1. 6/4/2010
Public Relations (Principles) 500
REVISION
Dr. Ulysses Chioatto
Ulysses.Chioatto@cbs.curtin.edu.au
Final Exam
• preparing for the final exam.
• divided into 3 sections each worth 10 marks for
a total of 30 marks.
• Y must answer 3 questions in t t l (
You t ti i total (one f
from
each section).
• Each section has a choice of two questions.
• Sections A and B contain essay questions.
Exam Sections
• Section A
• focus: fundamental question of what is public
relations and importance of ethics to professional
practice.
• Section B
• questions about theoretical concepts in public
relations.
– use of relevant real life examples VERY IMPORTANT
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Section C develop concise PR plan
• based on a hypothetical scenario provided.
• Do NOT write an essay in section C.
• Present answer as a mini-PR plan
• use of sub-headings and dot points.
• Focus on the key elements in a PR plan, i.e.
– PR Goals;
– Publics/Stakeholders;
– Strategies;
– Tactics; and,
– Evaluation.
Ethical Practice
• Introduction
• What is ethics?
Ethical Practice
• The Potter Box Technique
• The truth (the principle of objectivity)
– Conflict with advertisers
– Puffery
y
• The one way communication model
– See (the 4 Grunig models)
• Demand to fill editorial space
• The circus & stunts
• Phineas Barnum
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Ethical Practice
• Manufacturing news
– Photo opportunities
– Planting stories
– Stopping stories
pp g
• The US Office of War Information
• (recent example Bush speaking to soldiers
in Iraq)
• Newsreel, radio and newspapers in the
1940s
Ethical Practice
• PR Institute of Australia (PRIA)
• 1950s
• Still mainly publicity or press agentry
• Banks
• Airlines
• Government
• In 1961 3 million pounds spent on PR
Ethical Practice
• Television in 1956
• Conflicts between newspapers & TV
• 1970s
– Video clips
• Multinational PR firms come to Australia
• The first PR degrees
– Charles Stuart Uni
– Queensland Uni
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Ethical Practice
• 1980s and 1990 PR continues to be
emphasized in universities
• 25% growth 1994 to 1999
• M t unis now offer PR
Most i ff
• PR is now much more than just publicity
Ethical Practice
• News outlets have a public responsibility
• Governments have a responsibility to
ensure the press can be free
• H i af
Having few owners of media outlets
f di tl t
limits opposing voices
Ethical Practice
• Social Responsibility Theory
– Servicing the economic system but
• Promotes the democratic process
• Keeps the public informed
– Provides entertainment but
• Entertainment must be good
• The press must be accurate, fair, good
quality information
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Ethical Practice
• Grunig’s models
Press agentry Public information
Sports No sell
Entertainment Public sector
Product promotion Non commercial
Two way asymmetric Two way symmetric
Mostly to advance the of the Unrealistic or idealistic
projects or organizations in
question
PR’s Questionable Ethical
Reputation
• The very term “Public Relations” implies
unethical behaviour for some people
• Th late Harold Wilson, B iti h P i
The l t H ld Wil British Prime
Minister in the 1960s and 70s, is said to
have described PR as “organised lying”
PR’s Questionable Ethical
Reputation
• Well publicised cases such as:
Hill and Knowlton’s work
on the first Gulf War
have added to
popular perceptions
C Company, 1st Battalion, The
Staffordshire Regiment, 1st UK
Armoured Division
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6. 6/4/2010
PR’s Questionable Ethical
Reputation
• Hill and Knowlton:
– Kuwait government influence American
opinion;
– spectacular false accounts;
spectacular,
– Citizens for a Free Kuwait was formed in the
U.S.;
– public relations firm Hill and Knowlton hired by
Kuwaiti government ($11 million).
PR’s Questionable Ethical
Reputation
• campaign describing Iraqi soldiers pulling babies
out of incubators in Kuwaiti hospitals and letting
them die on the floor.
• US TV networks;
• false testimony in Congress and the UN Security
Council.
• fifteen-year-old girl witness was the daughter of
Kuwaiti ambassador;
• surgeon witness was a dentist who admitted to
lying.
PR’s Questionable Ethical
Reputation
• There is a climate of cynicism and
suspicion today in which the boundaries of
fact and fiction seem to merge
– Consider for example the plot of the 1998
movie Wag the Dog
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Why the stigma?
• The critics probably perceive PR activities as
purely falling into the categories we have
previously described as:
– Press Agentry/Publicity; and
– Two-way Asymmetrical
• Much professional public relations work can be
characterised by those two models
• While this does not necessarily make such
practice unethical, PR - like any profession -
has its share of unethical operators
Why the stigma (cont.)?
• Some practitioners behave like “technicians”
rather than responsible professionals/managers
– “We can’t be blamed for what the media release says
- we’re just the PR firm that issues it”
• However the two way symmetrical approach
However, two-way
has ethics “built-in” as it systematically attempts
to harmonise organisational behaviour with the
needs and expectations of relevant publics
Business Ethics
• Recent events (e.g. Enron, WorldCom, HIH) have put
the spotlight on business ethics and corporate
governance
– Corporate governance refers to the system by which
organisations are directed and controlled
g
• Many companies now have in-house codes of ethics or
codes of conduct
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Business Ethics
• Triple bottom line reporting (3Ps) is becoming
commonplace
– People (social performance) and
– Planet (environmental performance)
– as well as Profits (the traditional bottom line)
• Companies like Shell and McDonald’s have issued
Statements of Business Principles and Social
Responsibility reports
Defining Ethics
• A value system for making decisions about
what is right or wrong
• The conduct of individuals and
organisations is measured not only against
their own consciences but also in relation
to societal and professional norms
Defining Ethics
• Different people, organisations and
cultures frequently have different
standards and conflicting values
• Ethical behaviour implies a higher
standard than merely obeying the law - the
law is a “floor”
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The Potter Box
Define situation Identify values
Choose loyalties to
Select principles stakeholders
(McElreath 1993)
Ethics - Two Basic Approaches
• Deontological
– Also referred to as intuitive or absolutist
• A philosophical approach based on duty
– Every decision is either right or wrong regardless of
the
th consequences
• The end does NOT justify the means
– Leading historical proponent:
• Immanuel Kant
– Kant’s Categorical Imperative states you should only do
something if you would be happy for everyone else to do the
same thing
» I.e., moral principles are universal
Ethics - Two Basic Approaches
(cont.)
• Teleological
– Also referred to as inductive, naturalistic or situational
• Focuses on the consequences of particular actions
– If the consequences of a particular action are good, the act is
ethical. If they are bad, the act is unethical.
• However, from whose point-of-view are we to judge whether the
consequences are good or bad?
– Leading historical proponents:
• Utilitarians such as Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill
• The principle of utilitarianism is “the greatest good for the greatest
number”
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Combining the Two Approaches
• A combination of the intuitive and
naturalistic approaches is very common
• Basic values like honesty, keeping
p
promises, reliability, loyalty and
, y, y y
commitment can be used as the
foundation for making decisions in
particular circumstances
– Beyond that the consequences of proposed
actions can be considered
Combining the Two Approaches
• Aristotle proposed a system of virtue-
based ethics founded on the notions of
habit, the mean, and nobility or beauty
– Aristotle’s mean teaches that virtue is often
Aristotle s
found between two extremes (such as
deontology and teleology)
Why Ethical Dilemmas are
Especially Common in PR
• PR frequently deals with highly controversial and
sensitive issues
• PR deals with relationships on interpersonal,
organisational and societal levels
• Often there are conflicts between the needs and
Often,
expectations of diverse publics
– E.g., employees, customers, shareholders, local communities,
pressure groups, government etc
• PR professionals must act as advocates of external and
internal publics whilst also representing the interests of
their organisations
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PR - Serving Several Masters
• PR practitioners must consider the ethical
imperatives of:
– Employers/clients
– Organisational publics
– Professional bodies, e.g. PRIA
– Themselves as individuals
• What if the employer’s or client’s values, the
publics’ values, professional codes of ethics
and/or the practitioner’s personal values are in
conflict?
Ethics and PR - The Realities
• Ethical dilemmas are common in public
relations as in other management fields
• Ethical choices are rarely black and white
• Oft the “right” d i i i
Often th “ i ht” decision involves
l
choosing the lesser of several evils
• A good rule of thumb:
– Would you feel comfortable if your decision/course of
action was outlined in a front-page newspaper story
tomorrow?
Professional Associations in PR
• In Australia, the peak professional body for public
relations practitioners is the
– Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA)
• There are similar bodies elsewhere, e.g.
– IPR (UK),
– PRSA (US) and
– IPRS (Singapore)
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Professional Associations in PR
• There is also the
• International Public Relations Association (IPRA) and the
• International Association of Business Communicators
(IABC)
• In common with its overseas counterparts, the PRIA has
a Code of Ethics which all members must agreed to
uphold – see text book appendix
Why Does Ethics Matter?
• Companies with good records on ethics and
social responsibility are likely to enjoy better
public relations than less ethical competitors
• Good public relations
creates a climate of
acceptance for
organisations –
a key source of
competitive advantage
What is a professional?
• Many people think a professional is
merely someone who gets paid for
doing something
• But the real meaning of a ‘professional’
is very different
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What is a professional?
• Five broad characteristics of a professional have
been identified:
1. Belief in values
• E.g., importance of service to others over economic reward
• Professional freedom
• Ability to operate independently without close supervision
• Ability to say and do what is right - not being forced to conform for the
sake of money or position
2. Membership of strong professional organisations
3. Adherence to professional norms
• E.g., Code of Ethics of professional body
4. An intellectual tradition and a body of knowledge
5.Technical skills acquired through professional training
• Professionals stay in the same field throughout their careers
(Grunig and Hunt 1984)
Examples of Ethical Issues in PR
• Lying for a client or employer
• Making exaggerated claims
• Telling only part of the truth to give a misleading impression
• Helping to conceal an illegal, unethical or hazardous situation
• Using deception to gather information
• Offering expensive gifts or other benefits to journalists or
politicians Attempting to use clout as an advertiser to influence
editorial coverage
• Denigrating fellow professional practitioners or the profession in
general
• Poaching another practitioner’s clients/employees
• Promising clients editorial coverage
• Working for clients/employers with questionable ethics
– The “hired gun” syndrome
Examples of Ethical Issues in PR
(cont.)
• Conflicts of interest
• Failure to disclose sources of
funding/sponsorship - establishing “front”
g
organisations
• Insider trading
• Respecting client/employer confidentiality
• Whistle-blowing
• Accepting benefits/commissions from suppliers
or anyone to whom you refer business
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PR Theories Overview
• Agenda setting theory
• Systems Theory
• Semiotics
• Critical Theory
• Rhetorical Theory
• Social Exchange
• Social Learning
• Communications Theories- Hierarchies of Effects
Why theory?
• ‘Theories in PR come from a variety of
other disciplines including management,
marketing, communication studies,
sociology, psychology, etc.
sociology psychology etc
• Theories have also been developed
specifically within the PR field
– E.g. The ‘four models’ (Grunig and Hunt
1984)
Agenda Setting Theory
• Assumes a two-step flow when PR uses
mass communication:
– From PR practitioner to the media
– From media to target publics
• Suggests the significance of mass media
lies not in telling people what to think but
what to think about, i.e. the media is very
good at setting the agenda for public
debate
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Agenda Setting Theory (cont.)
• Media Coverage can
– Build awareness of issues
– Increase the importance a person attaches to an
issue
– Increase the priority attached to particular aspects of
an issue
• Achieving media coverage depends on the
ability of the PR practitioner to make the issue
newsworthy
• Repeated media exposure is often needed to
have an effect
Systems Theory
 A management theory that provides an ideal
framework for PR
 Views organisations as systems with permeable
boundaries
 The systems are comprised of various sub-systems
 Public relations practitioners adopt a “boundary-
spanning” role
 Open systems must constantly respond to and interact
with their environment
 Closed systems do not take the wider environment
into account
Major Systems Concepts
Boundary
Environment
System
Input Output
Throughput
Feedback
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“Once, the job of management
was to keep an established
production organization smoothly
functioning. Now, management
seeks constantly to adapt a
k t tl t d t
flexible organism to dynamic and
complex environments.”
Baskin and Aronoff (1992, p.44)
Semiotics
• The study of any cultural product (e.g. a ‘text’)
as a formal system of signs
– Associated with American logician C. S.
Peirce and F
P i d French li
h linguist F di
i t Ferdinand d
d de
Saussure
• The media and others manipulate signs in
order to construct understandings of self-
identity and social structure
Semiotics
• Signs comprise:
– The signifier
• The form the sign takes
– The signified
• Not so much the represented entity as the
p y
mental conception of that entity
• Many signs are culturally specific
• ‘Texts’ can be ‘deconstructed’ to reveal hidden
meanings which may be conveyed
subconsciously for deliberatively persuasive
purposes
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An image ripe for
‘deconstruction’?
• Source: www.warforum.net
Powerful images
• Source: news.bbc.co.uk
Past images
• Source: www.answers.com
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Meaningful image
• Source: news.bbc.co.uk
Strong images
• Source: nwww.historywiz.com & www.famous-india.com
Critical theory
• Associated with Jurgen Habermas
• Essentially a critique of contemporary global
capitalism, public relations and marketing
• Refers to ‘ideal speech conditions’
ideal conditions
– Discussants genuinely want to reach understanding
– Rational not emotional discussion used
– Cogent reasoning used as basis for validating
arguments
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Critical theory
• However these conditions cannot exist unless
there is a power balance amongst the
discussants
• Habermas argues modern capitalism is not
g p
conducive to creating such conditions of equality
• Therefore public relations helps to maintain a
system Habermas views as unfair
Rhetorical theory
• Goes back to Aristotle and the philosophy of Ancient Greece
• Modern PR scholar Robert Heath is an advocate of rhetoric as a
theoretical framework for the discipline
• Assumes the existence of a ‘marketplace for ideas’ in which
professional communicators compete to have their ideas accepted
• To be ethical, parties involved in a debate must have an equal right
to speak
Rhetorical theory
• Ideas stand or fall on their merits as a result of rational argument
• Particularly applicable when PR deals with ‘big picture’ issues
• Faces similar criticisms as Grunig’s Two-Way Symmetric model in
terms of unrealistic assumptions about power balances
• Note contrast with relationship management model of public
relations
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Social Exchange
• Suggests a target public will seek to
reciprocate if provided with something of
value. Typically, the ‘something’ provided
in return by the public could be goodwill
goodwill,
support or favourable attitudes
• This is the underlying rationale for many
sponsorship activities and corporate
community contributions
Social Learning
• Relies on concept that people will be more likely
to adopt new behaviours if they have the
opportunity to see examples of those behaviours
being performed
• Impact is stronger if observers identify with or
admire role models depicted and if the outcome
of the behaviour is in their own self-interest
Communication Theories: The
Communication Conundrum
• The word ‘communication’ is derived from the
Latin words for ‘coming together’ or ‘union with’
• Other words with a similar origin include
common, community and even communist
• Communication aims at the sharing of meaning
but there are many barriers to effective
communication
• As semiotics teaches us, words are mere signs -
code for the meanings we are trying to convey
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The Communication Conundrum
(cont.)
• To communicate effectively, the sender’s
words must mean the same thing to the
receiver as they do to the sender
• This may be relatively straightforward when
discussing, say, physical objects. But what
about abstract concepts, e.g. ‘free enterprise’,
‘human rights’?
The Communication Conundrum
(cont.)
• There are many other types of symbols we
can use to communicate, e.g. pictures and
even body language
• A politician once threatened to sue a TV
interviewer for defamation because he
claimed the interviewer’s eyebrows were
strategically raised throughout the broadcast!
Mass Communication - From
One Step to Multi-Stage
• Mass communication was once seen as a
one step ‘injection’
– The ‘magic bullet’ theory
• Later as a two-step process from sender
two step
to opinion leaders to broader population
• Today mass communication is viewed as
a complex, multi-stage, multi-directional
process
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The Basic Elements of Effective
Communication
• There are five basic elements in any
effective communication - all essential in
public relations practice
– Sender
– Message
– Channel
– Receiver
– Feedback
The Communication Process
Event or Information Source
Message encoded and sent by sender
Through a channel or medium of communication
Noise
Decoded by receiver
Received at destination
Feedback
Must be decoded by original sender
Key Factors in Successful
Communication
• The sender must have adequate information and
credibility in the eyes of the receiver
• The sender must transmit in codes the receiver
can understand. Encoding and decoding is
g g
carried out in the context of the knowledge and
experience of sender and receiver respectively
– The message must be within the capacity of the
receiver to understand
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Key Factors in Successful
Communication (Cont.)
• To be influential, the message must be
relevant to the needs of the receiver
• Communications aimed at behaviourial effects
usually motivate through appealing to the self-
self
interest of the receiver to act – ‘What’s in it for
me?’
• The receiver is not passive but a selective
user of information for his/her own
purposes
• Uses and gratifications theory
The Effects of Communication
• As communicators, it is essential always to consider the
effect we hope to have on our audience.
• Broadly, there are three possible ‘levels’ of effect we
might seek. In ascending order of difficulty these are:
– Knowledge effect
• Seeks a cognitive change in the audience, e.g. create awareness
– Attitude/Opinion effect
• Seeks to modify or reinforce attitudes and opinions
– Behaviourial effect
• Seeks to modify or reinforce behaviours
Hierarchies of Effects
• The relationship between attitude and
behaviour is complex and not necessarily
unidirectional
• Sometimes new knowledge leads to
Sometimes,
attitude formation which leads to
behaviour
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Hierarchies of Effects
• In other circumstances, people have to
experience something for themselves before
forming attitudes
• Different channels of communication are more
effective at achieving different objectives, e.g.
g j g
• Mass media for creating awareness
• Interpersonal communication for influencing attitudes
and opinions
• Ultimately personal experience and self-interest are
key to determining behaviour
A Hierarchy of
Communication Channels
• The effectiveness of a message often depends on the channel used.
Volkmann (1991) provides the following list in descending order of
effectiveness. PR practitioners should force communication up the
ladder of effectiveness.
– One-to-one, face-to-face conversation
– Small group discussion, meeting
– Speaking before a large group
– Phone conversation
– Personal note
– Mass-produced, non-personal letter
– Brochure or pamphlet sent as direct mail piece
– Article in an organisational newsletter
– News carried in the mass media
– Advertising in the mass media
– Billboards, skywriting etc
The communication
conundrum revisited
• “To be successful, a message must be received
by the intended individual or audience. It must
get the audience’s attention. It must be
understood. It must be believed. It must be
remembered. And ultimately, in some fashion,
it must be acted upon. Failure to accomplish
any of these tasks means the entire message
fails.”
– Therkelsen (1995)
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25. 6/4/2010
Section C develop concise PR plan
• based on a hypothetical scenario provided.
• Do NOT write an essay in section C.
• Present answer as a mini-PR plan
• use of sub-headings and dot points.
• Focus on the key elements in a PR plan, i.e.
– PR Goals;
– Publics/Stakeholders;
– Strategies;
– Tactics; and,
– Evaluation.
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