One thing that I specifically identified with in this weeks reading was the PRSA Code of Ethics. Seeing as I am an AD/PR major this is definitely not the first time I'd read through the code but I think the additional reading we were assigned helped to give me a bit of a different perspective. A lot of the questions in the book rang extremely relevant to the field of PR. I felt like the idea of journalism ethics in a professional arena were not too far from that of public relations. Both complete tasks and spread information to mass publics on a regular basis, the situation of ethics in both of these situations is incredibly important. They both have a chance to spread false information or ethically questionable information in order to benefit themselves, so a strong set of professional ethics is incredibly important to adhere to. Cutting corners because it's advantageous to one's own agenda is often incredibly easy to do if ethics are not involved so I definitely think this is not something to take lightly.
One major difference I thought about though is the perceived nobleness in both professions. Where as journalists seem to have a pretty decent reputation as fighting for the truth, PR professionals are often seen as sly or deceptive. The case study in the book concerning quote approval brought this opinion into the light. Journalists must deal with extremely similar problems in media as PR professionals do, their ethics concerning an issue are incredibly influential to the end outcome of the information spread to the public. This concept crosses a lot of communication boundaries.
Without ethics, workers across a wide range of professions would be treading in dangerous water but those in communications would bear a huge weight of that. Information is power and almost every communication professional is involved in the spread of all types of information. Transparency, accuracy and honesty all should reign supreme in this arena.
