{"id":103,"date":"2020-02-06T09:00:45","date_gmt":"2020-02-06T09:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/scoreindia.org\/blog\/?p=103"},"modified":"2024-08-30T08:48:20","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T08:48:20","slug":"ethics-in-public-relations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scoreindia.org\/blog\/ethics-in-public-relations\/","title":{"rendered":"Ethics and PR Professionals!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ethics are the moral principles governing a person&#8217;s behaviour that determine how an activity is conducted. It is also a branch of knowledge that deals with moral principles. In our practical lives, it is the difference between the dos and don\u2019ts, the right and wrongs, the proper and improper, the fair and unfair, and the good and bad. Ethics in public relations form the most important attribute that a public relations professional must possess.<\/p>\n<p>While being ethical is crucial for any profession, it becomes even more important when it comes to professions like Public Relations, as PR deals with communicating information to the masses which is a great responsibility in itself. However, there are umpteen instances of irresponsible behaviour and I have seen professionals crossing the \u2018ethical\u2019 boundary in order to achieve high targets.<\/p>\n<p><em>Interesting Read:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/scoreindia.org\/blog\/public-relations-careers\/\">Why a Career in Public Relations is Awesome!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p>It has become quite frequent in the Public Relations business today to indulge in practices that traverse the moral grounds of conduct. In this profession, some of the common ethical issues range from following ethical ways of developing and maintaining media relations to disseminating the \u2018correct\u2019 information to the masses.The issues mentioned below are a few among the many that need attention today:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>\n<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_76 ez-toc-wrap-left counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-grey ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<div class=\"ez-toc-title-container\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<span class=\"ez-toc-title-toggle\"><a href=\"#\" class=\"ez-toc-pull-right ez-toc-btn ez-toc-btn-xs ez-toc-btn-default ez-toc-toggle\" aria-label=\"Toggle Table of Content\"><span class=\"ez-toc-js-icon-con\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #999;color:#999\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/div>\n<nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/scoreindia.org\/blog\/ethics-in-public-relations\/#Paying_for_News\" >Paying for News:<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/scoreindia.org\/blog\/ethics-in-public-relations\/#Transparency_Ethics_in_Public_Relations\" >Transparency ~ Ethics in Public Relations:<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/scoreindia.org\/blog\/ethics-in-public-relations\/#Inflating_the_fee_of_the_work_performed_or_under-performing\" >Inflating the fee of the work performed or under-performing:<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/scoreindia.org\/blog\/ethics-in-public-relations\/#Corruption\" >Corruption:<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Paying_for_News\"><\/span><strong>Paying for News:<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The purpose of journalism is to provide information to the masses. It is important for practitioners to understand the difference between a media pitch and paying for a story in \u2018cash or kind\u2019. Pressurised by client demand in some instances, for high volume media outputs, some PR professionals pay vulnerable journalists in cash or kind leading to a malpractice.<\/li>\n<li>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Transparency_Ethics_in_Public_Relations\"><\/span><strong>Transparency ~ Ethics in Public Relations:<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The very basis of ethical Public Relations is mainlining transparency with all its stakeholders. PR professionals are often accused of withholding information from the public or distorting the truth which is referred to as negative spin.<\/li>\n<li>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Inflating_the_fee_of_the_work_performed_or_under-performing\"><\/span><b>Inflating the fee of the work performed or under-performing:<\/b><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>A lot of corporate houses today pay PR companies on the basis of the number of hours they spend on a particular PR activity. It is very common to find PR professionals overstating the cost of the total work by inflating the \u2018time spent\u2019 on a particular activity or not delivering on a plan or promise because they know the client can be helpless at times.<\/li>\n<li>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Corruption\"><\/span><strong>Corruption:<\/strong><span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>There is also a kickback system where certain PR firms win a mandate based on a promise the consultancy head makes to a client, to pay back a part of the retainer in order to win a client.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The practices mentioned above are possibly going to be an epidemic if these are not nipped in the bud.<\/p>\n<p>It is important to eradicate this problem while it is still not rampant. One effective way to address this problem is to teach the importance of ethical behaviour during the foundation years of young professionals. It is also important to chalk out the ethical principles of an organisation, and the implementation of these principles at every level. It will also be helpful if leaders of PR firms can take the responsibility of accomplishing this task by micro-managing the situation and making ground rules for young professionals on a case to case basis. PR firms should come together to create a code of ethics in public relations that every professional signs up and keeps. Lastly, the heart of \u2018ethical practice\u2019 for a PR expert lies in asking oneself the question, \u201cAm I doing the right thing?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Read more about Public Relations at <a href=\"http:\/\/reputationtoday.in\">Reputation Today Magazine\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Also follow <a href=\"https:\/\/www.globalalliancepr.org\/ethics-resources\">Global Alliance &#8211; Resources on Ethics<\/a>\u00a0for more guidance and knowledge on ethic practices globally. Because #EthicsMatter<\/p>\n<p><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\">This blog is a part of insights on Public Relations shared by SCoRe. Know more about what we do to spread PR Knowledge:\u00a0<\/em><a class=\"markup--anchor markup--p-anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/www.scoreindia.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" data-href=\"http:\/\/www.scoreindia.org\/\"><em class=\"markup--em markup--p-em\">www.scoreindia.org<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"excerpt-hellip\"> [\u2026]<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1036,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,6],"class_list":["post-103","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-media-studies","tag-public-relations"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Ethics in Public Relations - 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