Chapter 3: Ethics and Professionalism

This chapter focused on the ethics of Public Relations. The book discusses three basic value orientations which are:
1. Absolute: This person believes everything is either wrong or right, no in between.
2. Existential: This person makes decisions based on practicality of the now.
3. Situational: This person believes in basing a decision on what will either cause the least harm or the most good.

This chapter also discusses the role of a professional organization in public relations and the largetst is The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). You can visit their website at PRSA holds many workshops and seminars a year. They also produce two periodicals a year called “Tactics” and “The Strategist”. This organization is also the parent organization for PRSSA or Public Relations Student Society of America which acts a a great networking tool as well.

The final point I want to focus on in this reading is the PRSA’s Code of Ethics. The six core values are:
Advocacy
Honesty
Expertise
Independence
Loyalty
Fairness
You can find the entire code and explanations at the PRSA website provided above.

This information comes from Public Relations:Strategies and Tactics