Public Relations Ethics: The Real-World Guide

This book is a pragmatic, case-rich guide to how current and future public relations practitioners can apply ethical principles and the industry’s codes of ethics to their day-to-day work.

Authors Trevor Morris and Simon Goldsworthy draw on their years of industry and academic experience to illustrate key ethical issues and ground them in reality, all within an international frame of reference. Public Relations Ethics incorporates interviews with industry practitioners, offering contrasting perspectives as well as recent examples of real-life complaints and disciplinary issues. Provocative questions and exercises help readers grapple with ethical dilemmas and review the key scenarios and challenges that PR people face.

The book is ideal at the undergraduate, postgraduate and continuing education levels as a core text for public relations ethics courses and a supplementary text for general public relations survey courses. Accompanying the text are online resources for both students and instructors, including lecture slides and links to further resources.

Trevor Morris is former CEO of Chime PR. He taught Public Relations for 14 years, first at the University of Westminster, and then at Richmond, the American International University in London, where he was Professor of Public Relations. He is currently a non-executive director, consultant and PR trainer. He is a Fellow of the Public Relations and Communications Association and the co-author of PR – A Persuasive Industry?: Spin, Public Relations and the Shaping of the Modern Media and PR Today: The Authoritative Guide to Public Relations.

Simon Goldsworthy taught Public Relations for 20 years, first at the University of Westminster, and then at Richmond, the American International University in London, where he was Professor of Public Relations and Advertising. Prior to his academic career, he was a member of the UK Government Information Service, serving in a range of government departments as a press officer. He is a Fellow of the Public Relations andCommunications Association and the co-author of PR – A Persuasive Industry?: Spin, Public Relations and the Shaping of the Modern Media and PR Today: The Authoritative Guide to Public Relations.

"Goldsworthy’s combination of academic and practical insight delivers another highly readable guidebook, providing hands-on advice that practitioners at all levels will turn to again and again." –Sally Costerton, FPRCA, CEO of SCA Consulting and former EMEA CEO of Hill and Knowlton Strategies

"Possibly the most comprehensive and up-to-date guide on navigating PR ethics that exists. This is a must-read for anyone serious about working in PR or public affairs." –John Harrington, Editor, PRWeek UK

"This is undoubtedly the definitive work on ethics in public relations. In an era when ethics has never been more central to every organisation, Goldsworthy and Morris have done the PR industry a great service with this no-holds-barred analysis of where our industry is and where it needs to be. Those who deny the importance of ethics should have the words Bell Pottinger tattooed somewhere prominently on their body as daily a reminder of what happens when ethical practice is cast aside." –Francis Ingham, MPRCA, Director General of the Public Relations and Communications Association and Chief Executive of the International Communication Consultancy Organisation

"This book achieves the rare feat of combining informed reflection on PR today with an accessible and engaging style. Morris and Goldsworthy bring deep experience and insight to bear on the most charged issues facing the industry. This work should be standard reading for PR practitioners in the public and not-for-profit sectors – and indeed for their colleagues in the commercial world. With real-life examples and interviews with leading journalists and practitioners, this is an essential and engaging guide." – Paul Mylrea, Director of Communications at the University of Cambridge and formerly of the BBC, President of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations

"Morris and Goldsworthy deliver what they set out to do – provide a highly readable, no-holds-barred guide to PR ethics, packed with vivid examples and challenging dilemmas, that works wonderfully well for both practitioners and academics, and, indeed, anyone who is interested in influence and persuasion. The touch is light but the insights are sharp and the issues matter to all of us." –Philip Young, Senior Lecturer and Course Leader, Birmingham City University

"These authors write with uncommon flair and this text follows their earlier books in being entertaining and provocative. The global perspective is also very useful as it introduces different cultures and customs. [...] Practitioners and students will find this an accessible book. Educators will find plenty of discussion points and classroom exercises." -Richard Bailey, PR Academy