Public relations scholars have demonstrated contradictory views regarding the application of universal versus culture-specific approaches for understanding global public relations ethics. However, few comparative studies have empirically explored public relations ethics on a global scale. To that end, this study represents an exploratory attempt to provide a descriptive picture of public relations professional associations and their codes of ethics across 107 countries. In conclusion, we argue that honesty, safeguarding of confidences of clients, and prohibition of conflicts of interest of competing (...) clients should be accepted as the universal values, while other issues, such as free flow of information and fees and gifts, could be understood as the relativistic values specific to a nation's situation and needs. (shrink)

The public relations industry is increasingly focusing on evaluation and transparency of its activities. Despite this focus, an “evaluation” component is missing from many ethical decision-making models. Thus, this qualitative study of 22 public relations professionals asked How do public relations professionals evaluate or reflect upon ethical decisions? Five themes signaled that practitioners evaluate ethical decisions by conducting “gut checks,” asking questions, considering society, reflecting on core values, and considering the public's feedback. Findings suggest that professionals evaluate decisions on personal, (...) organizational, and societal levels. Experience in the field, age, and personal intuitions are also factors. (shrink)

This article examines byline issues and journalism ethics in an Asian context, with particular focus on how journalists invent and subsequently publish articles under various non-existent authors. The study took place between April and August 2022 in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, where ethical misbehavior in journalism is normalized and academic institutions in the region fail to develop students’ ethical approach to journalism. It is well known that journalists write about politically sensitive issues under pseudonyms or other names in authoritarian contexts, (...) but this study adds to scholarship exploring why and under what circumstances journalists in an Asian context use non-existent authors even when writing on nonsensitive and trivial matters. The findings suggest that journalists choose to and/or are forced to publish articles using multiple pseudonyms by political, economic, and individual circumstances. The findings are discussed in relation to the theory of deontological ethics. (shrink)

The goal of this study was to develop and demonstrate a new ethical model for crisis communication. This article examined the crisis communication practices as well as literature and found essential elements—what, how, and when—for ethical and effective crisis communication. Based on these three variables, a new three‐part model, the TTR Test, was proposed, utilizing three principles: Transparency (what), Two‐way symmetrical communication (how), and Right time (when). To investigate how the test can be applied to the real world, this article (...) examined BP's crisis communication during the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. (shrink)