The Ethics Of Spin - PR Pros Score High On First Ever Tests
By Tom Foremski - August 13, 2009
This is a touchy subject: the ethics of public relations professionals.
It's touchy because PR people are often representing clients, or pushing stories that they don't like, don't believe in, and are just going through the motions. And that doesn't feel good, it doesn't feel clean, but is it unethical?
According to Bulldog Reporter, researchers ran PR professionals through a standardized ethics test for the first time. And the results were excellent. They showed "similarity to other professionals with comparable levels of education such as journalists, nurses and dental students."
One of the researchers said, "It turns out that public relations professionals are good ethical thinkers."
They did better than: Orthopedic surgeons, business professionals, accounting students and veterinary students.
The top group on the test: Philosophers and seminarians.
I like this one: the lowest scoring group - Junior high school students who scored below prison inmates.
You can read more here: Bulldog Reporter Study: PR Pros are Unjustly Perceived as Liars--Scoring Higher in Ethics than Surgeons and Accountants
Foremski's Take: Interesting results but I think if every group were tested according to scenarios related to their profession, we might get different results. But then that would not be a standardized test and therefore we wouldn't be able to have a scientific comparison.
The tests show PR pros are "good ethical thinkers." So that's what the tests are testing for. Groups with similar education, living in the same society, would be expected to score similarly -- each would know what is acceptable and what is not. But the tests don't reveal behavior.
Do you act ethically at all times? Are you often challenged ethically in your profession? Those are the the questions I'd like to see. I'm not picking on PR professionals, I'd love to see what each profession has to say. I bet it would be a lot different than testing for "ethical thinking."
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Comments (3)
Not surprised by thes results. Throughout my PR career, I've worked with many non-PR folks who expect I'll merely "spin" something bad and pretend it's good. My constant message: it's not about lying or pretending; it's about examining the angles that are cogent to some audiences (even if the story isn't perfect) and getting your viewpoint into the overall dialog. This was true even before the advent of social media and it's perhaps truer today. But if you're engaging in complete fabrication or misrepresentation, your PR efforts eventually will fail. That's not just ethically wrong, it's strategically ineffective.
Posted: August 13, 2009 10:31 AM
Good PR people will challenge their clients to give them all the real information that is required for them to believe in the story they are asked to promote. I try to put my journalist hat on and ask all the tough questions I think a good reporter would ask before taking a story to the media. At times I have pitched stories I am not wildly enthusiastic about but I will not pitch something that is flat out misleading. That is unethical. My goal is to find the data that will make a story truly interesting and accurate.
Posted: August 13, 2009 10:37 AM
Interesting you should be opening a dialog on PR ethics while business and political operatives are using every dirty tactic they can to create an inhospitable atmosphere at the health care town hall meetings. This is classic unethical behavior, e.g., knowingly mangling facts and inciting crowds to subvert meaningful public dialog and reform. How are we to help the 47 million uninsured Americans, or the 1 million more who go bankrupt every year over health care costs, if industry and political operatives maliciously pander to the fears of the most vulnerable people rather than listen to the concerns of their customers?
Posted: August 13, 2009 1:13 PM