Chapter Review

COMMON THREADS

One of the Common Threads in Chapter 1 is the role that media play in a democracy. One key ethical contradiction that can emerge in PR is that (according to the PRSA Code of Ethics) PR should be honest and accurate in disclosing information while being loyal and faithful to clients and their requests for confidentiality and privacy. In this case, how does the general public know when public communications are the work of paid advocacy, particularly when public relations plays such a strong role in U.S. politics?

Public relations practitioners who are members of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) are obligated to follow the PRSA Code of Ethics. Members are asked to sign a pledge to conduct themselves “professionally, with truth, accuracy, fairness, and responsibility to the public.”

Yet the code is not enforceable, and many public relations professionals simply ignore the PRSA. For example, only 14 of PR giant Burson-Marsteller’s 2,200 worldwide employees are PRSA members.34 Most lobbyists in Washington have to register with the House and Senate, so there is some public record of their activities to influence politics. Conversely, public relations professionals working to influence the political process don’t have to register, so unless they act with the highest ethical standards and disclose what they are doing and who their clients are, they operate in relative secrecy.

According to National Public Radio (NPR), public relations professionals in Washington, D.C., work to engineer public opinion in advance of lobbying efforts to influence legislation. As NPR reported, “For PR folks, conditioning the legislative landscape means trying to shape public perception. So their primary target is journalists like Lyndsey Layton, who writes for the Washington Post. She says she gets about a dozen emails or phone calls in a day.”35

Less ethical work includes assembling phony “astroturf” front groups to engage in communication campaigns to influence legislators, spreading unfounded rumors about an opposing side, and entertaining government officials in violation of government reporting requirements—all things the PRSA code prohibits. Yet these are all-too-frequent practices in the realm of political public relations.

PRSA CEO Rosanna Fiske decries this kind of unethical behavior in her profession. “It’s not that ethical public relations equals good public relations,” Fiske says. “It is, however, that those who do not practice ethical public relations affect all of us, regardless of the environment in which we work, and the causes we represent.”36

KEY TERMS

The definitions for the terms listed below can be found in the glossary at the end of the book. The page numbers listed with the terms indicate where the term is highlighted in the chapter.

REVIEW QUESTIONS

Early Developments in Public Relations

  1. Question

    What did people like P. T. Barnum and Buffalo Bill Cody contribute to the development of modern public relations in the twentieth century?
    What did people like P. T. Barnum and Buffalo Bill Cody contribute to the development of modern public relations in the twentieth century?

  2. Question

    How did railroads and utility companies give the early forms of corporate public relations a bad name?
    How did railroads and utility companies give the early forms of corporate public relations a bad name?

  3. Question

    What contributions did Ivy Lee make toward the development of modern PR?
    What contributions did Ivy Lee make toward the development of modern PR?

  4. Question

    How did Edward Bernays affect public relations?
    How did Edward Bernays affect public relations?

The Practice of Public Relations

  1. Question

    What are two approaches to organizing a PR firm?
    What are two approaches to organizing a PR firm?

  2. Question

    What are press releases, and why are they important to reporters?
    What are press releases, and why are they important to reporters?

  3. Question

    What is the difference between a VNR and a PSA?
    What is the difference between a VNR and a PSA?

  4. Question

    What is a pseudo-event? How does it relate to the manufacturing of news?
    What is a pseudo-event? How does it relate to the manufacturing of news?

  5. Question

    What special events might a PR firm sponsor to build stronger ties to its community?
    What special events might a PR firm sponsor to build stronger ties to its community?

  6. Question

    Why have research and lobbying become increasingly important to the practice of PR?
    Why have research and lobbying become increasingly important to the practice of PR?

  7. Question

    How does the Internet change the way in which public relations communicates with an organization’s many publics?
    How does the Internet change the way in which public relations communicates with an organization’s many publics?

  8. Question

    What are some socially responsible strategies that a PR specialist can use during a crisis to help a client manage unfavorable publicity?
    What are some socially responsible strategies that a PR specialist can use during a crisis to help a client manage unfavorable publicity?

Tensions between Public Relations and the Press

  1. Question

    Explain the historical background of the antagonism between journalism and public relations.
    Explain the historical background of the antagonism between journalism and public relations.

  2. Question

    How did PR change old relationships between journalists and their sources?
    How did PR change old relationships between journalists and their sources?

  3. Question

    In what ways is conventional news like public relations?
    In what ways is conventional news like public relations?

  4. Question

    How does journalism as a profession contribute to its own manipulation at the hands of competent PR practitioners?
    How does journalism as a profession contribute to its own manipulation at the hands of competent PR practitioners?

Public Relations and Democracy

  1. Question

    In what ways does the profession of public relations serve the process of election campaigns? In what ways can it impede election campaigns?
    In what ways does the profession of public relations serve the process of election campaigns? In what ways can it impede election campaigns?

QUESTIONING THE MEDIA

  1. Question

    What do you think of when you hear the term public relations? What images come to mind? Where did these impressions come from?
    What do you think of when you hear the term public relations? What images come to mind? Where did these impressions come from?

  2. Question

    What might a college or university do to improve public relations with homeowners on the edge of a campus who have to deal with noisy student parties and a shortage of parking spaces?
    What might a college or university do to improve public relations with homeowners on the edge of a campus who have to deal with noisy student parties and a shortage of parking spaces?

  3. Question

    What steps can reporters and editors take to monitor PR agents who manipulate the news media?
    What steps can reporters and editors take to monitor PR agents who manipulate the news media?

  4. Question

    Overall, are social media platforms a good thing for practicing public relations, or do they present more problems than they are worth?
    Overall, are social media platforms a good thing for practicing public relations, or do they present more problems than they are worth?

  5. Question

    Considering the BP, Tylenol, and NFL concussion cases cited in this chapter, what are some key things an organization can do to respond effectively once a crisis hits?
    Considering the BP, Tylenol, and NFL concussion cases cited in this chapter, what are some key things an organization can do to respond effectively once a crisis hits?

LAUNCHPAD FOR MEDIA & CULTURE