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-
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.”32
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—
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.”33
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
What did people like P. T. Barnum and Buffalo Bill Cody contribute to the development of modern public relations in the twentieth century?
How did railroads and utility companies give the early forms of corporate public relations a bad name?
What contributions did Ivy Lee make toward the development of modern PR?
How did Edward Bernays affect public relations?
The Practice of Public Relations
What are two approaches to organizing a PR firm?
What are press releases, and why are they important to reporters?
What is the difference between a VNR and a PSA?
What is a pseudo-
What special events might a PR firm sponsor to build stronger ties to its community?
Why have research and lobbying become increasingly important to the practice of PR?
How does the Internet change the way in which public relations communicates with an organization’s many publics?
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
Explain the historical background of the antagonism between journalism and public relations.
How did PR change old relationships between journalists and their sources?
In what ways is conventional news like public relations?
How does journalism as a profession contribute to its own manipulation at the hands of competent PR practitioners?
Public Relations and Democracy
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
What do you think of when you hear the term public relations? What images come to mind? Where did these impressions come from?
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 steps can reporters and editors take to monitor PR agents who manipulate the news media?
Overall, are social media platforms a good thing for practicing public relations, or do they present more problems than they are worth?
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
REVIEW WITH LEARNINGCURVE LearningCurve, available on LaunchPad for Media & Culture, uses gamelike quizzing to help you master the concepts you need to learn from this chapter.
VIDEO: GOING VIRAL: POLITICAL CAMPAIGNS AND VIDEO Online video has changed political campaigning forever. In this video, Peggy Miles of Intervox Communications discusses how politicians use the Internet to reach out to voters.