Bridging Heritage and Profession: A Personal Journey Through PR Ethics

My personal ethical foundation is rooted in my cultural upbringing. Growing up as a young Zulu girl in South Africa, I and many other children were all brought up to understand the Zulu philosophy know as ‘Ubuntu’ which comes from the Zulu proverb “Umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu,” which directly translates to “ A person is a person, through other people, but widely understood as ‘I am because you are.” It emphasizes the core collectivist principles of my culture, meaning that everything that encompasses an individual is tied to their community their lived experiences.

Growing up my father always encouraged my siblings and me to be avid readers, to as he put it ‘feed our minds’ by constantly engaging with books of all genres. The consequence of this was that he became the unfortunate victim of our endless questions—some simple, others deeply existential. No matter how difficult or absurd the question, he always listened intently. Being the quick-thinking man that he was, when faced with the harder questions, he would often respond with a question rather than a direct answer. He did this in an attempt to help us explore different ways of looking at things. To help us understand that there were different people and communities, who had different ways of thinking and looking at life, so that we could understand that truth is relative and that it often depends on perspective, context, or culture, or personal experience. That the idea of “truth” can vary from person to person or society to society.

Even with undeniable facts—such as the sky being blue—he urged us to ask, Why? I didn’t know it then, but these discussions with my father laid the foundation for my passion for analyzing perception, which later shaped my career interests in media.

Initially, my passion for analyzing perception led to an interest in law because I believed that by helping people recognize what I did not know then as ‘systemic issues’ that led many into a life of crime, I would be able to change their perception of these individuals to help them avoid jail and lead to better national relief programs. When I was in high school my computer science teacher was an avid Apple lover and used to ask the class questions pertaining to why we believed Apple was so successful. He always pointed out that my answers showed my understanding of persuasion and perception noting that it was an important skill in the public relations field and encouraged me to consider it. However, my love of history made me shift my keenness away from Public Relations toward Journalism.

My history classes made me become increasingly aware that A lack of access to reliable information, misinformation and lack of media literacy in our communities largely hindered societal progress. I realized that journalism in my home country of South Africa, was not doing much in the way of facilitating that information in nuanced perspectives and ways that could play a crucial role in shaping public understanding. As a result, I pursued journalism to throw my hat in affecting positive change but ultimately pivoted back to PR as my major, after getting my associate degree in journalism.

While journalism and PR differ, both are expected to be rooted in ethics and rely on credibility to persuade. Despite both professions having the same goal to engage audiences PR professionals develop narratives about their clients to persuade audiences to buy into their story, while journalists seek to uncover the various truths surrounding society and inform their communities of these truths. I believe that my dual education in both journalism and PR as well as my personal ethical values will serve as a valuable tool in understanding and applying truthfulness, transparency, and fairness, which are important values in the PRSA Code of Ethics, specifically in the principles of Disclosure of Information, Free Flow of Information, and Avoiding Conflicts of Interest in my career.

As an aspiring journalist the value I believe is of most importance in my ethical code is truthfulness. Truthfulness means ensuring that the information I communicate—whether as a  PR professional or a journalist is accurate, fair, and free of deception. This is especially important as trust in media and PR is increasingly eroding due to misinformation and an increased lack of ethical practice being applied in the industry .

As Editor-in-Chief of ‘The Corsair’ at Santa Monica College I was required, as a journalist to uphold the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) code of ethics, which expects one to uphold similar values as the PRSA Free Flow of Information principle which state that PR professionals must “advance the free flow of accurate and truthful information” to serve the public interest. While my team and I were covering the California student protests last year, I had to ensure that our reporting was fact-based and free from personal bias. However, I found myself in an ethical dilemma when I realized that our faculty advisor’s personal beliefs were negatively impacting the newsroom. Realizing the conflict of interest (which SPJ and PRSA explicitly warns against), I took action and requested a separate and neutral advisor to oversee our protest coverage to ensure the journalistic integrity of our work.

Immanuel Kant’s ethical theory, deontology, which states that ethical decisions should be made out of moral duty, not convenience, highlights the responsibility I realized I had to my staff. If I had allowed the newsroom bias to continue for the convenience of not evoking ill feelings between my advisor and I, I would have compromised my writers ability to engage in truthful dialogue, I would have compromised the public’s right to factual reporting, which then would have put me in violation of the ethical guidelines set by the SPJ. Kant’s ethics reinforces that truth should be universal, meaning journalistic and Public Relations expectations of integrity should not be situational but a consistent moral obligation.

Integrity is another non-negotiable ethical value for me. Integrity in PR means creating and maintaining practices that avoid deception, transparency, and prioritizing ethical persuasion over manipulation. The PRSA Code of Ethics highlights the importance of integrity, and makes it clear that public relations professionals should never engage in deceptive practices for personal or corporate gain which is detailed under ‘Safeguarding Confidences and Enhancing the Profession’.

There are real-world media and PR examples that have shaped my understanding of the level of integrity, media and PR professionals should have, after witnessing how the tactics are used to manipulate public perception. In media and PR, there is a fine line between shaping a narrative and misleading an audience. For instance, the PRSA Disclosure of Information principle states that PR professionals must “reveal all necessary information for responsible decision-making”. An example of this is the scandal McDonalds found itself in 2012, where it was widely speculated that their hamburger beef patties were in fact made out of ‘pink slime,’ which was believed to be a mixture of all the unwanted beef parts and a series of harmful chemicals  pulverised together to make the patty. McDonalds P.R departments in each country where McDonalds was operating released separate videos to dispel the rumours and posted videos on their websites explaining in painstaking detail the process in which they acquire and package the meat that they end up selling to consumers.

McDonalds Canada released a video called “ Where do we get our hamburger patties from?” In an attempt to fix their damaged image and regain public trust. McDonalds was never quite able to dispel this rumour due to videos on the internet depicting the pink slime and the eroding trust consumers have of big corporate fast food giants, however, this insistence reinforces the principle of transparency and my belief that public relations should not deceive audiences but instead provide clarity and truth.

The PRSA principle of Fairness, which states that PR professionals should “deal fairly with clients, employers, the media, and the public, stress the same values that align with my own ethical code of ‘Ubuntu as it highlights that, PR professionals should always practices with the collective good in mind rather than engage in practices that are exploitative or misleading.

For example, during the 2024 U.S. elections, misinformation by Pr was widely used to manipulate public opinion. PR professionals, campaign strategists, and media outlets played a critical role in shaping voter perception. Many engaged in unethical practices—by spreading false claims about the government and his opponents. Ethical PR professionals must always resist the temptation to prioritize short-term gains that could cost them long-term established trust with their audience.

My personal ethical principle of Ubuntu also aligns with Kantian ethics, which emphasizes that individual actions should contribute to a just society. If PR professionals justify unethical behaviour for personal or corporate success, they contribute to a distrustful and exploitative media landscape. Kantian deontology, along with Ubuntu’s collective ethics, reminds me that the ends do not always justify the means, that truth and fairness must always remain non-negotiable.

The media industry has been experiencing a crisis of trust amongst the public because more so now than ever because of misinformation, corporate manipulation, and ethical malpractice. As a future PR professional, I plan to uphold the principles of  the PRSA code of ethics while leveraging my journalistic knowledge of the SPJ code of ethics to play a part in rebuilding public confidence. The PRSA code of ethics, will serve as a guide, as a PR professionals to obligation to be  transparent, ethical, and fair. Additionally, Kantian ethics and Ubuntu’s collectivist values similarities will serve as my moral guidelines for my approach to ethical decision-making.

I believe that truth holds power, but how we wield it determines its impact. I know that if I  prioritizing honest communication, and most importantly act in the interest of the public, I can foster ethical storytelling rather than manipulation. Whether in journalism or PR, I want ethical storytelling that informs rather than deceives to be the shining star of my brand. I hope that my personal and professional ethical principles and values will not only shape my career but also contribute to restoring faith in media and public relations.