Ethics in Public Relations

Mass communication is an area that requires a very well developed code of ethics. Ethics in mass communication can be considered a way to achieving greater success. Impeccable morality and correct information networking are deemed to create transparency and build trust with a company’s stakeholders. Being transparent overcomes one major challenge: succeeding while keeping reputation intact.

Public relations is an area that can be considered to have a major impact on a company’s image, integrity and reliability. As recent events have shown in the case of Goldman Sachs [Gorenstein (2010)] and British Petroleum (BP) [Leake (2010)], their images have been tarnished by internal conflicts and mismanagement and it is now up to the public relations department to put their prestige back on track. The fact that those behind the public relations department are likely to be unknown by the external crowd, gives this body an even greater impact and is thus shielded by the public outcry in case of any unfortunate event. In the case of BP, the only one held responsible for the oil spill was the Chairman himself and not one of the PR department’s members. They were and are still faced with the task of cleaning up behind the curtains BP’s image of a strong, multinational and reliable company.

Like other forms of media, public relations is often accused of being a potential tool for manipulating the masses. The existence of a well implemented deontology can avoid such
problems. This deontology should assume and emphasize the ethical implications that public relations may have. According to Heath (2004), “Improving public relations ethics (codes) has been seen as a key component in achieving greater professionalism in the field”.

Some can say that the only way to practice ethical PR is to work in NGO's, then all for profit organisations or corporations practicing PR are fundamentally unethical in their activity. This cannot be taken as sustainable evidence, unless we consider that making money is an unethical act.

Even if PR has its own codes of conduct not all the practitioners are following them step by step. However the ability to engage in ethical reasoning in public relations is growing in demand, in importance and in responsibility. Academic research, university education, and professional practice are all paying attention more than ever to matters of ethics. Careful and consistent ethical analyses facilitate trust, which enhances the building and maintenance of relationships – which is the ultimate purpose of the public relations function.