Chapter Three describes the ethics of decision making. One of the
most poignant and common skill a PR professional can provide is their ability
to make quick decisions. As chapters one and two describe what PR professionals
make decisions about and their evolution, chapter three describes the ethics of
said decisions.
This chapter classifies all decision
making in three different ways: absolute, existential, and situational. The
chapter coins these terms as “belief systems, most of which are pulled from
popular ideas of philosophers such as Kant, Mill, and Aristotle. Although they
can apply to all decision making, it is important to consider these belief
systems when working in a team in a Public Relations role.
The Absolute belief system describes a
system where there is a “right” and “wrong” answer. This decision describes
perhaps what we might consider the “TV-PR-Person,” meaning a character who
makes decisions on the fly with the utmost confidence; a powerhouse. The
absolutist makes an absolute choice.
The existentialist believes in a
middle ground between decisions. Being a seemingly ineffective decision maker,
the existential belief system coins a system where there are answers in what is
practical and logical. Consequently, these decisions find themselves in the
middle of the absolutists’ “right” and “wrong” values.
The situational belief system is the
“nicest” way of making a decision. Situationalists believe that decisions
should only do what is good and cause no harm. Though this belief system is
nice, it is obvious that its approach to benefit the masses could potentially
be dangerous for a client.
With these belief systems laid out,
the chapter then describes a test for ethics in decision making which regards
these four elements: truth, fairness, building connections, and benefit. All of
these elements end up being a synthesis of the previously laid out belief
systems, which is somewhat ironic because the philosopher’s those belief
systems are based off of would definitely disagree with each other in said
synthesis.
Despite the general “code of ethics”
in professional decision making, the chapter describes that every PR
organization has its own code of ethics for belief systems.
Chapter Twelve covers how law works in public relations. The chapter
begins by warning that public relations professionals should be weary of the
law in regards to their work. These warnings are then described to all be in relation
to legal situations such as permissions and copy rights. More specifically, the
chapter points out copyright law, trade mark, libel, and invasion of privacy.
Copyright
law is the idea that when something is created, it can obtain a copyright. This
copyright allows for said creation to only be recreated and redistributed by
the original artist or creator. Therefore, public relations professionals
should be weary of taking images created from others and using them in ads as
they would be illegally redistributing them.
Trademark
is a little different. Instead of a copyright that protects the redistribution
of a certain material, trademark protects a companies brand. For example,
certain sayings or logos that represent a company could potentially be a
trademark.
Libel
and invasion of privacy have to do with acts committed against copyright and
trademark to a company, or more specifically the penalties public relations
professional can commit. Libel is enacted when a false statement is made of
against or for any organization. Invasion of privacy is a false act that can be
committed when information that has been specifically guarded is released. This
is usually enacted when the information comes from that of a high qualifying
person such as a politician or official.
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