Ethical and Legal Issues in Public Relations Writing - Essay Example

Chapter 2: Ethical and Legal Issues in Public Relations Writing

Public relations writing are full of logical thoughts and ethical dilemmas. However, writers need to come up with writing techniques that do not violate the primary thesis of ethics and a good picture to the public. They should also learn how to ghostwrite on behalf of other persons. Persuasion is at times considered unethical by some individuals as they have a belief in the provision of unbiased information, especially by most politicians (Black, 2013). Some of the unethical persuasive techniques used include the use of logical fallacies and testimonials. On the other hand, unethical use of language fallacies is intentionally used and includes equivocation, amphiboly, and emotive language.

Ghostwriting is another common trait of public relations writers. As per the public relations society of America, a writer should be honest and accurate when communicating, should correct the communication errors in a prompt way, preserve the intellectual property rights i.e. plagiarism and copyright and should know the truth of the information released through investigation (Black, 2013). The advances in technology have, however, made communication easier than before. Writers can reach and persuade people over the internet through blogging and social media marketing.

Moreover, public relations writers are pledged to particular laws that are meant to safeguard other authors. Authors should not use their communication to harm others. Also, they should hold up other people to hatred, ridicule or scorn (defamation). Writers should strictly not infringe other party’s privacy through plagiarism (Black, 2013). They should, however, know of the copyright and should not use other publications freely without charge or without seeking the owner. The writers should, therefore, seek for trademarks for their books to ensure that their work is protected to avoid usage by other people who are not associated with the work.

Chapter 6: Ethics

Public relations are differentiated from other business pursuits by ethics, i.e., their code of conduct. Public relations members should have ethical values that help them in decision making, and they include advocacy, being honest, being independent, loyal, fair and showing expertise in their work. Public relations members should never lie and should be truthful in whatever they say and do (Black, 2013). Ethics in today’s business has deteriorated as business people tend to lie for their own benefits and interests. Corporate executives gain million of dollars from the public by using lies. This has however reduced the confidence in business. For example from the survey conducted in 2011, a majority of the employees lacked trust in their managers as they lacked ethical behaviors.

In the government, due to political competitiveness, many politicians are not trustworthy and lack moral values. On the other hand, ethics in journalism should be highly accorded to. A journalist should respect privacy and rights of the information gatherers. Unfortunately, today’s media lacks ethical behaviors as major newspapers in America have recently been in scandals of plagiarism (Black, 2013). The journalist code of ethics requires them to provide information to the public without favor, or through privileges. However, in public relations, ethics should be integrated and practiced. The PR members should serve their clients with full capacity to achieve, maintain accuracy and truthfulness when communicating, and respect their workers’ personal rights.

Corporate social responsibility determines how most firms are managed to reflect on a positive impact on society. This is achieved by exercising good governance and companies being responsible for their employees’ behavior. The public relations professionalism increases trust and confidence from the public and defines the clear image of the PR members to the society.

Chapter 7: The Law

Lawyers and public relations professionals work in close cooperation since they work in concert, and their primary target is the public. They work mainly to gain confidence and trust from the public. However, PR professionals should understand the law to make careful decisions. Law and ethics are related since most unethical issues are illegal (Black, 2013). They can differentiate between legal and ethical activities. The first amendment states that the Congress does not amend the law that curtails the freedom of speech to individuals and society. PR professionals should, however, should be aware of the protection of citizen’s privacy under the law and trying to infringe it is against the law and shall lead to prosecution (Black, 2013). They should moreover, know the regulations behind the governance of their organizations and industry. The public relations advisors should be careful deliver public information when exchanging securities.

The copyright protection of PR writers should be protected to ensure their work is not accessed by individuals who never participated in their development and only gives the owner the authority to reproduce it or authorize others to reproduce it. The internet has been used to affect the freedom of speech; thus, the internet law has to be implemented to control the utilization of the web to communicate. The disclosure law has been pushing the firms and public relations to give accurate information to the public (Black, 2013). Gaining of domain names and e-frauding should be abolished to safeguard the protection of the writers’ privacy and intellectual property. Litigation of public relations helps during the handling of trials by juries in the courtroom n a fair manner. The outcome cannot be biased, and this ensures justice is awarded to the victims.

Summary of the State of the Neglect

Practitioners who ethically argue for public relations and keep high moral values, experiences business stability and their role to the shareholders. Specialists who conduct business in a moral manner by involving moral counsels in making their critical decisions make the firm more profitable in the long run (Bowen, 2004). The principles may cost the company on a short term for example redesigning of a product but provides more long-term benefits. Ethical counsel and paying close attention to the moral actions will improve the company’s credibility, reliability and builds public trust.

Ethical counselors demand on a high rise, but many firms are reluctant to adopt them and enact their role. Antiethical practitioners favor professionally perspectives of ethics and legal codes. On the other hand, pro ethical professionals’ role is in demand for counseling the external public. From the research, Ryan was able to note that moral conscience plays a role in allowing public relations practitioners to work in areas of expertise in the firm and public (Bowen, 2004). Maintenance of the well-being of the company and the public can be enhanced via performance of the role of ethics counsel by the PR professionals. However, according to Bowen (2004), an ethical conscience that supports a social firm can expand their connection with the specific public due to the trust it builds. Ethical behavior enables the company to create long-term relationships and stability thus enabling efficiency. Nevertheless, ethics should be included in the certain roles in the firm to reinforce organizational effectiveness. However, there is a need for high communication levels from the public ethical corporate behavior regarding accountability and transparency (Bowen, 2004). Finally, moral conscience does not only serve the public and corporate interests but also serve as a management function of the public relations.

Summary of It’s Not The PR That’s Bad

The journal highlights six companies with problems caused by ethical issues. The organizations include BP and the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, Apple Inc. and Antennagate, Hewlett-Packard Company, Johnson & Johnson and Toyota Motor Corporation (Jennings, 2011). The BP and Deepwater Oil Co. was in a mess of oil spill due to lack of ethical behavior among its employees. The managers did not repair the damaged pump due regarding the high costs accrued to the activity. The loss in the company was not due to the PR but the ethics of the managers that led to making of poor decisions.

However, for the Apple Inc., its iPhone 4 product had a problem with the location of its antennae which led to consumer complaints. However, the managers ignored this claim and finally resulted in decreased trust from the public (Jennings, 2011). This was an ethical scenario that would be solved to maintain the public trust and confidence. Similar to Apple Inc. the Toyota did not rectify its problem with its brand of vehicles after the customers raised complaints. However, the corporation denied and obfuscated the issue which later led to a drop in its sales and also lost consumer faith. For the Hewlett-Packard co. had judged its CEO poorly for the violating the trading laws through his frequent inconsistency in making of reports. This led to the board losing faith in him and finally he had to resign.

Finally, the Johnson & Johnson Co. was unable to handle its products after a call in 2010 (Jennings, 2011). However, the companies’ study subjects a lesson to many that when consumers raise complaints, the firm should not condemn the customer’s lack of intelligence but rather should look for the cause of the problem and solve it. Moreover, the problem should be fixed once noted as its cost is likely to increase as more consumers realize it thus leading to losing of faith and trust of the clients.

Ethics Statements of Public Relations

A study was conducted to exemplify the scenario around the activities concerning ethics statement in the United States public relations firms. Despite an increase in PR scholarship, the focus on ethics over the years, its prevalence, and content of the PR agencies have not been reviewed. Understanding the status of the ethics in firms and providing perception need to follow to improve the ethics statement (Boynton, 2007). The prevalence and importance of ethics statement have been accelerating over firms, governments, and corporations. This raises a concern that many public relations should propose principles in a statement as an initial step towards promoting ethical relations in public activities.

Also, the study identified a direct relationship between how large the public relations companies are in the form of the number of branch agencies and its total value of workers and the effectiveness of ethics statement traits. Large PR agencies will offer public relations professional’s expertise. The study also found out that small PR companies formed in the 80s and 90s showed large moral values as compared to their older counterparts (Boynton, 2007). Also, the study showed that the connectivity between small corporations and specific values inclusive in the ethics statement with bigger companies showed more outlined values. The outcome indicated the struggle that public relations sector has in its attempt to move forward in an expertise and moral way.

Ethics statement alone cannot maintain moral behaviors; experts have stressed on organized principles and systematic sizes of PR companies to provide a high level of expertise and moral work. Management regions should stress on implementing of ethics statements within the agencies (Boynton, 2007).

Public Relations and Propaganda

Over the past years, controversy has arisen concerning the spending of particular executive branch agencies of the funds appropriated for public relations activities. This led to them being termed as propaganda. There exist two restrictions that legally restrict agencies activities on public relations and propaganda. Firstly, the 5 U.S.C 3107 that limits the utilization of funds that will be used to hire professionals (Bowen, 2004). The law of appropriation restricts the use of money for hyping an agency, coverting propaganda and biased communications. No governmental agencies monitors activities of the government public relations but any member of the Congress Committee can request government accountability offices to exemplify the use on public relations chores.

Three challenges face the efforts of reforming restrictions on the public relations agency chores. These include; tracking of PR activities, understanding the meaning of propaganda and enforcing regulations against agency utilization of funds for public professionals and propaganda (Bowen, 2004). Secondly, the introduction of the S. 266 by the Senate that is meant to define propaganda and publicity summarize the communication types that make up the propaganda. It also offers financial forfeiture for the managing team officials who authorize the utilization of funds for the public and propaganda and also providing protection for whistleblowing for workers who act to support this principle.

Enforcement of restrictions against executive agencies’ utilization of funds to hire public agents is faced with problems found in various government branches in the constitution. Thus, enactment of restrictions on agencies’ spending on public professionals endures separation of powers hindrance (Bowen, 2004). The Congress, however, has the authority to enforce changes in the behavior of the agency. It may reduce the agency’s powers.