Just Trying To Make It

“Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other." This is the definition that Stuart Elliot gives us in his New York Times article "Redefining Public Relations in the Age of Social Media." But this definition is about as boring and general as watching a white wall of paint dry. Although I have only worked in Public Relations for a short time, I think there's a little more to it than that. PR is about emotion, relationships, information, secrets, leaks, ethics, communication, personality, presentation and much more. The bottom line could be found in the definition provided by Elliot: basic and simple. But its nothing new that our society runs on complexity.

We learned in class that advertising and public relations go hand in hand. Lori talked about the "ubiquity of advertising"  and that it is everywhere. So if advertising has masked the world over, so has public relations. Commodity Propaganda, which touches more universally between advertising and PR, is both industries "wrapping up the public's emotions and selling them back to the people" (Bindig, Class lecture). Nothing is ever given to chance, but is all intentional. Advertisers have specific goals when it comes to getting their product from the shelves to the home. Public Relations then act as the backbone for the ads, making sure that the message is relayed to company standards.

But PR companies act as more than just a buffer or link between the public and an organization. An alternative definition might look something like this: Public Relations create and maintain strong relationships between businesses and the public while sustaining a professional and ethical presence within the industry.

This definition not only gives more than a slight connection between the public and organizations, but it also brings the importance of ethics into the picture. Maintaining a professional presence is exceptionally important because often times the relationship between PR, Advertisers and the public becomes too relaxed. Advertisers are trying to win over the approval of the public, and what better way to do that, then to become buddy buddy? But crossing professional lines and not creating or maintaining strong relationships can lead to ethical issues potentially putting the organization on blast.

After looking the ethical issues presented in both articles, I feel that the Facebook/Google case breached important ethical standards. Facebook intentionally went after another corporation in a malicious manner. Most would think that lying to the public would be more problematic as deception tends to be very offensive, but for a company to intentionally harm another? Looks like friendly competition may only exist in sports. This doesn't bode well for facebooks sense of "community" that it talks so highly about it. Facebook is supposed to make you feel part of any community, whether you're in China, Ireland or the good old USA. You can feel accepted and a part of different social groups, while maintaining relationships with friends and family.

Like we've learned in class, ethical situations don't necessarily always have right or wrong answers. Monitoring various practices is a good start, but its a tedious monotonous job that may only go so far. Our human nature is to get lazy, and even the best cops, investigators, and doctors slack off from time to time. Companies, cases, and individuals will fall through the crack and there's nothing we can really do about it. No one is perfect. I think more specific laws within the PR industry might be another good attempt to keep ethical issues under wrap. However, rules are also made to be broken. Making formal regulations will also require to make consequences. Is it worth all the paperwork? It might be in our own interest to keep things the way they are now, but instead incorporate seminars, meetings, and other less formal presentations to help prevent future ethical wars between companies.

Perhaps I am naive by giving everyone the benefit of the doubt. But I can't help remind everyone that we are all just trying to make it. We have rules to keep us in line, and when those rules are broken, there are consequences (or should be). Often times people get away with a slap on the wrist, but in the end it all goes back to the first amendment. We are a democratic nation right? We all want the right to say what we want, practice what we want, and think what we want. And aren't we all striving for the same thing? "Autonomy, self-esteem, happy family, loving relationships, leisure time, and good friendships all make the quality of life" each of us are searching (Binding, lecture).