Learning Unit 2:

Ethics and Communication

Strategic Communication Defined
Ethics and Communication
PRSA’s Ethical Code
Audiovisual Material:
- Thank You for Smoking
- Spin Doctor in Action

Strategic Communication

INTRO

This lecture should help you understand the meaning of the content of our master’s degree:

We will define this term, discuss the contents of the program and comment on the professional fields strategic communicators can develop their knowledge and skills.

Strategic Communication embraces certain related terms, such as public relations, organizational communication, marketing or professional communication, or even propaganda.

What all those forms of communication have in common is that they respond to a very well defined agenda. The communicators want to achieve a certain goal, to have a particular impact on the audience. This effort frequently – but not always – involves the change of attitudes, opinions, or behaviors in the particular target audience. And this change, of course, is beneficial for the clients of the strategic communicator.

The professional communicator works for clients and normally helps them promote their organization, establish relationships with different publics, or create a favorable atmosphere inside and outside the organization.

Think of strategic communication as a form of advocacy. Advocates have to defend their clients – even if they are aware of their guilt. Strategic communicators defend their clients in front of the tribunal we call “public opinion”.

In case of conflict between the public’s interest and the interest of your employer you will have to choose: either to defend your client, or to quit the job.

( Audiovisual Lecture - Related Fields )

Related Fields

In our next step, we will try to explain how Strategic Communication is related and also differs from some professional and academic fields: journalism, marketing, advertising, and propaganda

Strategic Communication Versus Journalism

Journalism and strategic communication go hand in hand.

Most of the pioneers in this professional field had been trained and were working as journalists before they started to develop communication strategies for their clients. The main function of those pioneers was to serve as a link between the company that hired them and the media they used to reach specific publics. They used to call themselves “press agents”.

Nowadays those fields are still strongly related and many journalists end up working as strategic or professional communicators.

Strategic communicators have to work closely with the media because this is the channel they use to reach their target audiences. They need to know how to write press releases, features stories or opinion pieces. They should also be familiar with audiovisual strategies to produce audio and video news releases, as well as public services announcements.

Still, the scope of the professional activity of strategic communicators is broader. Communication agencies also offer counseling services, event planning, research programs, speech training, online strategies, social media management, etc…

The job of journalists is, or should be, to inform their audience.

The objective in strategic communication often goes beyond the limits of pure information and involves a change of attitude or behavior in the public. Strategic communicators try to persuade their audience.

Journalists have an undefined and anonymous mass-audience. Strategic communicators carefully select the segment of the population they want to address and tailor their messages to the characteristics of those audiences. This will be a recurrent idea in this course.

Strategic Communication versus Advertising

Advertising is also a form of strategic communication, which is the reason why sometimes this professional field is included in strategic communication programs.

Advertising messages normally focus on a specific product or service. They directly tell the target audiences the advantages of that product or service.

The goal of strategic communication campaigns is different. They do not directly explain the excellence of particular products, but aim at creating TRUST in the name behind those products.

Plus, advertising normally pays for time (in Radio and TV) or space (in newspapers and magazines) to place their messages. Strategic Communication is a more sophisticated activity. It tries to get the attention of the media with special events. Professional communicators also sent news releases to media outlets to get the attention of their target audiences without having to pay for it.

Strategic Communication versus Marketing

Marketing could be roughly defined as the activity to build and/or maintain markets for the organization’s products or services.

Marketing and communication efforts are also closely related. Above all in for profit organizations, communication goals are part of the so-called “Marketing Mix”, and thus, subordinated to the long-term strategic goals of the marketing department.

Communication efforts contribute to those generic goals creating a favorable opinion, a friendly environment toward the company.

Strategic Communication versus propaganda

The term propaganda, also related to strategic communication, has a strong negative connotation.

Harold Laswell, one of the pioneers in the scholarly field of communication studies, defined propaganda as

“the manipulation of symbols as a means of influencing attitudes on controversial matters”.

Laswell’s definition emphasizes that propaganda works on the basis of manipulation of symbols. Symbols, when attached to strong values, are always effective when it comes to create a common ground with the audience. Symbols are an important instrument in strategic communication, as well.

Still, since we are going to deal with the concept of PROPAGANDA in the next section of this lecture, I refer to that point the in depth study of the subject .

Necessary Knowledge and Skills

In the next step, we need to briefly discuss which are the knowledge and skills that professionals in the field of strategic communication may need.

Strategic and Operational Management Knowledge

Most of the definitions of the term “strategic communication” emphasize that we are dealing here with a management function. If you decide to start a career in this professional field, you will have to be able to develop strategies to reach the established objectives.

You will also have to deal with budgets and people.

Public Opinion

One of the pioneers in the study and practice of strategic communication, Edward L. Bernays, entitled his first book “Crystallizing Public Opinion”. This title is also the best description of what strategic communication is all about.

As a professional communicator, you will have to know and to understand which is the nature of this social-psychological phenomenon, in order to be able to deal with it.

Research

Research is the basis of all the communication strategies. Before we start developing our goals we need to find out what our target audience already knows and how they feel about the issue at hand.

Research is also key when it comes to evaluating the outcomes of your campaign, when you are trying to assess to which extent your organization reached – or not – its original goals.

Mass Media:

Strategic Communicators must be Media-Specialist.

Mass Media are the vehicle they use to reach their target audiences. They have to know exactly which is the difference between those vehicles, so that they are able to choose the right one.

Professional Communicators specialists also need to be perfectly aware of the Effects of Mass Media on individual and society.

Persuasion:

In most occasions, the final goal of our communication campaign will be to achieve a mental or behavioral change in our target audience, that is to persuade them to do or to think something that is beneficial for our client.

Strategic Communication – I will have to repeat this idea several times in this course – is a persuasion industry. Thus, we must familiarize ourselves with different strategies to maximize the influence on attitudes and behaviors of our target audiences.

Services provided

Strategic Communication agencies normally offer a variety of services. The most relevant of those services are:

Promotion of Product and Services

As a part of the marketing communication mix, Strategic Communication departments and firms help promote products and services.

To this end, they use a plethora of instruments, such as news releases, promotional videos, brochures, media tours, etc.

Events Management

The most common strategy to promote products or to enhance the visibility of the company is the staging of special events.

Some examples of those events are Press Conferences, Anniversary Celebrations, Symposiums, or Award Ceremonies.

Speech training

Communication agencies have specialists in speech writing and delivering. Frequently they prepare speeches for top managers and executives and also for actors in the political arena.

Research and Evaluation:

Scientific research of Public attitudes and perceptions as well as media analysis are essential to design strategic communication campaigns.

Information is gold in this business.

Crisis Communication:

Crisis management is, no doubt, the most fascinating research field in communication studies. On the other hand, it is the worst time for the communication professionals.

When corporations get into the eye of the media hurricane, they need the assistance of professionals. Some communication firms specialized themselves in crisis scenarios.

Intern Communication:

An important part of the strategic communication activity is directed toward internal audiences. The goal of such internal communication actions is to motivate the employees, to create a positive working atmosphere, so that employees identify themselves with the objectives and values of the company.

Such a positive atmosphere within the organization is essential to enhance the productivity of every single employee.

Community Relations:

In the case of community relations, the strategic goal is to create a friendly environment around the Company, so that it can get official and public support from the community.

If, for example, the management wants to expand a factory or build a new one, the community’s sanction is the key to success.

Actors

Finally, we will mention the 4 basic actors in the world of Professional Communication. We can establish the following categories.

Private and profit seeking organizations

are the most common category in the professional field of communication. Any corporation you can name belongs to this group. They are in need of communication strategies in order to promote products or services, create a distinguished brand value, or establish effective relationships with legislators, competitors and media.

Private and not profit seeking organizations,

such as the Red Cross, Greenpeace, Sierra Club, or MADD, also play a very important role in the communication business. The main characteristic of this group is that they are financially independent from the state. Their primary mission is always connected with a social, political or environmental cause.

To the next group, Public and not profit seeking organizations,

belong all the governmental agencies, public universities, and other institutions that are funded by the state. They are supposed to fulfill a social or civic function that the state is obliged to provide to its citizens.

Public and profit seeking organizations

constitute the most rarest actor in the organizational spectrum (at least in the United States). They are organizations that belong to the state, that is, provide a public service, but also have the explicit function of generating revenues.

In Europe, many airlines, railway companies, banks, or even tobacco companies belong to the state.

In the U.S., some for-profit lottery organizations are owned by the state.

The United States Postal Services could also be comprised by this category.

Master of Science Degree in Strategic Communication:

Internal Versus External Communication

Our Strategic Communication Master of Science Degree has two main tracks.

We offer, on the one hand, a series of courses that study particular strategies and techniques that help us establish relationships with internal audiences. This track is often referred to as internal or organizational communication.

The second track focuses on external audiences, publics that are not considered constituents or stake holders of the organization.

This area of communication studies is also known as public relations, corporate communication, professional communication, or simply communication.

Our Students can focus on one specific track, or take courses in both areas in order to achieve a broader comprehension of the field of strategic communication.

Ethics and Communication

Have you ever heard the word SPIN referred to the PR activity?

It is frequent that this word is used, above all in the media discourse, as synonym of PR. In some cases, PR counsels are called “SPIN doctors”.

Of course, this word, SPIN, has mostly pejorative connotations. It assumes that the job of PR people is “to spin the truth”.

Click here to see an example of a “spin doctor” in action.

To understand this negative image of the PR business, it is necessary, first of all, to discuss the power of communication as a means to influence masses of people. In this regard, we need to deal with the term PROPAGANDA. Then we will analyze the relationship between Propaganda and PR.

1 – Propaganda:

Let me start this brief digression about propaganda recommending you a book:

“Age of Propaganda”, by Anthony Pratkanis and Elliot Aronson

These two authors define propaganda as follows:

“Propaganda is mass suggestion or influence through the manipulation of symbols and the psychology of the individual”

This definition is a reminiscence of the one crafted by Harold L. Laswell, Which I introduced in the previous section of this lecture..

Laswell defined propaganda as

“The manipulation of symbols as a means of influencing attitudes on controversial matters”

In the first case, propaganda is presented as a form of mass persuasion, i.e. the goal in propaganda messages is always intended to reach mass audiences.

Both definitions emphasize that propaganda works on the basis of a manipulation of symbols. Symbols, which are normally attached to strong values, are always effective when it comes to create a common ground with the audience. Symbols are an important instrument in the PR practice, as well.

Still, characteristic of PROPAGANDA is not the use of symbols, but their manipulation.

What does the word manipulation mean? And how can symbols be manipulated?

The next definition by J. Michael Sproule (1994) gives us a clue:

“Propaganda represents the work of large organizations or groups to win over the public for special interests through a massive orchestration of attractive conclusions packaged to conceal both their persuasive purpose and the lack of sound supporting reasons”.

In persuasive communication, we talk about manipulation when we are hiding the persuasive intention of our messages. We manipulate symbols when we use the values attached to them to create a common ground with the audience we try to persuade and without them being aware that we are trying to influence their attitudes, beliefs or behaviors. The strong emotional effect of symbols can also be used, in case of manipulation, to avoid a critical and rational approach to the contents of the persuasive messages.

It seems that nowadays the word PROPAGANDA has an eminently negative meaning. The term is mostly applied to designate the dark side of the communication business. Communication can become a powerful weapon, and it can be use with devastating effects. In such cases we talk about propaganda.

However, the word propaganda did not always have such pejorative connotations.

The term – a Latin one – was used for the first time by Pope Gegory XV in the 17th Century (1622) when he established a new congregation:

the SACRA CONGREGATIO DE PROPAGANDA FIDE

(The “Sacred Congregation for propagating the catholic faith).

The substantive PROPAGANDA comes from the Latin verb PROPAGARE, and this verb means “to propagate”, “to spread”.

Originally, the meaning or the word was totally neutral. The goal of the new congregation was to spread the catholic faith around the world.

Which is then the origin of the bad reputation of the word propaganda today?

The answer to this question is the misuse of communication by some groups and political regimes in their propaganda efforts in order to achieve their political, religious, or economic goals.

Please read carefully the following statement about propaganda principles:

“A carefully built up erection of statements, which whether true or false can be made to undermine quite rigidly held ideas and to construct new ones that will take their place. It would not be impossible to prove with sufficient repetition and psychological understanding of the people concerned that a square is in fact a circle. What after all are a square and a circle? They are mere words and words can be molded until they clothe ideas in disguise”.

The author of those infamous words is Dr. Joseph Goebbels. Maybe you are already familiar with this name. If not, you should know that Goebbels was Adolph Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda. Goebbels was certain that any idea, if it is effectively communicated, will be perceived as truth, even that a square is a circle. Words – the language – are flexible and can be adapted to the objectives of the propagandists.

Other cardinals rules in the NAZI propaganda:

– appeal to emotions

– constant repetition of a few ideas

– use of Stereotypes

– constant search for enemies of the state

– Concentrate in one special enemy for special vilification

Click here to see some examples of NAZI propaganda

With such images, Goebbels was able to mesmerize the German Population. An this in spite of the Millennial tradition of the German Culture (German was the language of Goethe, Schopenhauer, Kant, Hegel, and Germany was the country of Beethoven and Brahms)

Joseph Goebbels was aware of the power of the mass media – in this regard he was a visionary – and controlled print media, radio stations, and even movies. Every film produced in Germany during the Nazi regime had to be revised and accepted by Goebbels’s Ministry of Propaganda.

2 – PR and Propaganda

The Nazi propaganda is one of the reasons why the word has now such negative connotations. However, if we are able to put aside the contents, we will see that strategies, techniques and channels of propaganda do not differ much from the ones used in PR.

PR is also a form of persuasive communication that frequently uses symbols to appeal to the emotions of large target audiences in order to achieve its strategic goals. Those goals can be ethically impeccable, like, for instance, persuading people to donate blood.

The German communication scholars Michael Kunczik and Elisabeth Noelle-Neumann, both very familiar with the strategies of the NAZI even deny that there is a difference between PR and propaganda. They affirm that the rise of the term PR is an attempt to avoid the bad connotations the word propaganda had gained throughout history.

Now, even the term PR has some negative connotations, which is the reason why, as I said at the beginning of this lecture, the word spin is frequently used to refer to the PR activity.

PR scholars and practitioners dedicate serious efforts to clean up the reputation of the professional field. They frequently emphasized the commitment of PR professionals to the idea of “sound and ethical communication techniques”.

3 – PRSA’s code of Ethics

In the film Days of Wine and Roses, directed by Blake Edwards in 1962, we can see an example of an ethical deadend that is inherent to the PR profession.

Core Principle

Avoiding real, potential or perceived conflicts of interest builds the trust of clients, employers, and the publics.

ENHANCING THE PROFESSION

Core Principle

Public relations professionals work constantly to strengthen the public’s trust in the profession.

Intent

To build respect and credibility with the public for the profession of public relations.

To improve, adapt and expand professional practices.