LT's Round Up

For my final blog post for my Media Ethics in a Professional Context, we are reviewing a few of our classmates posts.  So here you go...

Kimmee R-

Blog Post 1

January 13, 2012- “It’s Only a Matter of Lies”

In Kimmee’s first blog post, “It’s Only A Matter of Lies,” she shares the story of what happened when she tore her ACL as a college athlete.  After knowing that she would be out for over a year due to her injury, her volleyball coach messed with her scholarship and eligibility.  I believe that how her coach treated the situation was entirely unprofessional and unethical.  “Scholarships are taken away from athletes due to bad behavior, grades or other major offenses, but not for getting hurt.”  Kimmee’s injury was out of her control and from my understanding; he deliberately tried to bend the system to benefit him.  Obviously Kimmee showed strong leadership and skills otherwise, she would not have been named co-captain.   As such, shouldn’t her coach have had some loyalty to her?

Kimmee’s decision to take the high road and put her teammates and programs reputation before her own goals leads to the question- is it better to make an ethical decision that will harm one person or one that will harm a community?  Most likely, the people who were left on the volleyball team would have suffered from the result of her speaking up.  Would her coach have been fired?  Would the program have been cut from the school or put under sever scrutiny?  Not knowing what would have happened if she spoke out about the injustice (after all whose word would they believe, the player or her coach who has a successful track record?), she made a tough decision that, to be honest, I’m not sure I would have made the same one.

Tammy T-

Blog Post 4

January 28, 2012- "The Conundrum of Public Relations"

In her blog post, “Conundrum of Public Relations“ Tammy discusses the current definition of public relations and how she would alter it.  She brings up a phrase in this blog that I had not particularly thought of; PR is a practice of persuasion.  As important as customers are to a company (vital- without them, your product would be no good), you must also remember that the bottom line of every company is so be profitable.  So as a PR agent, part of your job is about finding the way and doing what you have to in order to making your product sellable.  In her new definition she states that PR is about managing reputation.  This seems so obvious that it is easy to over look however it is also a key component.  Reputation follows us throughout life.  

Think back to High School where everyone had a crush on the quarterback or the head of the cheerleader because they were the popular and had (hopefully) a reputation for being nice.  In PR, we want our product to be the quarterback.  We are responsible for finding a way to convince the target audience that our company is the best.  Even if the company makes an error, it is our job to find a way to convince the stakeholders that it was the right decision.. In my definition I mentioned that it was about the conversation between the company and the stakeholders.  While, I still believe that this is an important part of what we do, I don’t think I had quite thought about the bottom line of a company when making my definition. 

Terrance W

Blog Post 5

February 4, 2012- "Not to get deep on you…"

"I believe the words you write should be true to you, and allow others to find truth as well."

Actions speak louder then words. 

Just a few years ago (let’s say in the 90’s), bullying someone often meant physically causing them harm.  Fights on the playground at recess.  In the lunchroom, the bigger kid threatening another kid for his milk money.  Relentlessly tugging on a girls braid.  In the video below we see that in the 90’s bullying often meant physically hurting someone.

Rarely is something mentioned about protecting yourself from verbal abuse. However in today’s society of social networks bullying has transformed into cyberbullying.

I agree with Terrance’s explanation for both newspapers actions.  It was wise for Polkin to use this case as a learning tool for parents.  At very least, maybe it was a wake up call for them to pay more attention to what their children are doing online.  With the Post, it brings up the question, should a journalist filter information that they obtain.  If they know the who, what, where, why and when but only choose to release some of this information- doesn’t that cross an ethical line?  By releasing all of the information, they remove their bias and provide their stakeholders with just the facts.

However, I do not agree with Terrance’s view that it is the websites responsibility to monitor everything that is said on it.  I’d be interested to know how he thinks this should be implemented.  Would the website no longer be updated in real time?  Would the company have to hire numerous people to monitor what EVERY SINGLE PERSON is saying?  Post Secret just recently went through a similar situation their mobile app.  People were offended by the content that others were posting so they tried to apply a filtering process.  However this eventually became too much to regulate, so the company shut their mobile app down.  Would the same happen for all social network sites?

Billy S-

Blog Post 2

January 12, 2012- "Snitches Get Stitches"

In this blog post we discussed what we would do if we learned secretive information that could be released to the public but others believed that it should be kept a secret.  For his example Billy discussed a teammate who had been written up.  If he told this coach about this, the teammate would have been suspended and not allowed to play.  Since they were going into a major game so he had a decision to make as weather to keep it a secret in order to have a strong team.   

As a fellow teammate, leadership role or not, no one wants to be the tattletale.  If I was Billy’s teammate and he told the coach on me, I obviously would be upset.  I probably would not trust Billy with any personal information.  Without the trusting their captain, it is very hard for a team to succeed. 

In situations like this, the student leadership team (or in a media context, the journalist) is put between a rock and a hard place.  Not to tell the coach takes away discipline and allows his teammate to get away with doing something that is against team rules.  However, the entire team looses if he tells his coach about the write up by being forced to play 1 man down. In the end, I believe the question becomes whose responsibility is it to follow up on the students?  The coaches.

At the same time, as a coach (again, or in media context I might consider the coach to be the public) I except that my captains are keeping me informed.  They are the voice for the voiceless and have a responsibility to keep me informed about what is happening with the team.

Whitney S

Blog Post 3

January 21, 2012- "Using the PRSA Code of Ethics"

In her blog about the PRSA Code of Ethics, Whitney brings up a few interesting points.  When I was reviewing this case for my blog, I never thought about Anheuser-Busch slightly altering their campaign to add a bit about having designated driver.  By adding a line to the extent of drink responsibly, college might have been slightly better about the idea.  I don’t know if it would have changed the college’s minds but it is an interesting concept.    

I understand how important a schools reputation is however, in this day in age, to pretend that your students do not drink is simply humorous.  I am not positive of the statistic but I’m pretty sure about 98% of college students have had alcohol at some point or another.  So to say that allowing the promotion to happen near your school will make them drink more or that the public will look down on you is a bit of a stretch.   

She also mentions the idea of AB asking permission to use the schools colors but answers why they didn’t by stating that the school probably would have said no anyways.  I don’t believe that AB needed to gain the schools permission before producing the Fan Cans.  If I am looking at this case in the eyes of AB- it is just colors.  Do I need to contact Ireland before I use green cans for St. Patrick’s Day? No.  So why should I need to contact the school if I choose to change my can colors?  AB stated that they had no relationship with the school. The school was not sponsoring the promo so why should they have a say on what AB does?

I believe that she sums it up best when she says “The PRSA’s Code of Ethics can be seen as just general guidelines to adhere to when faced with an ethical decision.”