in a varied definition of what is ethical. Sans some sort of ethical standard, PR practitioners are left to make decisions on their own, which could be chaos. 



      The PRSA's Code of Ethics exist as a reference point for when you are feeling ethically challenged. In addition to the guidelines mentioned earlier, the PRSA also includes extensions of the PRSA code in the case you find yourself in similar situations. In these situations, law and morality mix leaving you to a choice on what to do in that circumstance. That is when these Ethical Standard Advisories (ESAs) come into play while portraying how thin the line is between ethics and law. The right thing to do in most of these situations is to choose the situation that affects the least amount, if any amount, of people. 

      Thus far, we have considered concepts regarding the idea to mandate ethical decision making. It must be implied here, now, that while their relationship is symbiotic, must remain separate. Think of morality as Batman - it exists outside of the law to be vague and mysterious allowing us to do what needs to be done, in accordance with the law of course, but in a way the law cannot. Public relations practitioners are the Batman.

Trouble

Look at the state of the world we live in and understand we are in trouble. The juxtaposition of the way things are and how they should be is cause for alarm. We should be living in a world where knowing what it feels like to be in pain is exactly why we try to be kind to others, instead, knowing pain teaches people to hate in the wake of lost ethical understanding and moral teaching. We hold fast to the idea that one day everyone will understand each other, or, at the very least, understand – but nobody seems to know what they are doing. - Geoffrey Mckinney 2016

When we left you last, we were discussing civil disobedience, contractarianism, and how society relinquished certain rights in order to safely pursue happiness - but somewhere along the lines the people decided what they had was no longer enough. As a society we hold organizations to a higher standard than we hold our fellow man because they provide us with a service that assists us in obtaining happiness. When they transgress against us we feel betrayed and we confront them. We point the unethical treatment finger towards them and blame them for the current state of the environment and society. Organizations developed a conscience long before we regained our own. Their conscience is just a spark, but it has the potential to become a fire. Their conscience are known as public relations, and the PRSA's Code of Ethics, they claim, is their quick go to when they are feeling ethically challenged.

“As rational beings, humans need to live together under universal rules, which each could adopt and make his own…the willingness to behave morally (or avoid wronging others), driven by the call of conscience and intellectual honesty is one of the reasons for…the PRSA Code of Ethics” (Scopacasa 2016). The Public Relations Society of America and its Code of Ethics exists as the first building block to a greater society. At the very least, it is an attempt to inspire ethical behavior in the cut-throat, organizational world. In its best, the PRSA’s code is the first building block towards ethical law for public interest in a world where nobody knows exactly what’s best for public interest – it being something decided for the public in legal court or the court of public opinion. To put the latter half in easier terms, legal courts try to determine how individuals should act based on law (which is severely flawed) and the court of public opinion tries the very same (which is severely diverse and uneducated). On one hand we have this super-computer like entity that decides what your rights are based on law in a one-size fits all format on the other we have the court of public opinion which is akin to a bunch of kindergarteners running around at recess saying “well, my mommy said…”. The third entity intends for us to follow reason rather than law or emotion and, as such, is required in order to check and balance the other two which will always conflict – this is the potential offered by the PRSA’s Code of Ethics. However, the current Code of Ethics exercises very little in the realm of ethics and is designed for personal reflections and for show.

             Currently, the PRSA’s Code of Ethics itself is designed to be a “useful guide for PRSA members as they carry out their ethical responsibilities…designed to anticipate and accommodate, by precedent, ethical challenges that may arise” (Voss 2016). The PRSA’s code is in its adolescent stage – it has many ideas, hopes, and potentials, yet, it lacks reality. There are many problems with the current PRSA’s Code of Ethics (henceforth may be referred to as the COE). For example, the pledge at the end of the COE’s guidelines refers to the obligations to public interest without pledging an obligation to the client (when ultimately, the goal of the PR practitioner is to generate and ROI for the organization). This pledge, along with the entirety of the COE, is more about image than it is about professionalism. It is for public show, and that claim is backed up by the fact that public relations itself has a plethora of methods to manipulate public thought for the benefit of organizations.

For example, it is a public relations strategy to aid the organization in positioning. A Strategic Guide for Public Relations offers advice on positioning, claiming “positioning is not what you do to a product. Positioning is what you do to the mind of the prospect” (Smith 2009, p. 80). The COE claims that a PRSA member “must be honest and accurate in all communications” (Voss 2016); The COE, which can be viewed by the public and PR practitioners alike, fails to mention concepts such as the framing that is done through advertisement to the target audience which is the public and the measurements, such as the Likert scale, PR practitioners forego to see if the message put out was received the way they wanted it to. This is morally complicated. “Deceit and lack of access to the sources of knowledge are morally objectionable because they prevent us from… [our abilities] to know and…to guide choice and action” (MacKinnon 2013, p. 58). Simply put, how ethical is it to claim to be in the interests of the public while concurrently claiming to be honest and forthright, when in reality it is the job of PR practitioners to serve the organization and persuade the minds of their publics? The intent within the COE claims “to build trust with the public by revealing all information needed for responsible decision making” (Voss 2016) but doesn’t include the fact that PR practitioners also reveal their information in such a way to guide their decision making. This is one of the problems that the COE must rectify; it does include that practitioners are there to serve their clients but it doesn’t show to what extent that service affects the public. When a Code of Ethics claims to represent honesty it should steer away from showing the public that PR exists for their sake mostly and portray the advocacy for dual interests in its entirety. After all, the reality is that Public Relations does care about the interests of the public, but the interests PR cares about is how interested the public is with their client’s organization from various standpoints.

Now, PRSA’s Code of Ethics is still a helpful tool. It does provide guidelines in the benefit of mutual understanding between publics and organizations. The underlying concept of it all does, in fact, encourage ethical behavior. For example, it is the job of the public relations practitioner to maintain a favorable image of their client in the eyes of their public(s). In order to do that, PR is obligated to ensure that the organization is, in fact, acting favorably. For example, PR is responsible for the organization’s approach to its corporate social responsibility – which is the organization’s ethical code – and this responsibility is included within the PRSA’s COE: “to aid informed decision-making” (Voss 2016). To aid in informed decision-making also encompasses and validates the research PR practitioners do in order to generate their ROIs. So to be fair, a large portion of the PRSA’s Code of Ethics does advise one to “act in the best interest of the client or employer” (Voss 2016). However, the COE also claims that there should be an intent to “maintain the integrity of relationships with the media, government officials, and the public” (Voss 2016). However, it does not necessarily explain how to deal with conflicts between the obligation to free and honest public communication and their client’s interests. This murkiness requires clarification – especially because it advises that in the event of a conflict of interest a member shall “act in the best interests of the client or employer, even subordinating the member’s personal interests” (Voss 2016). It makes sense that we are being paid by the client, therefore we have a professional obligation to the client. Concurrently, however, the COE states in its preamble that “we serve the public good…we have taken on a special obligation to operate ethically” (Voss 2016). The COE claims commitment to ethical practices. Ethics teach us to “always treat humanity, whether in your own person or that of another, never simply as a means but always at the same time as an end…[meaning] that we should treat persons as having value in themselves and not just instrumental value” (MacKinnon 2013, p. 47). Basically, the aforementioned proves that the COE lacks clarity and a direct focus on what a member’s objectives should be. One cannot look right and left at the same time and one should favor one side. Because journalism already exists as an advocate to the truth and to bring light to the public, then public relations is directly tied to advocate the organization. If we deem something ‘unethical’ and will damage the public the COE infers that we should toss aside our own personal interests and “safeguard the confidences and privacy rights of present…clients” (Voss 2016). 

So to put it simply:

1.      It is the duty of public relations members to safeguard the confidences and privacy rights of current clients.

2.      Members are responsible for aiding and informing the organization in decision making.

3.      If or when something comes up that could damage the reputation of the organization in the eyes of the public it is then your duty to reveal this information through controlled channels to protect the overall image of the company.

This article will conclude with the observation of how flawed the current PRSA's Code of Ethics is. Next week we will begin a full dissection and analysis of the current COE and begin the revising and amendments. If we can agree that there is something missing from the world as it is, perhaps we can do something about it. Perhaps what the world needs now - is not love per se - but strong ethical guidance and moral understanding. 

References

MacKinnon, B. (2013). Ethics: Theory and contemporary issues. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Pub.

Smith, R. D. (2009). Strategic planning for public relations. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.

Scopacasa, J. (2016, January 6). Ethics in PR: A moral and utilitarian analysis of the PRSA Code. Retrieved from https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ethics-pr-moral-utilitarian-analysis-prsa-code-jessica-scopacasa

Voss, J. (n.d.). Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Member Code of Ethics. Retrieved October 02, 2016, from https://www.prsa.org/aboutprsa/ethics/codeenglish/#Preamble 

 Cudd, A. (2012). Contractarianism. Retrieved October 28, 2016, from http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/contractarianism/