Ethical Considerations in PR

With the public relations industry on the rise, controversy surrounding the profession has grown just as fast. Trying to avoid stereotypes such as “spinning” of “flack” organizations such as the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) have established a Code of Ethics by which their members must comply. Many PRSA members undergo strict regulations in order to gain accreditation in the field of PR. Since there is currently established testing to become a PR professional, such as law school for lawyers or medical school for doctors, accreditation by PRSA or IABC is the best available option we have today.

The PRSA Code of Ethics includes a list of rules by which their members are encouraged to obey in order to increase credibility of the PR profession.

Some of the issues included in the Code of Ethics include:
Be honest and accurate in all communications
Act promptly to correct erroneous communications for which the practitioner is responsible
Preserve the free flow of unprejudiced information when giving or receiving gifts by ensuring that gifts are nominal, legal and infrequent
To serve the public interest by providing the widest choice of practitioner options

This full Code of Ethics can be viewed here. As our generation represents a large increase in PR practitioners, I feel it is our duty to follow the Code of Ethics, whether an accredited practitioner or not, in order to develop a reputable profession. Developing a positive image of PR and breaking through the stereotypes starts at an individual level. If we take it upon ourselves to start the change, we will see a huge progression in the field in the next decade.

Here's a video addressing the question, "Should bloggers follow a professional code of ethics?"

Case Study: Columbia Sportswear

“Columbia Sportswear Company is a global leader in the design, production, marketing and distribution of outdoor apparel and footwear” (Microsoft.com). As an international company, Columbia’s employees always spread across the nation and always on the move, making efficient communication a necessity for good business.

Gertrude Boyle, chairman of Columbia Sportswear, says, “fast access to up-to-date information is key to the company’s success” (Microsoft.com).

Columbia Sportswear employs more than 2,700 people in 76 countries, and works with more than 13,000 retailers internationally. Approximately 25 percent of Portland’s 700 employees are traveling at any given time.

Barbara Cason says, “Columbia Sportswear is a quintessential Northwest kind of company. Those of us who work here are really drawn to the active lifestyle, to products that allow us to enjoy skiing, hiking, fishing, and all of the things that the Northwest has to offer. But at the same time, my foreign legal associates often need my help with urgent issues outside of our normal business hours. I need to be available to them in a very timely fashion, no matter where I am” (Microsoft.com).

To increase communication efficiency, Columbia Sportswear began using Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 in July of 2006. This technology is the newest enterprise software. In addition to Microsoft Exchange 2007, Columbia Sportswear also uses Exchange Unified Messaging, which affords employees the convenience of receiving e-mail , voice mail, calendar items and faxes from a single inbox. Employees can now access their messages through either a Web browser or a telephone, rather than memorizing multiple passwords for multiple inboxes. (Microsoft.com).

These new technologies allow employees to enjoy an active lifestyle while maintaining constant, efficient communication. They have also reduced phone costs, the costs of business delays and missed opportunities.

“Bill Tung, vice president of international sales and operations at Columbia Sportswear, spends about 40 percent of his time traveling around the world. ‘Being responsible for a global business, it’s absolutely vital for me to have instant access to e-mail, voice mail, faxes, financial data, and company reports,’ he says. ‘Having all these capabilities consolidated on a single device that fits in my pocket saves me a great deal of time.”” (Microsoft.com).

View this entire case study and a one-minute video here.

Media influencing Politics

Last week in my advanced writing public relations class, my professor showed us a video produced by will.i.am., a member of the music group Black Eyed Peas. The video, called “Yes We Can” features celebrities such as Scarlett Johansson, filmmaker Jesse Dylan (son of Bob Dylan), John Legend, Herbie Hancock, Kate Walsh, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Adam Rodriquez, Kelly Hu, Adam Rodriquez, Amber Valetta and Nick Cannon. The pro-Obama video campaign created by celeb supporters has made a huge impact for Obama. ABC news did a story on the persuasive video (check it out at http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/story?id=4231523) and it has over 3.5 million views on YouTube. That number is rising daily.




Powerful and influential talk show hosts such as Oprah and Tyra have interviewed Obama on their shows, and now with this video, and much of Hollywood apparently backing Obama, I am starting to wonder, “How will my influential generation be affected by these celebrities?”

Born into a generation obsessed with the media, the Internet, the tabloids and most of all celebrities, will the power of celebrity influence go so far as to decide our next president?

I must admit, born into a republican family I originally felt compelled to vote for a republican candidate. The problem? I do not know anything about them! Never a fan of politics, I do not go out of my way to research the candidates, find out their unique stance on an issue and then support them through the election. That is just not me. But during this election I have felt more connected than I ever have before and I am not making any extra effort this time around. Sure, I look at candidates for small class assignments, and I hear things through word-of-mouth, but this time I am more informed than ever before because the candidates seem to be targeting me. Everywhere I look I see an ad for Obama, a celeb talking about Obama, even at the Grammy’s last Sunday a few singers used the phrase “Yes We Can” in their thank you speeches. I have not seen a thing about McCain. I wish more politicians were targeting my generation.

Now that politics seem to be surrounding me I feel compelled to me more involved. Whether this is a result of agenda-setting theory, I do not know. What I do know, is Obama is utilizing the new media that draws in my generation and it is working. Prior to this election, all I knew about him was that he went to my high school. Thinking that was kind of cool, I asked some friends what they knew about him but they did not know much. Ask a friend today, and they will talk my ear off.

I am not saying this makes me want to vote for Obama, I just wish all the candidates were making the same effort he is to keep my generation informed.

Technology Changing Public Relations

New to the working world of public relations, I experienced my first webinar last week. For an hour and a half, six colleagues and I sat around a conference table watching a nationally broadcast webinar intended to give PR companies tips from other pros about the always evolving world of PR.

During this webinar we each followed along with PowerPoint handouts provided by the company putting on the presentation. We saw examples of creative marketing and public relations tactics that were successful when promoting new products in order to get inspiration for promoting our own clients. Some examples of successful marketing included a promotion for the upcoming Batman movie in which an eerie picture of the joker was revealed one pixel at a time by viewers logging in to view the site. Here's the picture.

It is especially eerie in light of recent events (the sudden death of Heath Ledger). Other examples included a CocaCola commercial and the Dove transformation of beauty advertisement.

The Dove ad does a great job of showing how digital enhancement greatly changes the appearance of women in ads. You watch as aa normal woman transforms into a model.

Webinars such as this, are being used worldwide as mini-conferences that unite companies within an industry to share tips and give advice on creative ways to work with clients. At the public relations firm I am interning at, we attend at least one webinar or nationally broadcast phone conference each week, to keep our company connected to the industry and to learn new innovative ways to best showcase our clients. Other major PR companies, such as Edelman, use webinars as a means of communicating to the public about blogs and various communication issues. It is a great way to show us what other companies are doing, what works, what does not and provide creative inspiration for our own unique marketing and PR ideas.

Check out this example of a crisis communications webinar:

Paris Hilton's PR Rep?

I found this question on the PRSSA Web site blogs "Absense of hard news: Is public relations responsible for the Paris Hilton 24 news coverage?" and I was immediately compelled to respond.

Paris Hilton generated a lot of media coverage in magazines, tabloids, television and on the radio in the past year. She is pictured every week out partying and living the high life with celebrity friends. The problem? Most of her coverage is not good, at least for her. Magazines seems to be flying off the shelves with readers eager to hear about the latest episode her in wild life.

Hilton's DUI charge and 3 day stint in jail was national news that everyone had an opinion about. When she walked out of jail hundreds of viewers phoned in to find out what jacket she was wearing so they could get one too. Check it out at the end of this blog.

Where is the media getting these stories from? Is it PR practitioners that are feeding these stories to journalists? More importantly, is it her PR practitioner or publicist? Is it the constant crown of paparazzi surrounding her? It seems to be getting to the point where hot celebs can climb the ladder of popularity faster the more controversial they are. Who is doing drugs now? Who is in rehab? Who got the latest DUI? These are the stories that are selling, and practically bombarding the public every day, and the public is eating it up! I must admit I love to pick up the latest copy of US Weekly to catch up on my celeb gossip for the week. I have no idea why. Sometimes my friends and I catch ourselves talking about these people as if we know them. “Did you hear what Lindsay did this week?” we sometimes ask each other as if we feel we personally know these people after reading about their lives splashed throughout the media.

Celebrities will always dominate the media because they are of interest to many people; everybody loves celebrity gossip, at least most women do. For example when Owen Wilson tried to commit suicide it made headline news and front page covers of magazines because it is a story that sells. People love to read about drama!

Some people believe that any press is good press, even if that press is negative. This must be the view held by Hilton, who prior to her arrest made no effort to shake her party-girl image. Even Whether or not she has a PR representative helping her promote this image, I do not know. But if she does, they are doing a fantastic job of getting her headline news coverage, pictures in virtually every gossip magazine and frequent front-page covers.

Hilton mobbed by the media while leaving prison.

This is a comical clip of Hilton trying to get past her prison stay on the Letterman show.

Tips from the Pros

While researching ways that PR professionals develop and maintain strong relationships with the media, I came across a very informative interview on Public Relations Magazine’s Web site.

The article, by Alexandra Weaver and Megan Fraizer, is an interview given from a PR perspective on how to develop/maintain relationships with journalists. Weaver and Fraizer interviewed Dr. Bill Keller, a journalist professor at the University of Alabama, and Deborah Lane, the executive director of public relations at the University of Alabama in order to get insight from both sides of the relationship.

Lane gives the following tips:

· Explain why this specific journalist should be interested in the article
· Be aware of the journalist’s deadlines!
· Always follow up a new release with a phone call or e-mail.
· Broadcast journalists think visually.
· Include key points in soundbites.
· Avoid jargon!
· Be honest and accessible.
· Know the journalist’s audience and their message.
· Never speculate.
· Always meet deadlines.
· Do not always give one media outlet the story first; use a variety of sources.
· Give reporters information in forms they can use – soundbites, good quotes and visuals.
· Never say, “Off the record.”
· Articulate your messages!

Dr. Keller gives vary similar tips with only a few additions, including:

· PR professionals who have worked as a journalist or TV person at one time understand it
best
· Never exaggerate or say things that are not true.
· Try to meet outside the newsroom to get to know each other.

I think it is refreshing to know that PR professionals and journalists/reporters
expect the same components in terms of a creating and maintaining a professional relationship with one another. Now if we can put these practices into effect we may see an increasingly positive relationship between these two industries that have a history of tension.

Here's a video of a former journalist, now working as a PR professional.

Why can't PR practitioners and journalists get along?

As I was browsing the blogs on PRSSA.com, a particular topic caught my eye, “Public Relations Practitioners and Journalists: Can’t we all just get along?”
In the article Chris Anderson, the editor in chief of Wired magazine, wrote an article calling PR practitioners “lazy flacks” in response to all the emails he was receiving. Then, he posted nearly 300 email address on a Web site for everyone to see. Was he wrong in doing so?

There are several basic principles all PR practitioners should know about writing news release, including: it must be newsworthy and you must know the appropriate person to send it to.

In this article, Anderson expresses his anger about receiving over 300 emails a day that have no relevance to him, and rightfully so. A good PR practitioner researches the exact person to whom the release should be sent. For example, if you are sending out a news release about a great, new restaurant, you want to locate the name of the food critic at the local newspaper. Do not just send the release to anyone at the newspaper and assume it will trickle down to the correct journalist. It will not. Personalizing the letter shows respect to the journalist, who is on deadline, by not wasting their time with a news release out of their area of expertise. This is also a great way to begin a positive relationship with a journalist, and increases the chances of the journalist writing about the pitched topic.

Anderson is not responsible for reading through over 300 press releases a day and distributing them to the appropriate journalist. Instead, it likely results in him throwing away great potential stories, and reflecting poorly on the PR industry.

Anderson’s decision to list the email addresses of 300 PR practitioners that sent him useless news releases may have been a bit extreme, but it definitely has vocalized his point. It is often the bold statement that causes change. Many of the PR practitioners included in that list work at well-known agencies, such as Edelman. Had Anderson decided not to list the email addresses, I doubt much of a change would occur. However, this public humiliation of Edelmen, and other agencies, will likely be the catalyst in teaching PR practitioners how to appropriately send a news release.

The field of Public Relations is finally gaining a seat at the table with top management. It has taken years of PR professionals validating their work to others in order to prove its importance, to prove it is not just “fluff.” Perpetuating the feud with journalists will only increase the divide between two industries that, if they work together, can help each other achieve higher levels of success. Journalists want the latest, hottest stories, and PR professionals want their stories published. That said, working together creates the opportunity for both industries to prosper.

Check out this commical video of two people discussing the problems between PR and journalism.