Being a fellow fan of Parks and Recreation, I chose to assess Lacey Gilleran’s blog post from Saturday, January 14 in response to blog assignment two. Parks and Recreation obviously makes the situation that Leslie and Ann are in humorous to viewers, but I agree with Lacey that it’s definitely something that all media professionals will be faced with at some point in their careers. Business operations, especially those of non profits, are increasingly reliant on sponsorships from larger corporations like that of Sweetums, and making the ethical decision to confront the problem and potentially damage a relationship that is mutually beneficial is a crucial decision for any organization. “Profitability and deadline pressures, not ethical values, too often end up defining the quality of media content.” As discussed in class, we are seeing more emphasis placed on the truthfulness of advertising. The Advertising Standards Authority, the ad industry watchdog in the UK, recently banned an advertisement by Lancome for the use of too much photoshop. Maybelline is also under fire for their ad, which the Advertising Standards Authority is claiming they are promoting “exaggerated product claims.” The beauty industry is one of the most profitable in the world, and they are posed with several ethical dilemmas in regards to promoting the effectiveness of their products.

http://fstoppers.com/makeup-ads-banned-in-uk-for-too-much-photoshop

Reebok also just settled a $25 million dollar claim over the effectiveness of their toning sneakers. “The Federal Trade Commission took exception to claims made by Reebok concerning its toning shoes, according to the New York Times. The FTC recently filed a complaint accusing Reebok of making unsubstantiated claims about Reebok EasyTone and RunTone shoes.” There hasn’t been sufficient evidence showing that these shows can do what Reebok has advertised them to do. This is truly an ethical dilemma and could’ve saved the company money and their reputation. Lacey included a quote from Plaisance that stated, “Ethics addresses individuals actions or behaviors, but also deals with the big picture.” My two examples of ethical issues make this quote come to life in that these corporations didn’t think of the big picture and how certain individuals would be affected.

On January 28, Kelly Elliot discussed PRSA’s Board of Ethics and Professional Standards and monitoring four specific areas.

         •  PR firms representing dictators 

         •  Ethical use of interns

•                  •  The growth of brand journalism

•                  •  Maintaining PR’s ethical standards in the digital age 

Kelly states that monitoring PR firms that are representing dictators would be difficult to enforce. I agree with her stance in that there are companies who are simply just looking for a paycheck. An example is the PR company Bell Pottinger, who was attempting to work for the Uzbekistan government, which is known for child labor and human rights violations. An article from the PRSA website titled, “Bell Pottinger Lobbying Scandal: The ‘Dark Arts’ of Unethical PR provides a great quote in regards to PR firms representing dictators. “We have made clear PRSA’s position that public relations firms should not represent dictatorships, regardless of whether they are helping to engender genuine reform in a country. Every person or organization has the right to have its voice heard in the global marketplace of ideas. But for PR firms to represent dictatorships that do not afford that same freedom to their own people is disingenuous to democratic societies’ reputations as marketplaces for dissenting ideas.”

Kelly also discusses reinstating the integrity of internships and that companies have lost accountability in implementing successful internship experiences. She states, “Bottom line, if you’re paying for something, you’re more likely to invest in it in other ways. And the student is bound to benefit from this.” I agree with the idea that a company would be more invested in an individuals productivity and demand more ownership of their experience, but I also think it should be based on other incentives besides money. Several internships lead to full time positions within the company, and it’s essentially an opportunity to gain invaluable experience. Regardless if an intern is receiving compensation, it should be taken seriously and looked at for exactly what it is. Experience.

Brand journalism within an organization can also be a slippery slope. I agree with Kelly that PRSA should be monitoring it, and it is essentially what a PR firm is doing. I do also think it brings different ethical dilemmas to the table. Our class discussions always bring up the question, “Who or what ultimately are we serving with our ethical decisions.” Everyone always seems to agree that when it comes to our profession, what takes precedence is keeping your job. We will do (most of the time) what we have to do to keep our job. The reason I bring this up is because I believe an outside PR agency would be more inclined to make an ethical decision regarding a specific campaign as opposed to internal branding within a company. I know certain instances such as the Walmart Blogging Across America campaign by Edelman does not hold this true, but I’d like to think that an outside PR source would have a better handle on ethical decision making.

On February 4, Michelle Hermann discussed the cyber bulling case of Megan Meier and gives a compelling case as to why Potkin was ethically just in excluding the suspects name in his article.  I agree with Potkin’s decision on an ethical standpoint as to why Potkin didn’t include the names of the suspects because they weren’t charged with the crime, and people were threatening acts of violence and harm towards them. Michelle makes a great point when she says, “Out of anger or to stake claim, bloggers went ahead and outed Lori Drew. They may take Kant's Categorical Imperative, to defense their reasons. Yet they showed the power cyber-bulling has: the ability to be cruel anonymously. It is easy to send malicious information via a chatroom, an email or a text message. People can hide behind a user name.” I also agree with Michelle that internet providers should intervene and take a lead in anti-cyber-bulling efforts. I think that requiring a legal form or legal web signature is something that wouldn’t happen on the internet for a very long time, if not ever. I do think something must be done to authenticate a user’s identity, but I’m not sure how that would be possible. Michelle could’ve also included the reasoning as to why the Post was ethically justified in including the suspects name in their story.

On January 5, Tom Herles discussed gossip ethics in his blog post. This has been a reoccurring topic in our discussion groups (specifically the Kardashians) and one that I’ve always had a single view on. Until I looked at it from an ethical standpoint of people doing a job that is in demand of the general public. Tom points out that his opinion might change if he was in a situation where printing this celebrity sensationalism would help the company he worked for and help him keep a job.

I was also extremely interested in his blog post from January 20 titled, “This Blog is Brought to you by Pepsi.” I was drawn to Tom’s blog post because he is a blogger in his profession. Writing these blog posts is the extent of my blogging experience, so it was interesting to read what he found as the blogging code of ethics. Several of the blogging ethics can also pertain to ethics against cyber-bullying. Examples are, “Take responsibility not just for your own words, but for the comments you allow on your blog.” Tom also stated, “Blogging does not have as many obligations as a newspaper or news website does. But because of that, it often gets a bad reputation. Like Patterson and Wilkins say in “Media Ethics,” you can’t blame the vessel for how people use it. (57)” Just by completing these blog assignments, you can see that blogging is everywhere. Companies use it to communicate and maintain a dialogue with consumers. Consumers use it for product reviews or personal reasons. There are literally blogs for anything you could ever imagine. The problem with that, as Tom noted, is that blogging can easily get a bad reputation. It’s just like cyberbullying. People are more inclined to express opinions they would never do in person. He also discusses product placement and advertisements in blogs. Not only is it forced product placement like television and movies, it’s social media sites like Facebook selling our information to marketers.

Lastly, I read Zach’s blog post from January 6. What caught my eye was the idea of ethics through a film-makers eye. Like blogging, production and film-making can essentially be considered a foreign language to me. His ethical concentration in his blog is really on the actual topic of the documentary. He says, “I think that sometimes, filmmakers tend to find themselves being critiqued and receiving controversial reception due to their gathering of maybe only "one side" of the facts. While I think it's important for documentaries to sometimes tell only one side of a story, I also do believe that filmmakers hold a certain responsibility to try and not place their own opinions and prejudices in a documentary when telling the story, which some tend to do (i.e. Michael Moore)” I found an interesting article from American University School of Communication titled, “Honest Truths: Documentary Filmmakers on Ethical Challenges in Their Work” After taking a read, I realized not only does a film-maker face ethical challenges in portraying a specific topic, but there’s also the stress of financial pressure to lower production costs and increase productivity. Like any profession, this brings up a very ethical dilemma and a common theme among our ethics class.

http://www.centerforsocialmedia.org/making-your-media-matter/documents/best-practices/honest-truths-documentary-filmmakers-ethical-chall

“Profitability and deadline pressures, not ethical values, too often end up defining the quality of media content.” This quote, regardless of media profession, can really sum up the challenges many professionals face, and what my classmates and I addressed in a majority of our posts.