Discussion Questions from Reading Assignments 2/9/2000
 

Day, 7 Conflicts of Interest
1/ Should Hill and Knowlton have been held accountable by the PRSA when they provided public relations counsel to the National Conference of Catholic Bishops and organizations that support abortion rights?  Defend your answer.

2/ Under what circumstances does the PRSA code allow PR professionals to give free all expenses paid media tours to reporters?  How does this conflict with the SPJ code about reporters accepting freebies?

3/ What conflict may be present with checkbook journalism?  Is disclosure of the practice enough warning to the public?
Is news just another commodity?

4/ Should news organizations sanction reporters who sometimes practice their general obligations to society before particularistic obligations to the profession?  When is such a practice acceptable?  When is it not?

5/ The journalism professional generally allows station owners and publishers to be active in community organizations, while restricting reporters and editors from doing so.  This practice is commonly justified out of a respect for the public good.  What guidelines would you devise for PR professionals concerning conflicts of public participation?

6/ Should news organizations or PR firms, corporations, non-profit organizations or government agencies desire to maintain credibility override their employees' desire to participate in public organizations?  Does it make any difference philosophically if the organization in question represents gay rights, minority rights or the girl scouts?  Are journalists serfs or guardians of news organizations' credibility?

7/ If all news organizations truly practiced public or civic journalism, how would this change the way PR professionals work?

8/ How would deontologists and teleologists approach the problem of conflicts of interest in the media and PR professions?
How about those who subscribe to Aristotle's Golden Mean?

Read Cases 7-1 and 7-6 and be ready to discuss.  What decision would you make on these cases?

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