ETHICS IN PUBLIC RELATIONS: ETHICAL THEORIES, CODES AND CONFLICTS

Abstract

Public relations, an important element of the media society, is a management function which helps establish and nurture the links of mutual communication, understanding, acceptance and cooperation between the organization and the surrounding public. The development of the public relations profession is commonly seen as a progressive evolution from unsophisticated and unethical early practice to the planned, strategic, ethical campaigns of the modern age. However, when discussing the practice of public relations in the XXI century, there are certain doubts, or rather, ethical conflicts. Being the key moral principle and the fundamental philosophical concept, truth should be the goal of every relationship and communication. However, in the public relations practice, truth is occasionally suppressed due to its partial placement. The process of communication itself functions to a significant extent through the mass media, and the violation of ethics in that respect is the trade in media space, which is a difficult form of violation of the philosophy of morality. The main purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of ethics and its development in public relations. This paper analyzes the ethics of public relations as a self-regulation platform for this profession. The application of ethical theories based on utilitarian and deontological approaches has also been discussed. In addition, codes of ethics applied in the PR profession are presented, as well as examples of unethical actions in the public relations profession.