What do I say about Ethics...

It does seem like this has been such a hot topic lately. Last week I blogged about astroturfing, but never actually shared my opinions on the issue. I guess I am just beginning to realize that is just the tip of the iceberg. There are just so many grey areas when in comes to the mass media, including Public Relations. I am about to be thrown into this world, and it's up to me to decide what I believe on these issues.

Unlike some of my classmates I do not think I could do a job every day that I was not passionate about, even I was making the big bucks. I want to work for a company that I feel confident in, one in which I am proud when I tell people who I work for. I do not want to have a guilty conscious or cheat people out of anything to make more money. I want to be a part of a company that follows a code of ethics and is honest with its customers. Honesty is very important to me.

However, I do realize that Public Relations (along with many other fields) is not a field that you usually start off with your ideal job. I understand that I may have to start with a job that I am not extremely passionate about, but that can change over time. Life is way to short to hate your job every day. I couldn't handle that, no matter how much money I was making.

Although I do not necessarily feel called to go into the mission field, I do know I want to do a job that helps people. Ideally I would like a job with as much human interaction as possible. I would like to think I made a difference in the world regardless of the amount on my paycheck. I would rather live a modest lifestyle, and have a career I love. I genuinely love to be around people, and I want to treat them the way I would like to be treated.

All of that being said, I am not willing to compromise any of my moral standards for more money or a better job. My family has instilled a core set of values based on what God desires for my life, and I definitely know then difference between right and wrong. I don't plan on doing anything illegal or immoral to make it in the world.

Astroturfing? What in the world...

After reading last week's case study on Ethics in Public Relations Campaigns, I found this blog post on the PRSSA website to be very applicable. It focused on something called astroturfing, which basically deals with employees or interns posting biased pre-scripted reviews on websites for their own company.

This blog post highlighted this subject matter by reviewing the recent case with the iTunes app store. Their PR firm, Reverb Communications used their interns to monitor the website and post positive reviews without mentioning the company they were affiliated with. According to a company called Techcrunch interns monitoring web reviews is a common practice, but this situation crossed the line of ethics.

According to the blog (and Wikipedia) astroturfing can be defined as, “formal political, advertising or public relations campaigns seeking to create the impression of being spontaneous ‘grassroots’ behavior, hence the reference to the artificial grass.”

Obviously, if interns were posting these comments they were not "spontaneous." I feel like this blog post directly paralleled to what I read about in the Ethics chapter of my textbook. Its pretty cool when you realize the things in your textbooks are real in the PR world too. The post gave a few other examples of unethical practices such as sneaking gift cards to sway bloggers, PR representatives in city council meetings and false opposition letters.

The final part of the blog post stressed the importance of our own personal ethics. Even as interns and young business professionals we need to be aware of how much this is going on and do our part to stop these unethical practices.

Looks like I have a lot to do...

This article really helped me discover what valuable skills I will need in the real-world of Public Relations. There were 14 Key attributes listed in the article. Some of the attributes I felt comfortable about, but others i definitely need to work on. Since I'm a SENIOR now (ah!) I need to be able to better evaluate my strengths and weaknesses.

After reading the article I came to a few conclusions regarding the different attributes of a PR professional that I am confident in. These skills aren't perfect, but I definitely feel they are my best selling points

1. Communication Skills: I love communicating with others. I feel I am good at expressing the way I feel, and being able to communicate effectively with other people. I feel that communication is the KEY to any good relationship.

2. Work Ethic: I definitely have a strong work ethic. I will not quit on a job until it is done. I like to be a team player, even if that means staying late.

3. Attention to Detail: I am a perfectionist especially when it comes to school work or any work I did this summer with my internship. I read, and re-read until I know things are the way I like them. I look into every aspect of a project to make sure it is complete and correct.

Some of the things I am not so sure about are:

1. Coding: I am not really sure how any of this works. I do not know much at all about HTML, PHP and VBScript at all.

2. Blogger Relations: I could definitely expand on my blogger relations. I only have friends in our class, but this really needs to change.

3. RSS, RSS Readers: I'm not exactly positive about how these work either. I need to figure this one out before I graduate for sure!

It looks like I have a lot of things to discover my last year in college. I want to really work on these 14 attributes before applying to jobs in the REAL WORLD!