Summary of In-Class Presentation of First Artifact

I have chosen the code of ethics for public relations representatives/members of the PRSA as set by the Public Relations Society of America. This code of ethics is strongly encouraged for every representative, but is a mandatory moral standard for the members of PRSA. The PRSA code of ethics contains segments on advocacy, honesty, expertise, independence, loyalty, and fairness; these help to make up the ideology of PRSA that public relations professionals are ethical by way of a strict code of provisions and values.

I am personally very interested in ethics and the way that they relate to public relations practices. Ethics are a very large portion of any industry and when a representative is trying to promote their company in a positive, inform the public about the company’s work, and keep the public updated on any crises information it can be a thin line between what is ethical and acceptable. I find it interesting the way that the PRSA has gathered a list of essential and basic ideas about what is acceptable and what the field leaders have decided is appropriate.

The reason why I find this artifact significant is because the code really reflects the ideological stance of the PRSA and its administrators. I would like to figure out more of their stance on what constitutes ethical behavior and what morals are appropriate for an entire profession.

I am planning on using ideological criticism to analyze the PRSA code of ethics. The majority of it, in my opinion, is an ideological stance about what is suitable behavior and fitting responses to situations that arise in the profession. I think that looking at the ideology in comparison to the audience being targeted is interesting; for example, the intent of describing the ideology to PRSA members is different from describing it to potential members.


Once again, the PRSA Code of Ethics can be found at http://www.prsa.org/AboutPRSA/Ethics/.