نقش روایی در آموزش اخلاق روابط عمومی

Competence in ethical decision making is one of the most important issues in the industry and practice of public relations, yet professionals entering the discipline overestimate their knowledge and skills related to ethical principles. This article features a pedagogical approach to strengthen ethics education in public relations through the use of collaborative student-professional ethics narratives. This technique attempts to move beyond a traditional case study approach and transcend traditional classroom boundaries through the development of narratives featuring real ethics situations experienced by public relations professionals. The project involved the development, implementation and assessment of the pedagogical approach that required students to interview local communication professionals (mostly in public relations) and to craft narratives that explore ethical dilemmas these professionals faced. Pre- and post-test surveys and group feedback helped explore the impact of narrative inquiry in helping students internalize ethical lessons.

I had the opportunity last semester to witness a spectacular teaching demonstration by a search candidate on the topic of media relations. At one point in the presentation, the candidate presented two case studies highlighting ethical dilemmas faced by public relations professionals. This caught the attention of the colleague sitting next to me as much as it did the students. My colleague, who specializes in a different discipline, leaned over and asked me: “Does anyone tell students they’ll be facing these types of situations in their future careers?” I smiled back at him, and after the teaching presentation, I shared with him an overview of our program's communication ethics course required for our students majoring in advertising and public relations. He seemed relieved, as well as surprised, that we would require such a course. Like many other programs that educate public relations students, we focus on the skills, knowledge and abilities required to develop students into successful public relations practitioners. Equally important to our program, however, are outcomes related to strengthening moral and civic values (Boyle, 2007 and Fall, 2006) and the ability of these future practitioners to demonstrate ethical and moral conduct in both their professional and personal lives (VanSlyke Turk, 2006, p. 22).

This research explored the value of student-developed ethics narratives as an effective approach to engage students in thinking about and resolving ethical issues experienced in public relations practice. This involved enacting the proposed pedagogical approach in the classroom by means of connecting students with local public relations professionals to develop ethics narratives that can be published and/or used in future teaching. The project involved multiple stages of working with students and professionals to execute the pedagogical approach, along with pre- and post-test surveys to help assess its impact on students. Such projects can provide a rich opportunity for students to interact with community professionals and explore through narrative inquiry the types of ethical challenges that await them in their future careers. As educators, we can and should do more to increase students’ awareness and understanding of ethical dilemmas they will encounter, as well as to foster their personal and moral development to become contributing members of our profession.