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.”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—
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.
public relations, 415
press agents, 416
publicity, 418
propaganda, 423
press releases, 424
video news releases (VNRs), 424
public service announcements (PSAs), 424
pseudo-event, 427
lobbying, 429
astroturf lobbying, 430
flack, 433
REVIEW QUESTIONS
Early Developments in Public Relations
The Practice of Public Relations
Tensions between Public Relations and the Press
Public Relations and Democracy
QUESTIONING THE MEDIA
LAUNCHPAD FOR MEDIA & CULTURE