Ethically Proactive Public Relations - Essay Example

Principles of Public Relations (PR) To paraphrase Cutlip, Center and Broom (2000, qtd in Noble and Watson, 2005), “Public Relation is the management of function that identifies, establishes and maintains mutually beneficially relationships between an organization and the various publics on whom its success or failure depends (22).” The practice of Public Relation or persuasion should be anchored on the following principles so that a professional may ethically practice such profession. Baker and Martinson (2002) articulated them as such; a) Truthfulness – does not only mean the “literal truth”. It is the practitioner’s dissociation from creating false and dishonest impressions out of factual statements. To be truthful is essential to ethical persuasion inherent in the profession of public relation. b) Authenticity – is consistent with being truthful. It meant practicing the profession with personal integrity. In launching a campaign or any persuasive effort, the practitioner must bear in mind the motive of such persuasive effort that it should transcend beyond the raw self-interest of the client. In observing authenticity, the practitioner should ask itself whether the “publics” will believe the message and if they will benefit if they accept the message. c) Respect- meant that the audience or “public” should not be treated as a mere means towards the client’s self-interest. The persuader or the PR professional should bear in mind that in the practice of the craft, he or she should facilitate better understanding and provide good choices among its audience. d) Equity – the PR practitioner should be fair to the audience. It meant that it should not take advantage of its vulnerabilities just to advance a client’s interest. For example, it will not be equitable for a PR professional that represent a financial institution to craft misleading fiscal statements knowing that its audience lack expertise in the field of audit and accounting. e) Social responsibility – ideally, PR practitioners should practice their craft in a manner that they can contribute to the common good while trying to achieve their objectives. It also meant that they will not only serve those who are the privilege but also those who are less privileged in society. 2. Functions of PR I am interested with I am interested with the community relations function of the PR practice. I am interested with it because it puts me in a position to wield opinion and foster goodwill in the community. I am interested with this function because I am able to facilitate communication and understanding not about the product or the institution that I represent but it also enables me to shape the opinions and perspective of the people. When done ethically, PR has the power to uplift the people from the sinking ignorance and can cast light and understanding during the time of disbelief and skepticism. 3. Significance of the article to the field of public relations The article chosen is significant as it addresses and illustrates the current trend on how information are being shaped and reshaped by an interaction between the public and the information institutions. It shows that perspectives, public opinion and public relations are now shared mutually both by the public and information agencies through the Consumer Generation Media (CGM) which were before belongs to the sole discretion of the companies. In short, the articles’ significance is its relevance on how media is currently being shaped and reshaped by the new platforms such as blogs, social networking sites, websites, media sharing and etch which is used by the generation that I belong and how we are now being empowered by such platforms. 4. Significance of the article to the specific function of public relations The article illustrated how information institutions and companies have changed with the introduction of Consumer Generated Media. The creation and distribution of information is no longer the sole function of the media practitioners as technology has empowered the public not only to add content but also on the manner how those contents will be distributed. The article also presented big companies such as Dell Computers, opportunity to expand its pubic relation function by using a blog (http://www.direct2dell.com) to respond directly to its customers. The former function of public relations which used to be confined to mere dispensation of information has now become an avenue for dialogue and discussion on how to improve product and service as well as fostering goodwill. 5. Opinion of the article I specifically chose the article because I can personally relate with the subject of discussion which is Consumer Generated Media Application or in plain language, how the internet, of which my generation is a heavy user, is able to reshape and change how information is dispensed and how opinions are shaped. I particularly liked this because it recognizes and articulated how empowered we are in this digital age as illustrated in the article when a certain blogger, Jeff Jarvis, made a big computer company like Dell Computers respond to his complain about the company’s product and service through his blog http:www.buzzmachine.com. Through the “Dell Hell” affair in 2006 which was spawned by Jarvis blog, Dell was prompted to improve its service and even set up its own blog (http://www.direct2dell.com) to respond directly to the customers. It made the customer service of Dell improve and empowered us more consumers. Before that, it was very difficult to get the attention of big companies like Dell if we have complaints about their product and service. 6. Was the article helpful and well-written? Why or why not? The article was helpful but not necessarily well written. It was helpful in a way that I was able to gain insight how lucky and empowered we are in this generation because we have the capability to participate on how information are shaped by the Consumer Generated Applications. I liked it because it did not trivialized but rather respected the platform of which my generation is very fond of – the internet. I find the article not well written because it sounds so technical not to mention that it has awkward sentences and a grammatical lapse. I am not a grammar expert but I readily noticed in page 22 an awkward sentence and grammatical error which read “it needs to be overcome in order to be practiced more efficiently.” It is irrelevant in the paragraph not to mention that it is an incomplete and grammatically erroneous thought. VI. Will recommend this article to academics and/or practioners? I will definitely recommend this article to academicians and PR practitioners. The article is timely and relevant with how the landscape of PR is being transformed to being more participative and democratic and can give us students a better perspective of the profession. To the PR practitioners, the article can serve as an update to them on how the profession is being transformed by the new medium which my generation is fond of – the internet. References: Baker, Sherry and Martinson, David L (2002). Out of the Red-Light District: Five Principles for Ethically Proactive Public Relations Public Relations Quarterly. (47)3: pp 15 - 19 Bingqi Feng & Han Li (2009). An Analysis of Consumer Generated Media’s Application in Multicultural Public Relations Practice. China Media Research, 5(4): pp 20 - 30 Noble, Paul and Watson, Tom (2005). Evaluating Public Relations: A best practice guide to public relations planning, research and evaluation. Kogan Page Lt. Sterling, Virgina, USA Read More