Ethics in Public Relations: A Guide to Best Practice

by Ericka Burey

For my ethics review book, I chose to read Ethics in Public Relations: A Guide to Best Practice by Patricia J. Parsons. In this book Parsons focuses on first the ethical codes and concepts of a PR practioner and also ethical concerns such as conflicts of interest and/or ethical relationships with media outlets. Overall, this book was a huge help in realizing just how many ethical issues there are in the world of public relations.
The book was a structured in such a way that it first addressed the common misconceptions that associate the Public Relations field such as: “Spin doctoring”, Robin Hood syndrome, and the inevitable accusation of lying. We as public relations practioners are charged with telling the truth while still remaining professionally loyal to the client. With that in mind, Parsons sets up a tier system to developing respect for the client as well as for the target audience. The steps are: 1) Learning to respect others: your moral development 2) Demonstrating simple respect: morality and your manners 3) Demonstrating professional respect: morality and your level of competence (pg. 48, figure 7.1). Parsons suggests that this tier will make a PR practioner a much more effective employee as well as a more trustworthy practioner.
Ultimately, form the Ethics in Public Relations text, we, as PR practioners, are responsible for the messages that we deliver to the public and therefore should take into consideration all the possible effects of that message. It also suggested that if, as a practioner, we are ethically trained from the beginning of our careers we will be much more likely to do the ‘right thing’ in ethical situations as well as be less likely to persuade in areas of ethical questioning. This book was very helpful to any person that is interested in the field of public relations.

Public Relations in a Struggling Economy

Public Relations in a Struggling Economy
By Ericka Burey

As a graduating senior, one of my many concerns upon the final ceremony of my college career at the University of Oklahoma is what am I going to do after graduation? The question is purged on me almost every day by friends, family, teachers, etc. and to be perfectly honest my answer as always “I don’t quite know yet”. And with the economy in shambles a job in my desired field seems somewhat unlikely. But if being a public relations major has taught me anything it is how to be creative. So I began to think creatively and I’ve decided that in a job market that isn’t so hot right now maybe it is a blessing in disguise that I am in a field that is so broad. What can sometimes be seen as a negative in the public relations field no can be turned into a positive? By this I mean that because our filed is so broad and because we learn about so many different aspects of business and communication techniques we can apply our skills to job fields that we would normally overlook. For example, becoming a middle school or high school teacher. We can apply our communication skills to deliver a message effectively to an active audience, we plan a strong education campaign and apply it throughout a long period of time, and we must convey an image of authority to the students, competence to parents and other teachers and certification to the state boards. So you see we are not really in a job drought we just have to reanalyze the situation effectively in order to gain the most success.


By reassessing the situation we can analyze other jobs such as: hotel management, store manager, Human resources, communications, etc. So when you really think about it... the job opportunites are endless for a public relations practioner!