One of the greatest issues which has tainted the entire industry of public relations and today continues to still be one of its biggest challenges is the problem of honesty. For many individuals public relations is simply synonymous with amoral practices. In 2004 a leading academic stated that PR could be equated to ‘deceptive communication’. However, with the introduction of Steemit all this could change. There is no need any more for PR to be the bad boy of marketing, and Steemit can help with this.
Contemporary public relations can trace its roots back to a 20th Century phenomenon which evolved from the news media gentry of the 19th Century. During this period powerful press agents used to manipulate the credulity of the public which was hungry for information and entertainment. This resulted in numerous exaggerated advertisements and press releases being published where some were outright fraudulent.
A custom developed whereby press agents attempting to promote certain attractions would ‘donate’ to the editor plenty of tickets to these attractions, this usually ensured that huge publicity was created while editors and their families and friends enjoyed the free entertainment they had been provided. This of course all took place without any regard for ethical concerns, and it was here where the origins of the darker side of public relations was born, it is these reasons which lie behind the public’s caution and scepticism for PR. This has also transcended into the social media realm with PR still living up to a bad name in many cases. Steemit has the potential to offer something 'cleaner' in the PR industry and it can be a major tool for PR professionals if they are clever. Steemit has the ability to take PR and make it into a promotional tool that will send messages and connect with people, while ensuring a more honest approach is integrated.
One of the problems when dealing with an issue such as this is that not as much empirical evidence exists as there should be. Up until 1988 a Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) task force identified only sixteen articles written for journals and two books dealing with basic PR ethics. In 1989 a seminal study was conducted which significantly questioned the credibility and integrity of public relations. However, since this time there have been a number of professional public relations bodies who have introduced codes of conduct and ethics codes in a bid to regulate the conduct of PR practioners, with some degree of efficacy.
In recent years more and more ethics codes for PR professionals have been introduced, this is largely because ethics are still clearly an issue which have to be addressed effectively within the industry. Many PR practioners are now able to be influenced by guidelines and recommended models of conduct, in America there are even tests available including TARES and ‘Front Page’. However, this does not mean that there is any guarantee the desired standard will be met. This was vividly demonstrated when in 2005 an American commentator, Armstrong Williams, did not disclose his relationship with the US federal government while working for his PR firm Ketchum on behalf of the Department for Education, the company received $240,000 dollars of public money. Ketchum was forced to admit that the work conducted did not comply with the guidelines of our agency and our industry. Many believe that the central issue underlying PR ethics problems is clarity.
Ethics is key to improving the reputation of public relations. Steemit can help guide the use of PR on the platform in a more healthy direction. Steemit has a unique quality in that most users are striving to create a community that is more genuine than any other social media platform. And it is because of this quality and its increasing outreach that Steemit could really help improve the reputation of PR, whilst at the same time doing what PR is supposed to do - connecting organisations with people.
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YOU MAKE PR CLEAR. THANK U.