Universal Code Of Ethics Research Articles

Universal ethics code: Both possible and feasible

No insurmountable barriers preclude the development of a binding code with the public relations professional community, although it might be a logistically difficult and sobering task. Public relations does not have to become a legally protected profession or be governmentally licensed and regulated. Rather, a professional model similar to that used by Certified Public Accountants is more appropriate, because such a model recognizes that not all the activities of its practitioners can be exclusionary and limited to those in professional practice. Dean Kruckeberg is coordinator of the public relations degree program in the Department of Communication Studies at the University of Northern Iowa. This article was part of a debate presented at the annual convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Montreal, Canada, August 1992.

Universal ethics code: An idea whose time has come

This article argues that the proliferation of ethics codes in various mass communication organizations, including PRSA and IABC, works against public trust of the communication professions because no single standard appears to be supported across the entire industry. The authors provide a framework for a universal ethics code and suggest a strategy and timetable for its adoption. Todd Hunt is a professor of communication and director of the Master's Degree Program in Communication and Information Studies at Rutgers University, where Andrew Tirpok is a Master's candidate. This article was part of a debate presented at the annual convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, Montreal, Canada, August 1992.

The 1979 Nigerian Constitution and Human Rights

One of the major developments in the post-World War II period international politics has been the emergence of a universal code of ethics to govern the actions of states on the issue of human rights and basic freedoms through the inclusion of Article 55 in the United Nations Charter and the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 10 December 1948.

Democracy: Retrospect and Prospect

The core of every culture is made up of basic attitudes and standards of value. When these standards lose their power, the culture tends to lose its vitality and may ultimately perish in the competition with rival cultures. The basic standards of value of American democratic culture were definitely formulated in the eighteenth century in the affirmation of the essential dignity of man implied in the institution of popular government. Basic also to American culture was the belief that certain ethical universals provide the basic framework that makes society possible. These standards of value dominated American thought to the middle of the nineteenth century. But in the twentieth century they have been eroded by a skepticism born of the advance of scientific knowledge and are in danger of being overwhelmed by the intensified power struggle in the modern world that has been made possible by the success of science in putting energy into the hands of men. The hope that power may be tamed and skepticism checked lies in the paradox that science itself, which has made energy available to those engaged in the power struggle and has bred the skepticism that erodes the standards of value of traditional American democratic culture, puts reason above force and ceases to exist whenever those who pursue it depart from a fixed and universal ethical code.