Essay Sample on Ethics and Public Relations: Professional Values and Their Impact

Introduction

Ethics forms an integral component of public relations. Based on the fact that the PR campaigns are aimed at informing the public about specific issues, ethics are critical to helping organizations or businesses gain trust, retain employees, and create a good relationship with the customers. In most cases, the ethical issues in PR include professional values of advocacy, expertise, honesty, independence, fairness, and loyalty. Ideally, these values are integral because they conform to the critical provisions that encompass the free-flow of information, competition, information disclosure, conflicts of interest, and safeguarding confidence. While it is evident that most organizations deal with the provisions of the conduct through the PR professionals, it is essential to have an understanding of the underpinning values, which are crucial to successful ethical practices. In some cases, individuals and organizations have failed to embrace the underlying values of PR ethics.

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PR Strategy Employed

The video, I am a Ukrainian, provides an exposition regarding how the unethical PR practices can be used to manipulate the perception of the public about specific issues. With over 3 million views, the video features an attractive woman who insistently claims that the protest and uprising in Ukraine are strict because of the freedom and democracy. This PR strategy is known as propaganda. It involves the manipulation of the public through the spread of information that is not true. A close look would reveal that the video us typically glib and simplified emotional propaganda, which alleges to provide the explanation that there is only one fundamental cause and reason for the protests in Ukraine. This is purely a bald-faced lie, which profoundly ignores the many political factors that have contributed to the protest. In reality, the Ukrainian uprising was centered on the conflict between Russia, the European Union, and the United States.

The video the Truth about Ukrainian Crisis is all about media relations, as a strategy to inform the public about the truth behind a highly concealed information from the public. The video aims at improving the understanding of the public regarding the entire aspect of the crisis.

The Audience

The audience for this PR stance is the Ukrainian citizens and the international bodies that have vested interests in the nation's crisis.

The Message

The PR strategy used in this video is propaganda. The woman encourages her audience to assist them in telling and spreading the story primarily through sharing her video. Such a move would help them frame the debate that surrounds the naive narrative that the Ukrainian uprising is solely about the desire to get freedom and, in essence, restricting the actual reasons behind the US-instigated protest, with focus on Russia's geopolitical isolation.

Relationship Being Managed

The relationship being managed in both videos is the one that exists between the nation (Ukraine) and its citizens. One vital aspect to observe in the, "I am Ukrainian video" is based on the fact that its origin is not quite as grass-root as it is portrayed. In its entirety, the film was produced by a team that worked on a documentary about the fight for democracy across the world, which was also financed by Prince Moulay Hicham of Morocco. Thus, there is an absolute truth that the video is an incredible public relation stance with the woman speaker invited to make a presentation to calm the protests led by the Ukrainians against their government.

In the video I am a Ukrainian, The woman is immediately invited to make an appearance on the CNN led by Anderson Cooper. Cooper has had a series of controversies surrounding his position as one of the officials on CNN. For example, in collaboration with CNN, he pushed the Kony 2012 until it disintegrated when one of its directors experienced a severe breakdown. He has also been criticized for promoting the fake Syria Danny hoax that highly depended on the choreographed footage to push for intervention by the American military in Syria. There is also another clear evidence that the protestors were being paid in the accusations that the United States armed them.

Is the Story Ethical?

The story behind I am a Ukrainian video is not ethical because it consists of the information which is aimed at brainwashing the public about the truth behind the factors that contributed to the uprising in Ukraine. Contrary, the message in the video the truth about the Ukrainian Crisis is ethical because it attempts to unmask some of the crucial information that the real causes of the uprising.

Effectiveness of the Videos

Depending on the purpose and the target audience, the two videos are useful in their ways. The strategy employed plays a crucial role in enhancing such effectiveness. Thus, the story behind the Ukrainian crisis is extremely complicated compared to a simple grass root protest against corruption. Millions of people may not be able to know the truth behind the Ukrainian protest based on its complexity. The use of propaganda has effectively worked in this PR video but provides a broader view of the real agenda behind the crisis.

References

Smith, R. D. (2013). Strategic planning for public relations. Routledge.

Kruckeberg, D., Newsom, D., & Turk, J. V. (2013). This is PR: The realities of public relations (11th Ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.