Values, Ethics and Trust relating to PR

In the forthcoming posts i aim to give my views and open debate on the following statement

'In a society that has been shown to enjoy gossip fed by rumour and speculation, discuss honesty and fairness as they relate to the successful practice of public relations'

How important is values, ethics and trust? In our society isn’t it the blueprint for laws and allows guidelines for how we operate? As we know however laws are broken, people are sent to jail and people are often not treated as equals. Therefore is it safe to assume that honesty and fairness is not always at the forefront of how society operates? If we compare this to Public Relations is every PR campaign focused around the centre of the truth?

Parsons and Parsons [2008, page.15] quoted ‘members in the institute in public relations must agree to deal honestly and fairly in business with employers, employees, clients, fellow professionals and the public’. This in theory indicates very strongly the truth in PR however in a quote from the same book it is said ‘the public are always sceptical of the truth’ which shows society enjoys gossip and that telling the truth isn’t always effective.

One of the main roles of PR is to at least maintain or improve a companies or brands reputation. This doesn’t always happen with the honest truth being told as The Pillars of PR ethics would like you to do [the first pillar is Veracity]. One example of where veracity isn’t at the forefront is politics and the use of spin doctors. Probably the most famous example is Alastair Campbell who worked for Tony Blair between 1997 – 2003 under the title director of communications and strategy. With the releases of the September and Iraq dossiers Campbell exaggerated the truth in relation to the threat of Weapons of Mass Destruction with the aim of gaining favour to invade which eventually happened. This shows that in my opinion honesty and fairness were not of the most importance as rumour and speculation helped this successful practice of PR.

 The power of the media has heavily influenced how PR is practiced. With the media ever growing through such rises as social media sites Facebook and Twitter it exposes a company to a wider audience. Having a wider audience naturally means more channels for which we can interact with companies whilst also giving greater opportunity for gossip, rumour and speculation to spread. So with the rise of media in one sense honesty and fairness in PR is very important as it easier for all the stakeholders to incorporate two way communication and the relationship becomes more transparent.

How PR is practiced shows the level of professionalism, the way this image of professionalism is created is through a companies code of conduct which is influenced by their attitudes, values and beliefs. With this in mind does the greater access of media make it easier for PR to influence how it is perceived through rumour and speculation? Or does this mean any misdemeanours are more easily exposed through the lack of control PR has over social media meaning advocating honesty is an integral part to the successful practice of PR? What do you think?

With society having such a powerful influence over PR through the growing celebrity culture that we live in the debate of interest to the public compared to public interest arises. The customer is king phrase is appropriate as it puts more pressure on PR to appeal to the customers desire. This can lead to concealing certain details from the public to keep the public interest rather than telling the whole truth of the matter which is most in the public’s interest

After reading this and in your own opinion can PR be successful telling the truth the whole time or is the very nature of PR to promote a certain image through rumour and speculation?

Thank you for reading and I would welcome any feedback.

References

P, J. Parsons and P, H. Parsons [2008] Ethics in Public Relations: A Guide to Best Practice. Kogan Page Limited