Morality in Public Relations
...to both public relations students and professionals. The rise in concern over ethical issues can be traced to the reaction of the profession to events in the 1980s, which included high-profile instances of insider-trading and covert government foreign policy activities (www.prsa.org). The heated moral and ethical debate is thriving because corporations are now realizing that they have to pay more attention to social demands. The social demands that are most important to publics are ones of honesty, integrity, and values. The fact that public relations has been such a controversial profession for so long has often made me think twice about pursuing it as a career. Whenever in doubt about the morality of the profession I think of myself and the honestly that I hold in my everyday life. I know that this will come through in my work and that I will not be influenced towards dishonest work. The Public Relations Society of America has recently established a new code of ethics with the main focus being placed on universal values that inspire ethical behavior and performance. This society, along with many other public relations organizations, has long been working hard to create the positive image that should be placed on the profession. The fact that these organizations are working hard should be of some relief to practitioners of public relations work. The organizations are working hard to make their jobs easier as well as giving them the credibility that they deserve in their line of work. Opposition to the field of Public Relations may say that the profession is nothing but a bunch of lying, cheating, unprofessional phonies who do nothing but lie for a living. The moral standards that are upheld by the majority of professionals are those of utmost integrity. The fact that there are a few “bad apples” within the field is no reason to expect the worst from all who practice. The opposition towards the practice is unnecessary considering the rarity of negative occurrences. In order for a public relations firm to be an accredited member of the Public Relations Society of America, each PRSA member must fulfill their individual responsibility to make the public relations profession worthy of public confidence. The society then monitors its members by having their Board of Ethics and Professional Standards watch over its members to ensure that they are abiding by the society’s codes. The one problem with this situation is the fact that there are so many different moral codes to go along with as many public relations organizations who have different ideas of what is moral and what is not. The public relations profession will most likel...