PR mere morals too

Dani Dean
dd929212@ohio.edu

Public relations professionals are not just talking heads at a podium. The true professionals do not prioritize damage control over morality. They have a voice and will often times disagree with their clients if there is a better, more ethical way to do their job.

Public relations professionals – like many journalists – have a negative view from the general public. Television shows like Scandal are a prime example of what people think public relations is all about. Enter main character Olivia Pope: the powerful, intelligent, harsh public relations queen of Washington D.C. She knows all the dirty little secrets of every political power, and they hired her as a fixer. Olivia makes all the nasty, immoral actions of the politicians slide under the rug, so they can continue on with their careers. She has a constant internal battle between what is moral and what will best benefit the president. Sometimes the morality triumphs over the bad, but many times it does not.

This is the image of public relations, especially for the big corporations. But a study done by Baylor University reveals quite the opposite. Ethics are much more esteemed in public relations than most people believe.

After thoroughly interviewing 30 senior public relations professionals they found the “‘yes-man’ has no value whatsoever in PR.” And that a PR professional’s credibility is all they have. Their role is to problem solve in an ethical way, and keep a sound relationship with the organization they are representing.

I am the public relations chair of my sorority and it is very different from what I first expected. I assumed I would simply post pictures to our Instagram account, make sure everything looked polished and make sure we maintain our positive image on campus. But there is a lot more to public relations than making sure the public has a positive view of your organization. A PR professional’s job is to make sure the organization is running soundly. It is not just to make outsiders believe everything is positive and okay. It is following through with issues by dealing with that inside the organization. They view themselves as an “’independent voice’ in the organization” and not “mirrored by [the organization’s] perspective or politics.” That is the way they avoid the conflict of interests when doing PR business. By placing themselves outside of the organization it allows them to look at their job ethically and do the correct thing.

There are still issues ethical for PR professionals when it comes to “iron-fisted” companies. When a company leader runs his or her organization as my way or the high way it stops the PR professional from being able execute their job the best way possible. If that company wants a PR professional that will do anything and everything they say without contributing their own opinion, they will not get a very good PR professional.

All public relations professionals are not Olivia Pope. All of these esteemed professionals are not sitting around waiting to sweep a company’s dirt under the rug. They are ethical fixers who get to the root of the problem.