Abstract
In the introduction, the authors pointed out that their book fulfills three needs in ethics education: a focus on ethical theory, practical application, and a narrow focus on public relations rather than the broader field of mass communication. Authors Martin, a former executive vice president for AT&T, and Wright, a professor and scholar at Boston University, successfully achieve those objectives in their book, which provides a nice balance of theory and practical examples from agency and corporate settings.
As a qualitative researcher, I especially appreciated the candid insights into Martin’s decision making as well as personal interviews the authors conducted with agency executives such as Richard Edelman. It is insightful for young practitioners and students to learn how more senior executives reached their decisions when faced with ethical dilemmas in their careers. The authors also drew heavily from the archives of the Museum of Public Relations, AT&T, and Arthur W. Page Center in their research for this book. While the book has an abundance of case studies from corporate and agency settings, professors using the book in an ethics course may want to assign supplementary readings of case studies from other sectors such as nonprofit and government agencies.
When analyzing the full content of the book, I considered the results of a survey with educators who are members of the Public Relations Division of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication (AEJMC) and faculty advisers for the Public Relations Student Society of America (Neill, in press). They were asked about the core areas they cover related to ethics in stand-alone ethics courses compared with when ethics is taught across the curriculum. This book did well in most of the core areas with a few areas for improvement. For example, this book has two chapters dedicated to frameworks for ethical decision making, which also provide an overview and critique of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Code of Ethics as well as a few other professional associations. The book also covers three major philosophical approaches to ethical deliberation and the associated philosophers, which they classified as virtue-based ethics, duty-based ethics, and consequence-based ethics. The authors also touch on more recent ethical issues in public relations such as native advertising, data mining, blogging, and sponsored content. They also discuss media relations, ethics from a global perspective, and corporate social responsibility. Finally, there are sections on public relations history with quite a bit of attention paid to public relations’ impact in the tobacco industry, and legal issues such as corporate and commercial speech and privacy law.
However, one area that is missing and also tends not to be taught in public relations ethics courses is how to raise ethical concerns to more senior leaders once you have reached a decision, or how to develop an action plan. This gap could be addressed by providing a reading list by chapter available through the publisher website or author’s blog. Berger and Reber (2006) provided great insight into how to be influential in public relations and navigate internal politics. One qualitative study also provides specific examples of the creative techniques senior practitioners used to raise ethical concerns such as the headline test, serving as a devil’s advocate and offering ethical alternatives (Neill & Drumwright, 2012). Another resource would be the “Giving Voice to Values” curriculum created and provided free to educators by Mary Gentile (http://www.darden.virginia.edu/ibis/initiatives/giving-voice-to-values/), which discusses rationalizations people use to justify unethical behavior and what is referred to as “levers” or a means to oppose these rationalizations such as research, case studies, and logic.
Another area that could be enhanced through outside readings is the impact of organizational culture and values on ethical decision making. The authors mention the topic in the concluding paragraph of their book writing, “their goal (public relations leaders) is not to manipulate the beliefs, attitudes, and opinions of people outside the company; it is to shape the behavior of the company itself, consistent with its values and identity” (p. 225). While I agree with this statement, they could have further addressed how to do this, and that might make a great subject for a follow-up book. One resource for a reading list would be an article titled “The Influence of Employer Branding in Internal Communication” (Neill, 2016).
Finally, while I enjoyed reading the case studies in the book, both recent and historical examples, the authors were a little quick to tell readers what the correct answers were to the dilemma. I would have preferred that the authors first ask readers to consider thoughtful questions about the cases and then allow them to deliberate before telling them the answers. For a public relations ethics course, it would be helpful if the authors created some discussion questions by chapter and provided the resource as a pdf file through their personal blogs or the publisher website. In addition, professors should invite students to discuss areas where they agree or disagree with the authors’ decisions to encourage critical thinking.
Overall, I would recommend using this book as a primary textbook or supplemental resource for public relations ethics courses. It is also a good resource for beginning public relations practitioners or those studying for the Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) exam.