Week 6 Chapter 4 & 5 Public Relations Theory and Practice.

I think the key points to remember from this weeks readings were.....
that of the legal environment and the Ethical Practice chapters of of the public relations theory and practise book by johnston and Zawawi.Pr decisions must be made in context of the 'legal environment'. Hoger and Swen categorise these differences into four areas:- Understanding of time and timing;traditions and strategies;audience relationships;and approaches to message construction. Therefore, Pr practitioners must take an active role in assessing and responding to legal risks. We can clearly see that tension does exist between the legal and PR responses to crisis. It is becoming incresingly necessary for PR practitioners to develop good working relations with their legal advisers.Before turning to a legal solution, the PR practitioner should consider these three important questions:-
1. What are the Pr practitioner's legal rights and responsibilities?
2. How do these rights and responsibilities translate into everyday work practices?
3. What are the PR implications of any legal dispute?

The legal environment aims to provide some foundation to assist PR practitioners to make informed choices about legal risks focusing on these main significant areas:-

. protecting reputations;
. protecting creative ideas;
. the practitioner's duty of care;
. legal risk management, the role of contracts in a global legal environment;and
. technology and future legal directions in a PR context.

legal issues can affect both reputations and relatonships.The tort of a defamation which is a tort of a legal way of saying a civil wrong aims to protect a person's reputation, a fundamental human right. This tort limits what a PR practitioner can publish, although it does provide a vehicle by which practitioners and their clients can protect their reputations. T o bring an action in defamation a person must show that:-

. the material was published- thatis, read, seen or heard by a third person;
. they were identified in the publication - that is, a person of average intelligence can identify the plaintiff as the person referred to in the publication;
. the publication was defamatory.

In the trade practices act 1974 (cth) and reputation practitiotners should pay close attention and exercise caution in areas such as puffery, comparative advertising, character and merchandising and how they promote goods and services generally.There are several important features of this section as outlined in the readings.

On occassions parties to litigation or people charged with offences look to public relations to control damage of proceedings. Practitioners must therefore understand the doctrine of contempt of court, particulary the sub judice rules.These rules restrict what can be published about proceedings that are pending.An example in the text is where broadcaster Darren Hinch was found guilty of contempt of court for publishing information about a priest being charged on several counts of sexually assaulting children in his care.The court found that, by revealing the prior convictions of the acused, Hinch was in contempt of court.

Clark, Cho and Hoyle stress that a knowledge on intellectual property law has become ' a prerequisite for anyone doing business in what has become known as the info of digital age'.Practitioners must be cautious about putting things online.When advising clients on image and relationship building, Pr practitioners must be careful not to borrow too heavily from the ideas of their client's competition.

Contract law also plays a pivotal role in PR.When preparing contracts for supply of goods or services, several important risks should be identified and managed. Clark, Ho and Hoyle identify these as:-
. securing the right provider
. assessing liklihood of complete performance
. specifying what happens if the provider fails to provide service on time
. specifying who bears the risk of negligence in performance of contract
. specifying obligations of confidentiality
. privacy
.providing for public feedback, and
. spec ifying what happens if a conflict of interest arises.
This shows us clearly that contracts are useful ways of clearing up uncertainty in relationships with others.

In PR a duty of care will arise where advice is given on a serious or business matter.A practitoners obligation to exercise reasonable care also extends to third parties who can reasonably expect to rely on info and advice.

I have learnt through doing the chapter 4 reading this week in PR that it clearly identifies parts of the lagal environment that i had no idea about until reading this chapter and learning and discovering the various aspects of the legal system. I found it engaging to learn that of Pr practitioners role in the legal environment and how that operates. This chapter showed good legal advice and how that must be interperated from a PR perspective to ensure that quality decisions are made. i also learnt that by selecting a legal practitioner who respects the professionalism of their client and can ensure the best outcomes from both legal and public relations perspectives is important. There are still several problematic areas of the legal system that need to be addressed in developing a legal strategy. This chapter in particular highlighted to me the complexity and diversity of PR in the legal environment. An interesting chapter that gets you thinking and learning all the way.


In the chapter of Ethical practice it looks at how ethics refers to the personal values which underpin the behaviour and moral choices made by an individual in response to a specific situation.In PR practise, ethical behaviour relates both to the practitioner and to the organization. PR practitioners therefore need to be concerned with their own personal and professional ethics as well as with the institution ethic of the organization for which they work. Seib and Fitzpatrick discuss 5 duties of PR professionals as being to oneself, the client, the employer, the profession, and society.As a PR professional one is obliged to support your collegues and to be responsible to your peers.A potter box technique enables and helps to identify consistent and inconsistent values. principles and loyalties and in the end the most ethical decision is made.

The 2 acknowledged fathers of PR are Ivy Lee and Edward E. Bernays they both did alot to legitimise PR practice.The role of PR in today's society is to build bridges and alliances with different publics to create a conducive environment in which businesses, government, voluntary agencies,hospitals and other institutions can operate. Four major roles played by PR practitioners have ethical implications which are the roles of counsellor,advocate,corporate monitor and corporate conscience. Pr practitioners are vieqwing thier role as that of a counsellor to senior executives in protecting and building an organisation's corporate reputation. PR counsellor must develop a much more broader perspective on an entire industry rather than just their own organisation, and to be able to exercise good judgement regarding various publics expectations about an organization's activities.

In the role of the advocate PR practitioners share the general nature of their purpose with lawyers.PR professionals are advocates for their organization and have a responsibility to present their organisation in a favourable light and not deceive the public. PR practitioners need to reconcile their roles as advocates for self - interested causes with their roles as facilitators of social communication.In the two - way symmetrical system PR practitioners act as mediators between organisations and their publics, facilitating the long way conversation in which each party continues to further its own interests, but all respect the others viewpoints and work together to find solutions.

PR practitioners need to act as an informed corporate monitor for their organisation. PR practitioners role is to also serve as the moral keeper for both its communication and actions in the role of corporate conscience.There are also several ethical dilemmas that can occour for a PR practitioner which include:-
1. interpersonal
2. organisational; or
3. stakeholder

Interpersonal involves a dilemma occouring between a practitioner and peers or superiors in the workplace. Organisational issues can also arise between a prac and a organisation's policies and protocols. Ethical dilemmas can arise between organbisation and publics that have an interest in its actions. Pr practitioners must also observe their professional association's code and code of conduct in their workplace.Each association has a code of ethics.The PRIA is the public relations institute of aus and is governed by a 15 point code fo ethics which is supported by a procedure for dealing with alleged breaches. The MEAA stands for the media entertainment and arts alliance and it operates the aus journalists association code of ethics which is the legal umbrella code with which journalists working within the media or in the public or private sector organisations can comply.The PRSA stands for the public relations society of america and it has a code which focuses on universal values that inspire ethical behaviour and performance. The IABC stands for international association of business communications and is the code that is simple and basec on 3 universal principles of corporate communicationthat apply throughout the world.And finally the ABA which stands for the aus broadcasting authority inquiry in 1999 into what has become known as 'cash for comment' and puts the ethics of all communication professionals into the spotlight.

I have learnt much from this chapter 5 reading on ethics. It has taught me that ethics is apart of the responsibility of all decision makers and has to be part of a mainstream management.I have also learnt that PR practitioners have become active participants in the development of corporate business strategy, ensuring that commercial objectives are balanced with responsibility to all stakeholders. One must note that practitioners encourage social responsibility and hold a greater contribution to society on the part of major institutions.This reading provides social challenges for PR centres on a need to move towards a genuine professionalism. If more people take on this approach Pr practitioners will be the subject matter of PR just like the subject matter of ethics.Overall PR practitioners understand the professional ethics interacts with professional conduct and ia apart of an overall search for excellence and and i believe PR practitioners will no doubt make a move towards genuine professionalism.