Ethics and professionalism in public relations | A Detailed Academic Analysis
Ethics and professionalism in public relations
.png)
This essay will discuss the
evolution of public relations practices, public relations practices are
continuously progressing since humans started interacting with each other. But
there is a huge difference between moral and kindly interacting with
people, and maintaining professional and ethical public relations practices.
This essay will discuss when and how these ethics and professional practices
were required to develop and will discuss the different stages of development
in public relations practices. Also, the importance of the code of ethics to
maintain professionalism, and also its importance in specific fields like
ethics for individuals and ethics for news media, will be discussed in the essay
to clarify the importance of public relations practices. It is also very
necessary to identify, who is responsible for public relations practices
and on what level, so it will also be identified with some professional code of
ethics (real standards). And at the end discussing the problems, practitioners
faced during the progress of public relations practices progress. And will end
with a conclusion of the essay. So the evolution and progress in public
relations practices in terms of ethics and professionalism will completely be
explained.
Public relations have changed
completely since the second half of the 19th century, most professionals said
that public relations existed in World War 1 (1914-1918), but that was not
somehow the professional ethics
James Dowling was the president of
the largest Public relations firm Burson-Marsteller, he explained the evolution
of PR in a very excellent way during an interview in the New York Times
News Channel. His interview was published in the newspaper. When talking about
the evolution of public relations practices, He said that “in the 1950s the
question raised by the companies was, “How should we say this? When talking
about the evolution of public relations practices, He said that “in the 1950s
the question raised by the companies was, “Why should we say? And today, the
question “What should we do?” So we can say that basically public relations
practices have developed in three stages
The first stage was the time when
the practitioners were just concerned about promoting public relations
practices to the companies and individuals to get recognition for it. This was
the Publicity Phase of public relations. Then in the next phase, which was
called, as Explanatory Phase of public relations, the development
practitioners. This was the time of providing information to the organization
to help them to maintain an articulate set of rules to support, which they are
doing. So the customers acknowledge and understand the organizational work. And
now in the mutual satisfaction phase of public-relations practitioners want both, organizations and individuals to follow the practices to help each other.
In these days the main concern is about information exchange
Any profession cannot succeed until
supported by the professional code of ethics. Ethics are the regulations
applied to organizations and their individuals, which they are bound to follow.
Their work and dealing must be according to the code of ethics set for them to
help maintain professional behavior, the behavior of the organization is all that
needed to be controlled. Different countries and organizations set different
codes of ethics according to the culture and nature of the business. It has
changed from time to time as human nature changes. So it is also the reason for
such rapidly progressing public relations practices. In companies and
industries, these codes of ethics are as important as laws in a country. No one
can break them. These codes of ethics are formulated by some senior and
specialized members of the organization. They made these codes of ethics by
considering their moral values and the social status of the public related to them.
Also, an individual when adapting the code of ethics boosts his career by
building a good impression about his personality and it increases his
self-esteem and confidence. And serve as a professional benchmark to all those working
at his level
While discussing public
relations practices and ethics, we should clarify the importance of public
relations in both the public and private sectors separately. Public companies are
supported by the government. They have their code of ethics provided and
enforced by the government regulations, and they are bound to follow that, but in
case of any violation, there is not any risk of a fine for the entire company
or the risk of loss for the company. They are backed by the government. But in
the case of private companies, they have their set of regulations provided by
regulations and also some enforced by the members and directors of the company,
they are bound to follow, for the living of the company because if the behavior
of the company is unacceptable they can lose their customers and also the
goodwill of the company which may be everything to them. Due to this the
public-relations practice progressively developed. Organizations are the only
place where all types of ethics basically exist and are followed especially private companies have played a vital role in it.
The most important and critical
relationship to be maintained by the public-relations practice is the News
Media. Anything which is not based on truth and honesty can destroy the overall
reliability of the media channel. The media persons only provide public
information to the people, so they have to be very careful. Media is the only
source to inform and develop the nation. It can also destroy the nation if the media is biased and fake.
Some codes of ethics by nations can
clarify the ethical boundaries for media. In 2010, “Norms of Journalist
conduct” were issued by the Press Council of India (PCI) stating that: “Ethical
principles must be followed by the journalists while reporting to the public as
erroneous reporting may lead to chaos, misapprehension, and fuel the prevailing
injustice in the society34”
PCI in 2013-2014 stated that: The
complaints fall under two categories, complaints against the press and by the
press. More than the cases that come to it for disposal, several recent
controversies involving members of print media do not come to it like election
time paid news, cases of regional newspapers, hate speech and so on”
The
Pakistani news channel DAWN NEWS had also provided its Code of ethics on
its official website. Here are some important ethics:
“A
journalist:
- “Must
uphold the highest professional and ethical standards and ensure that the
information/editorial content being provided by him/her is fair, unbiased,
and accurate.”
- “Shall
avoid falsification by distortion, selection or misrepresentation.”
- “Shall do
his/her utmost to correct inaccuracies.”
- “Shall, at
all times, defend the freedom of the press and other media concerning
the collection of information and the expression of comment and
criticism.”
- “Shall strive to eliminate distortion and news
suppression”
This is a clear image of how
important the code of ethics is and how conscious the countries and channels
are about public relations, that’s why they are consistently developing their
code of ethics.
Public relations are a duty to whom?
This question is also very important to be answered if you are discussing the
progress of the code of ethics because we can then understand which areas have
developed for what reasons. The code of ethics is basically the four types of
duties, which are Duty to self, Duty to clients or organization, Duty to
society, and Duty to the profession. Duty to self is the professional ethical
code, which is for every individual whether in any post or position. These are
the morals of humanity that are enforced by our own self. Fair dealing in local
business and speaking nicely and not hurting anyone with the hand or tongue are examples of this Duty. 2nd one is Duty to the client or organization, which is
the duty of mutual interest and business dealing. Customers and organizations must maintain essential discipline and their behaviors
according to the code of ethics which may be related to financial
transactions or future dealings. The person who does not follow these cans is
fired from a job also. 3rd is the Duty of society. Society needs to be very
mature ethical and responsible for the atmosphere of society. Fair dealing
in local business and speaking nicely and not hurting anyone with the hand or
tongue are examples of this Duty. Even now industries are also considering society while making the code of conduct. The last one is Duty to the Profession. It can be assumed as the duty of the practitioner to take
responsibility for the respect of the profession. If someone is in a profession
and he has done such an act it will be a spot in his profession. It is also
unethical
After discussing all these elements
there is no doubt remains about the progress and the requirement of this work for
professional ethics of public relations. When there is such rapid progress in
public relations, there were some struggles and challenges which the
practitioners faced in this progress. The reasons were, some people have public relations due to some bad manners and behaviors. They
don’t need any code of ethics. Also, another problem was, practitioners have
worked a lot to maintain the code of ethics and some people don’t follow them
which harms the setup and all individual performance. It was very difficult
to stop them.
If now come to the conclusion,
public relations practices are continuously progressing since humans started
interacting with each other. Practitioners have faced some problems, but they
have continuously worked and now this became part of our laws and ethics.
This started before World War 1, at a very low level, only in the organizations
but as time passes we have developed so fast. We are now in a world, where
everyone has somehow been required to follow ethics, from home to school, from
job to business, even when you are traveling or sitting in a park there are
some ethics you must follow. Organizational culture stands first in the
progress of public-relations progress and especially in the private sector.
Bibliography
CUFF, D. F., 1988. BUSINESS PEOPLE; New Chief Is
Chosen At Burson-Marsteller. The Times’s print archive, 07 january,
pp. 1-3.
Dawn News, 2010. Dawn
News. Islamabad: DAWN NEWS.
Dr. Tyotom Keghku, F.
a., 2013. ETHICS AND PROFESSIONALISM IN PUBLIC RELATIONS. marketing
articles, 8 april, pp. 1-5.
N., N. B., 2014. Media
Ethics: Different Perspectives, Bangalore: International Science Congress
Association.
Ralph Tench, L. Y.,
2006. Ethics and professionalism in public relations. In: L. Y. Ralph Tench,
ed. Exploring Public Relations. s.l.:FT Prentice Hall, pp. 296-297.
Simona Duhalm, „. A.,
2010. Studies and Scientific Researches͘EconomicƐ Edition. The role and
importance of public relations at non-governmental, l(15), pp. 1-3.
Turney, M., 2010. Evolution
of modern public Relation. [Online]
Available at: https://www.nku.edu/~turney/prclass/readings/3eras.html
[Accessed 05 march 2019].
Comments
Post a Comment