More than just a definition

In 2012 the PRSA’s Board of Ethics and Professional Standards will be monitoring the following four areas:

• PR firms representing dictators 
• Ethical use of interns
• The growth of brand journalism
• Maintaining PR’s ethical standards in the digital age 

From a pure review perspective, I would agree that these are four big issues. To take a stance against dictators is in my opinion an important one, however, I also believe that this will be a difficult one to monitor/enforce. There is always someone who is looking for a paycheck. 

The Office on interns

As a student myself, I agree that reinstating the integrity of internships is important. Companies have lost accountability in the nature of these programs. Bottom line, if you’re paying for something, you’re more likely to invest in it in other ways. And the student is bound to benefit from this. 

When I first read the concept of brand journalism, I thought it sounded like a bad idea, and so of course PRSA should be monitoring it. However, the more I thought about it, the more it sounded like a synonym for public relations. I mean, isn’t that what PR already is? A PR professional/firm “publishing” their own side of the story? 

As far as maintaining ethical standards, monitoring this in my opinion goes without saying.

What is not listed here is certification or licensing. Many industries have this in place to give those that adhere to ethical standards further credibility and accountability. 

If the PR industry wants to do something to bring back credibility to the field, some level of standardization and/or monitoring and consequences should be in place. There are far too many cases each year where PR firms or professionals are not just blurring the line, but jumping over it by leaps and bounds.

It is cases such as the one presented by Corbett and discussed at length by Alison Leigh Cowan in her NY Times article about the Orthodox rabbi that are the most problematic and which should be the focus of the PRSA’s efforts in 2012. 

Mr. Torossian is clearly doing harm to his industry and to his clients. He has a history of lying and creating fake content on behalf of his clients, which is in clear violation of the industry’s code of ethics. Now, not only is he himself involved in the situation that he was hired to manage, it appears that he may have had a hand in constructing it in the first place. 

Rather then spending time developing a new definition, perhaps the PRSA should be focusing on how to standardize the industry to bring faith back to the practice.