Legal and Ethical Considerations of Web 2.0 and the Public Relations Field
- Dec 19, 2016
- 5 min read
The New Media, sometimes referred to as Web 2.0, is the advance in technology that is having reverberating effects on the communication field. Everyone can be a journalist to some extent, and the amount of information available through various forms of new technology has increased dramatically, demonstrated by some interesting statistical estimates. An article by Richard Alleyne, science correspondent with the British publication The Daily Telegraph, offers up several measurement comparisons of increasing exposure to information over time. He claims that “the growth in the internet, 24-hour television and mobile phones” are responsible for a five times multiplier scaling information exposure in 1986 to 2011. Alleyne claims that this multiplier “pales in significance” when compared to “the amount of information we churn out through email, twitter, social networking sites and text messages.” His article claims that the “average person” creates a “200-fold increase” today as compared to 1986 (Alleyne, 2011).
This drastic amount of information sent and received by the masses has changed the communication field drastically over the last couple decades, and the field of public relations is no different.
A PewResearchCenter article by Maeve Duggan demonstrates the participation levels of “creators” and “curators” (Duggan, 2013). These trends bring into light legal concerns on “originality,” according to Patterson and Wilkins (Patterson & Wilkins, 2014). Throughout their textbook, Moore and Murray, along with the module overview “Module Eight: Intellectual Property, What’s Your’s Is Mine?,“ demonstrate that copyright law is automatic and through strict interpretation violating the protections afforded to the creator is as simple as including an image on a PowerPoint slide (Moore & Murray, 2012) (SNHU, n.d.). In addition, Moore and Murray point out that citing sources does not always constitute fair use (Moore & Murray, 2012, pp 638); however, public relations experts are typically journalist-trained media experts and often perform activities akin to journalism – press releases, public statements, preparing speakers for press conference, etc. These thing being considered, careful citations and knowledge of privacy and copyright laws are critical when it comes to using Web 2.0 as a source, as such use, in my opinion, appears to be a grey area of the law at times. However, “If noting the originators of your information creates problems, then be willing to accept those problems as the price of using the information” (Patterson & Wilkins, 2014).
There are also ethical considerations that should be considered by modern public relations specialists. I choose to include two ethical issues here. Mass media is “an instrument of fragmentation,” according to Patterson and Wilkins in that “today, all of us now have the capacity to develop a Daily Me from the vast collection of information now on the World Wide Web.” The “daily me” aspect a result of us now being able to personalize our news to suit our already established thoughts and values. And since we don’t have to muddle through opposing viewpoints and opinions, we have now isolated ourselves into little pockets of groups with the same unbending viewpoints. “In the absence of shared experience, society will have a much harder time addressing social problems.” Patterson and Wilkins cite the comment made by legal scholar Cass Sunstein who concludes that “the ‘Daily Me’ is the farthest thing from a utopian dream, and it would create serious problems from a democratic point of view” (Patterson & Wilkins, 2014).
The ethical guidelines of the Public Relations Society of America are advocacy, honesty, expertise, independence, loyalty, and fairness. The advocacy aspect requires that public relations experts serve “as responsible advocates for those we represent” and the loyalty aspect requires that PR experts be “faithful to those we represent.” However, the honesty aspect requires the expert to adhere to the “highest standards of accuracy and truth” and the loyalty aspect mentioned before is two fold, as the later part of the aspect states that PR experts “serve the public interest” (PRSA, 2016). These things being stated, the ethical obligation of a PR expert does not simply end with simple servitude to their client’s wishes, they also have an obligation to the truth and the interests of the society.
Considering these things, Patterson and Wilkins discuss the “sleeper effect” and how “practitioners, from Nazi master propagandist Joseph Goebbels through contemporary political consultants, have intuitively understood this human tendency to disassociate the source from the messaging” (Patterson & Wilkins, 2014).
To expand on this sleeper effect concept for clarity, I want to include this Wikipedia definition.
“The sleeper effect is a psychological phenomenon that relates to persuasion. It is a delayed increase of the effect of a message that is accompanied by a discounting cue.”
(Sleeper effect, 2016)
I am also including this image of a graph, Figure 1, that Wikipedia includes with the article. From the graph one can see how the sleeper effect works.
“When people are exposed normally to a persuasive message (such as an engaging or persuasive television advertisement), their attitudes toward the advocacy of the message display a significant increase. Over time, however, their newly formed attitudes seem to gravitate back toward the opinion held prior to receiving the message, almost as if they were never exposed to the communication.”
(Sleeper effect, 2016)
Notice that the typical independent variable on the x-axis is time. Time and actual message persuasive levels demonstrate a negative correlation. That is as time (measuring from the moment of message delivery to the delayed assessment) increases, the message’s persuasive impact diminishes to the baseline opinion that was previously held prior to the persuasive message.
Considering the pace of messages that occur in our current world, as described in the first paragraph with the Alleyne article, which I will conclude with using the newspapers-read-per day analogy proposed by the article.
“Using the analogy of an 85-page newspaper, they found that in 1986 we received around 40 newspapers full of information every day but this had rocketed to 174 in 2007.”
(Alleyne, 2011)
The sleeper effect, in this ever-increasing rate of information and message presentation in the modern world, I believe will have a much steeper rate of decline over time as technology continues to allow for more and more mechanisms of message deliver. And that being considered, PR representatives must be respectful of this increasing rate and the interest of society. The PRSA aspect of truth must be more accurately applied to cases where they must balance the interest of the client (and the client’s messages) so as to balance the possible negative effect on the interests of society. The truth is the best way to make this balance, and the PRSA provides ethical guidelines that cover that aspect, and those guidelines are becoming increasingly important as message technologies continue to develop.
Reference
Alleyne, Richard (2011) . Welcome to the information age – 174 newspapers a day . The Daily Telegraph . February 11, 2011 . retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/science/science-news/8316534/Welcome-to-the-information-age-174-newspapers-a-day.html
Duggan, Maeve (2013) . Photo and Video Sharing Grow Online . Pew Research Center . retrieved from http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/10/28/photo-and-video-sharing-grow-online/
Moore, R.; & Murray, M. (2012) . Media Law and Ethics . Ed. 4th . New York . Routledge . 2012
Patterson, P. ; & Wilkins, L. (2014) .New Media: Continuing Questions and New Roles . Media Ethics: Issues and Cases . 8th Ed . 2014 . p 226-253
PRSA (Public Relations Society of America) . (2016) . PRSA Member Statement of Professional Values . Member Code of Ethics . retrieved from https://www.prsa.org/AboutPRSA/Ethics/CodeEnglish/index.html#MemberStatement
SNHU (Soutern New Hampshire University) (n.d) ..Module Eight: Intellectual Property, What’s Your’s Is Mine? . COM 530 Module 8 . Fall, 2016 . p 1-3
Sleeper effect (2016) . Wikipedia . October 31, 2016 . retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeper_effect
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