When Does Ethical Fairness Come Into Play?

Steve Pokin, a writer for the Suburban Journals of St. Charles County, wrote an article about the tragic story regarding the suicide of a thirteen-year-old girl, Dardenne Prairie, after being cyber bullied. The messages that were sent to her MySpace, a popular social media network at the time, were cruel and vicious, and many believe that this was a key contributor behind her suicide choice. Pokin waited to write about the story until it was confirmed that there was not enough evidence made against the neighbors that were taunting the young girl on her MySpace. He chose to not include the neighbors names from the story, due to the fact that they were not convicted of any crime and thus, there was no real evidence that they were to blame for the girls death. The Journal was the source that posted Pokin’s article. Both Pokin and The Journal were extremely ridiculed for excluding the names of the neighbors that were believed to have caused this terrible tragedy. Among many complaints, the website and author were called cowards for choosing not to reveal the neighbors names. Many people voiced their opinion about how the neighbors should be punished for causing this young girl to commit suicide and were curious as to why it was decided not to let the world know who was behind this. An ethical perspective that could make a case for why Pokin and the Journal were ethically justified could be the opinion of Kitross. Kitross states that one should stick to their own values when making a decision of ethics, regardless of the pressures that one may encounter in the workplace. (Kitross, p. 60) In this case, even though Pokin believed he might be scrutinized for excluding the names, he stuck with his own values to leave the names out. 

The Post could be considered ethically justified in identifying the neighbors with the Society of Professional Journalists code. The text states that the SBJ code indicated that courses should be identified whenever it is feasible (p. 151). In this case, it was feasible to indicate who the neighbors were yet Pokin chose not do so. Pokin was aware of the believed cause of death, which was due to the cyber bullying coming from the neighbors. However, Pokin made a judgment call not to state their names, a call that angered many readers, especially when it was very possible for Pokin to just tell the truth about who was believed to be the cause of the suicide.

Of the two ethical perspectives I find Kitross’ argument to be more compelling. The SBJ code is extremely vague and leaves a lot open for interpretation. The opinion could be swayed in either direction. Kitross’ argument, on the other hand, is clear on the main point. Kitross believed that it is important to stick to ones own personal values when choosing what decision is the most ethical. This makes sense because many ethical scenarios come down to that one choice of what that person thinks is the right thing to do. In this scenario, Pokin believed that his article would show others the effects that bullying, and in particular cyber bullying, can have on others in hopes that it could raise awareness with parents and children, teaching everyone valuable lessons about what could happen due to bullying.

A third ethical perspective is that of Gordon, where he states that ones own personal values are worthy but unattainable (p. 73). In this case, although it was bold of Pokin to stick to his judgment call of excluding the names of the neighbors that bullied the young girl, Pokin took a big hit for that choice. It may have been more useful to wait until the neighbors were completely cleared from the case and then have indicated specifically that although there was some suspicion, there is no evidence that indicated that the neighbors are guilty of causing this young girls suicide. The journalist could have also indicated the neighbor’s names after knowing that they were not charged, and hope that they were not scrutinized due to lack of charges.

Work Cited:

-       Online Harrassment – A Hoax, A Suicide – A Journalistic Dilemma  by Roy Malone

-       Textbook Controversies in Media Ethics 3^rd Edition by A. David Gordon, John Michael Kittross, John C. Merrill, William A. Babcock, Michael Dorsher

- http://blogs.swa-jkt.com/swa/10472/2013/02/20/tok-ethical-dilemma/

The Secret Behind Target's Targets

When considering if data mining is a cause for concern, I believe it depends more upon which data mining it is. I believe that it is definitely not appropriate to be able to use three data points in order to identify a specific person. I think that is a big invasion of privacy and definitely unethical. On the other hand, I am not convinced that the data mining done by Target is unethical. Although Target did, in a sense, snoop on its customers to see a need and jump on the opportunity, Target is still helping customers prepare for a big chapter in their lives and let the customer know that they have the products that they are looking for.

Although this type of targeted marketing may appear on the surface to be ethically wrong, it does not make sense that a retail store should be penalized for learning what it is that a shopper is looking for and provide such products to that customer. Yes, Target did use statistics about customers to learn shopping patterns yet Target was also able to learn of women who were expecting, and provide necessities that they will need in order to help them while simultaneously increasing sales.

In my opinion, Target manager’s ethical obligation to the angry customer was to basically do what he had done. He needed to apologize if there was a misunderstanding and make the customer feel secure. The manager called again a few days later with another apology, which was appropriate in order to avoid the customer’s feelings being mislead by Target’s coupons and advertising.

I do believe that it can be considered unethical for Target to mix ads in a coupon book in order to prevent customers from feeling uncomfortable or “creeped out.” By Target choosing to do that, it insinuates that they do have something to hide. It also suggests that Target, too, would understand why such intense target marking would be frowned upon. Thus, if Target did not see anything wrong with targeting certain customers so specifically, they would have no reason to hide what they were doing by ad mixing in coupon books.

These practices fit within the code of ethics for advertisers and PR practitioners in that the public should be told only factual statements about products. However, this is not to say that in marketing a product, consumers are not to expect advertising to be exaggerated and be able to make up their minds on products for themselves. In the same case, Target customers may be presented with target marketing that pertains to certain life situations, but it is their choice whether they choose to shop for these products at Target or elsewhere. Consumers should be able to realize the message that is being sent to them by retailers and choose what to do with that information on their own. Several ethical perspectives apply in this case, according to the textbook. Ethicist Sissela Bok believed that it is unreasonable for people to expect the entire truth, but that it is ethical to be truthful, as she stated in her novel Lying. Bok states that lying is intentional deception. In this case, Target was not being intentionally deceptive until they started ad mixing in coupon books in order to throw pregnant customers off from being “creeped out.” David Gordon believes that advertising does not always need to include the full, absolute truth due to the fact that sales need to be made and people are aware of that, thus the entire truth can be excused. Michael Schudson states that advertisers attempt to persuade the consumer based off what they have to sell. The general consensus remains that persuasive communicators are often trying to exploit the consumer and thus, it is in the consumers’ hands to be aware of this and act accordingly.  

Work Cited

(http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/magazine/articles/2010/06/20/inside_the_mind_of_the_anonymous_online_poster/?page=full)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/

http://imarketingxpert.com/persuasive-communicator

Textbook Controversies in Media Ethics 3^rd Edition by A. David Gordon, John Michael Kittross, John C. Merrill, William A. Babcock, Michael Dorsher

Deception in Public Relations and Journalism

In Public Relations and in Journalism, there will be times as we have learned that one must choose between guarding information and releasing information to the public. Some believe that it is right to keep information private and others believe that it is right to tell the public of information that is told to them. In this case, there are certain ethical guidelines that must be followed.  The Public Relation’s Society of America code of ethics states that lying directly to the public is unacceptable. One must also decide just how much they are willing to stand by their client upon learning that they are not entirely ethical. It is important to accentuate the good truth in clients but also shed light to any unethical issues that have occurred that is considered to be important information to the public in order to avoid lying to the public.

An example from our textbook explains how a well-known PR firm, Hill & Knowlton, was hired to manipulate the public into supporting US intervention against Iraq in the Gulf War. The firm showed testimony before the Human Rights Caucus about mayhems done by the Iraqi troop in Kuwait that was false. The firm was given the choice to decide whether to keep the fact that this was false testimony a secret and to, in a sense, trick the public, or whether to tell the truth. 

The criteria that I would use to decide whether to make the information known is a combination of the ethical perspectives of Jay Black, Bob Steele and Ralph Barney (1995, p.120) in order to decide whether any information that could be deceptive is considered ethical. This includes deciding if the truth is important to the public, if all alternatives to this information have been used, the motives and the consequences behind the deception, the harm from obtaining the information versus keeping it a secret, and the reason behind this disclosure. If it were the case that Kuwait was truly being treated unfairly by Iraqi troops it would hurt Kuwait to keep the information private and benefit the Iraqi troops. However, since the text states that the information was deceptive and that Iraqi troops were not causing atrocities in Kuwait, it would hurt the United States military by allowing the United States to stand up against the Iraqi troops for something that they were deceived on and it would hurt the Iraqi troops due to the fact that they were accused of doing something that they did not do.

Personally, if someone were to use the media to share previously secret information, they would face a lot of scrutiny. There is a chance that they could loose their job and be deemed untrustworthy. In this case, if the Public Relations firm admitted later that they were dishonest, they would receive a lot of backlash for not telling the truth at the time that they were lying to the media.

As a media professional, I believe that it is not always possible to avoid being entangled in secrets. I believe that it is inescapable to be involved in ethical dilemmas but it is your choice as a professional whether you are going to partake in a situation that could, in the future, question your ethical integrity.

Work Cited:

Textbook Controversies in Media Ethics 3^rd Edition by A. David Gordon, John Michael Kittross, John C. Merrill, William A. Babcock, Michael Dorsher

http://blog.entrepreneurthearts.com/2012/06/29/is-it-ok-to-be-a-whistle-blower-and-is-there-new-employment-opportunities-in-loss-prevention-for-creatives/

 

Was Nike Really To Blame?

            The case, The Gym Shoe Phenomenon: Social Values vs. Marketing by Gail Baker University of Florida, is a case that pertains to a situation where a certain minority felt as though Nike had mislead them and was causing violence due to its marketing choices. The Code of Ethics that I felt was appropriate was the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Member Code of Ethics. This is because I am interested in doing public relations for a sports related or athletic company. This code of ethics believes in advocacy, honesty, expertise, independence, loyalty and fairness according to the PRSA Code of Ethics website and can also be found from Chapter 2 Ethics Theory Application to Media from Media Ethics.  

            This code of ethics is helpful in evaluating the ethical considerations of this particular case study pertaining to Nike because Nike was able to please its critics going about the necessary public relations steps in order to, in a sense perform, damage control. For Nike, the African-American community blamed Nike for the violence that was occurring. They stated that violence was caused that correlated with Nike shoes due to the fact that there were black athletes are spokesperson and stated that Nike was advertising black superiority. Additionally, they believed that Nike was encouraging black athletes to choose sports over education by the advertising that they were choosing. The PRSA Code of ethics highlights honesty, among other things, for the public. Nike tried to explain that they believed that the two black athletes that they used as advertisers, Bo Jackson Michael Jordan, are both family oriented people who came from great backgrounds. Thus, it was never Nike’s intention to mislead the black youth and encourage violence. Therefore, this also pertains to advocacy that is in the code, which explains that public relations is able to voice “ideas, facts, and viewpoints to aid informed public debate,” according to the PRSA Member Code of Ethics website.

            This code of ethics is not helpful in that, what Nike did in the means of public relations was to change the way the African-American community viewed Nike and hope that they can gain them back as customers. In this instance, Nike chose to use public relations in order to fix the opinions of the critics, instead of actually fighting these beliefs and knowing that they were not in the wrong or the cause of this violence. In a sense they almost humored them, in order to loose customers. Yes, it worked out for them but at the same time, I am not sure that they were ever to blame for the violence that had occurred. Instead, it was just an easy fix for Nike because there are so many well-respected white athletes that can represent Nike, as well.  

            Ethical perspectives that we have covered in class and in readings help to show more views on the considerations of the case. For example, in the reading from Chapter 1, Cases and Moral Systems by Deni Elliot, the article states that one must learn when to reconcile and how or when it is necessary to tolerate divergent point of views. In this case, Nike did just that. They chose to accept the way that the African-American community felt, and reconciled by changing the way they advertised and increasing their African-American employee amount. Additionally, according to the reading Chapter 2 Ethics Theory Application to Media from Media Ethics, ethical concerns are anything from the spokesperson used to the message that is being portrayed. Thus, in this instance, although Nike may not have seen anything wrong with using those two black athletes are their spokesperson on those billboards, the community saw a different message being portrayed than Nike had.

            I thought that this case was particularly helpful in that I learned that, although Nike may not have been acting unethically according to many, it is better to silence negative opinions and to please the consumer because that is what keeps the business prestigious.  I learned that it is sometimes better for companies to just bite the bullet and do what is necessary in order to keep the customers happy.

Work Cited:

http://www.prsa.org/aboutprsa/ethics/codeenglish/#.Ut85XeD0CfQ

blackboard -- Cases and Moral Systems by Deni Elliot

                        Chapter 2 Ethics Theory Application to Media Plaisance, PL. 2009 Media Ethics. Thousand Oaks, CA; Sagehttp://s185.photobucket.com/user/kymroseygooey/media/cool%20stuff/Air-Jordan-Logo-psd2918.png.html

http://www.nicekicks.com/2012/09/11/mache-discusses-the-custom-sneaker-movement-creative-process-his-start/

Ethical Tools in the Real World

I plan to pursue a Sport Management career in my future. There are a number of ethical scenarios that I believe I could encounter in this profession. My ultimate dream would be to represent athletes as their agent. Scenarios that I could encounter with athletes that I am representing could involve paying college athletes under the table. If this were the case, there have always been situations that have come to light where Universities bribe potential college athletes with money and other amenities to try to get them to join their sports team.  A specific example from the media that comes to my mind is the situation that occurred with Reggie Bush and the Heisman Trophy. Reggie Bush was forced to forfeit his trophy once allegations that the athlete and his family were given gifts worth hundreds of thousands of dollars from marketing agents. This was an ethical scenario that ended up costing a gifted athlete their Heisman Trophy, which is the highest honor in college football. Unfortunately ethics played a big hand in this scenario, and Reggie Bush was penalized for accepting gifts that were considered by football to be unethical and illegal.

From being a college athlete, and an athlete my entire life, there are certain tools that I already am aware of that have helped me make ethical choices in my life. For example, my coaches have always taught me to maintain integrity, sportsmanship, and honesty. In addition, my business courses were able to teach me a lot about ethics. Generally, in life, the main concept about ethics always remains the same; honesty always prevails. Usually if someone is placed in a situation where they need to question whether they are doing the right thing, they are probably not. I have learned that ethics and morals go hand in hand. What is morally correct will be ethically correct, as well. From hearing classmates talk about their definition and examples from their life, I was able to better understand ethical scenarios that I could face in my own life in the future. Not only am I able to learn from situations around me that have helped me grow, but I always was taught that, in most cases, not speaking up about ethical issues that you are aware of puts you at fault as well.

There are a few questions that I would like to see addressed in class, the material or in group discussions that pertain to ethical decision-making. Questions that come to my mind regard more scenarios of ethical decision-making that commonly occur in the workplace. I would like to learn more about the most common ethical situations so that I am prepared for them if I may be forced to be in a similar situation. Additionally, I would like to learn more about what an employee is expected to do should they know about another coworker performing unethical practices. I am curious as to what would happen to someone who chose not to say anything about an unethical situation they were aware about but not involved in.

Work Cited:

http://sports.espn.go.com/los-angeles/ncf/news/story?id=5572827

http://www.startribune.com/business/154263585.html