Ethical PR

When sociologist Raymond Baumhart asked business people, "What does ethics mean to you?" Among their replies were the following:


"Ethics has to do with what my feelings tell me is right or wrong."

"Ethics has to do with my religious beliefs."

"Being ethical is doing what the law requires."

"Ethics consists of the standards of behavior our society accepts."

"I don't know what the word means."

 As can be seen from the answers above, it is a grey area and there are no legal consequences if one were to behave unethically.
Ethics however is very important to an organisation's reputation as Shell found out with the Brent Spar issue and as PR is about managing reputations, it is very important for PR.
Does it simply mean abiding with the codes of conduct of an organisation? As employess do not even know the details of the codes of conducts in most organisations, and it only serves as a guide and as already mentioned has no legal implications, it is not sufficient just to do so.
Ethics refers to well-founded standards of right and wrong that prescribe what humans ought to do, usually in terms of rights, obligations, benefits to society, fairness, or specific virtues. It also means, the continuous effort of studying one's own moral beliefs and  moral conduct, and striving to ensure that the institutions we help to shape, live up to standards that are reasonable and solidly-based.

Social Media Webcast

This webcast answers five key questions about social media, and demonstrates how businesses can be transformed by it.

• What is social media
• Why is it called social media
• What are the sociological and cultural concepts behind social media and its relvance to PR
• How will Ginola PR be using social media to help businesses
•  Benefits and negatives to businesses and how they will be dealt with.

These are all the important issues that are dealt with in this webcast to encourage businesses who are not already engaging in social media to do so to transform their business.

Crisis Management

Crisis in today's business environment is very rampant and organisations have to be very vigilant to nip in the bud any issues they have before it turns into a crisis and ruins one's hard earned reputation.

From corporate scandals to whistleblowers and leaks to the press, to the ever ready and watchful eyes of pressure groups to, as Toyota learned the hard way " a bow that wasn't a bow enough" could land an organisation in a crisis situation and a hefty price tag (fall in share prices and damage to reputation etc).

In recent years, the development of technology in the form of social media means that any crisis is brought to the publics attention instantaneously and spread so quickly reputations are marred immediately.
However the good news about these technological changes is that just at it is quick to out a crisis, it can also be used to monitor or identify issues befor turning into a crisis.

Successful Crisis Management Tips

• The organisation's crisis comms manual should be constantly updated and easily accessible to employees  when required
• The internet must be given as much priority as other communication channels since failure to do so may be detrimental due to the influence soical media has
• International markets should also be considered equally to the local markets due to how small the world has became and how easily a crisis can spread to different markets
• A crisis must be dealt with openly rather than opt for legal action which may end up disaster and is not always the best option -being open and genuine can resolve/manage a crisis much better
• Get third parties on your side- public more trusting of  third paties than the organisation concerned in the time of a crisis
• Finally, it is better to prevent a crisis, therefore an organisation's affairs must be put into order such that any issues are spotted early before turning into a crisis

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

In recent years, CSR has become very topical and both scholars and managers have paid greater attention to its notion.


Milton Friedman (1970) an economist declared that the only social responsibility of the corporation is to increase profits which  makes perfect business sense to investors.
For the many other stakeholders such as customers, employees, suppliers and the community however,  businesses are expected to give back to the communities in which they operate.
 Most businesses today however acknowledge the view of other stakeholders, and the most predominant position is an increase in profits in compatibility with social responsibility.
What the majority of approaches to understanding CSR have in common is that they all acknowledge that companies have responsibilities towards the society and environment that go beyond their own interests and legal obligations (de Bakker Groenewegen and den Hond 2005).
There are three levels of impact:


• Basic level - company adheres to societies rules and regulations

• Middle level - companies are perceived to manage their activities so they adhere to their level and go beyond it

• Societal level - makes a significant contribution towards improving the society in which it operates
Corporations need to be demonstrating their positive impact on society and CSR is a means to achieving this goal.


Research shows that key stakeholders such as consumers, employees and investors are increasingly likely to take actions to reward good corporate citizens and punish bad ones.

By being a good corporate citizen, a company can foster consumer loyalty and turn consumers into company/brand ambassadors and champions who engage in advocacy behaviours (such as positive word of mouth, willingness to pay a price premium and resilience to negative company news Du et al 2007).

Not only does CSR result in consumers buying more products but it also encourages other stakeholder behaviours such as employment seeking with the company and investing in the company.

Also companies  increasingly obtain public recognition and visibility for their positive corporate actions.

New Media

PR and Propaganda contd

What is propaganda?

With many definitions one of which is; "the deliberate attempt by some individual or group to form, control or alter the attitudes of other groups by the use of instruments of communication, with the intention that in any given situation the reaction of those so influenced will be that desired by the propagandist" (Qualter, cited in Hazan, 1976:11)

Jacquie L'Etang describes the conceptual relationship between propaganda and public relations as contoversial and difficult.
Why? Firstly because several authors particularly Fawkes(2006:267-287) have noted that many basic definitions of propaganda could be equally well used to describe public relations. Secondly, to some analysts, public relations is propaganda especially as per historical evidence and some intrinsic problems concerned with trying to make public relations activity transparent to memebers of society.

What does all this controversy mean to today's pr student and future practioners? Propaganda as we all know is bad( anything that is deceitful, manipulates others into believing something else and covers up wrongdoing cannot be accepted as good) and the reason for the tainted image of Public Relations. Public relations is about reputation- the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you.
With today's pr practioners being widely educated and the notion to be more ethical, hopefully there will be
no mistaking or linkage of public relations with propaganda in the future. This could be sooner rather than later should perpetrators be brought to justice.

Hello and welcome to my blog on Contemporary Theory and Issues in PR. On this journey, I will be sharing with you, learnings from the PR module, Contemporary Theory and Issues. PR being the dynamic and interesting sector it is, let's hope its an exhilarating and rewarding journey for all.

PR and Propaganda

War Propaganda to be precise was the first topic tackled! Pam Williams (our lecturer) started it off by asking us to deliberate in groups,how we would communicate to our audience in time of war. We discussed the various stakeholders to be addressed such as the soldiers, press, population etc and what are objectives and strategy would be.
This was then followed by a documentary War Spin: Media and the Iraq War (2002). A reexamination of the story of Private Jessica Lynch, this documentary revealed some troubling facts about how American news media often spins the truth in an effort to increase war-time morale.
John Kampfner, a political editor for the New Statesman, presented his version on what really happened to Jessica Lynch, and pointed out holes in the familiar stories that were broadcast to the public. By looking at several aspects of the news industry from a critical standpoint, WAR SPIN: THE MEDIA AND THE IRAQ WAR raised questions about the ethics of journalism.
My take on this, complete and utter amazement at how unethical and deceitful the entire communication was. One lesson learnt was that the truth will always out! This discussion on war propaganda will be continued.