Over the last couple of weeks the topic of ethics in the PR industry has once again come to prominence; however I’ve only just managed to jot down my thoughts and have my two pennyworth.

The catalyst for the debate once again seems to be PR Week and it continues to be a good forum for industry colleagues to have their say. Stuart Bruce of Wolfstar has also penned a blog with a poll and the consensus, thankfully seems to be that it is wrong to behave unethically on behalf of a client.

It is important to make a clear distinction, namely the difference between unethical behaviours (astroturfing, lack of disclosure, lieing etc) and moral decisions, for instance working on accounts that people may find morally questionable, such as tobacco.

It comes down to rights and responsibilities: I believe we all have the right to opt out of an account for moral reasons, but we also have a responsibility to ourselves, our employer, clients and the PR industry to behave ethically.

Fortunately, all good agencies allow staff to opt out of accounts on moral grounds and I feel empowered that my employer’s position is clear as Robert Phillips stated ‘at Edelman, everyone has the right not to work on a piece of business if they find it ethically or morally challenging.’

I think the sensible approach seems to be that, yes – we should all work in an ethical manner, but from a moral standpoint it is less clear cut what industries are the ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ ones to work with. The issues are often far more complex than to simply be branded ‘good’ and ‘bad’.

Everyone has a different set of values and the question is: where do you draw the line? Is there a line? Arms, gambling, alcohol, pornography, fast food? Sweatshops, carbon footprints, industrial relations? In fact, under the surface I imagine someone, somewhere has a moral objection to every corporation. However, I firmly believe it is possible for organisations to behave in an ethical and responsible way, whilst carrying out work that some may find morally objectionable.

Indeed, it is these more challenging industries that provide us, as practitioners with the greatest opportunity to demonstrate how PR can be used for social good. We live in a stakeholder society and PR agencies can work in partnership with organisations to devise strategies that engage with these communities and create understanding.

Our end goals are trust and credibility and the most effective way to achieve these aims is through openness, honesty and transparency. Behaving unethically is short-sighted and ultimately, self-defeating. Whilst, I’m loath to make judgments on morality, it is not difficult to make ethical ones. Ethics has to be the cornerstone of the PR industry.

I’d be interested to hear what industries (rather than companies) you would find it hard to work with on ethical or moral ground.

For starters, only 64 agencies responded to the survey which may suggest that many agencies talk the talk, but don’t walk the walk when it comes to digital. Either that or they were too busy with their latest digital account to respond in time.

Cynicism aside, the ten best digital campaigns provided some useful case studies, but perhaps most tellingly highlight that whilst the campaigns contained a strong digital strand, many still incorporated traditional public relations tools such as media relations, copywriting, research etc. We are seeing quite traditional PR stuff, just executed in the digital world.

The report suggests that ‘specific departments may become redundant once all team members are trained in digital and able to use their judgement to decide the best medium for a particular campaign.’

Steve Loynes, head of B2B at The Reptile Group went further: ‘understanding the client and its marketplace is what leads to the best campaigns, not a specialism in a particular medium. All our consultants incorporate digital activity where it makes sense for the client.’

I feel Steve is wrong here – the digital world is evolving at such a remarkable rate it will pay to have a dedicated member of staff who is horizon watching for digital trends ready to report back and update colleagues.

It is easier said than done just to expect employees to keep up to date with the digital world, someone needs to be responsible for obtaining and transferring this knowledge.

I think in the medium term we will continue to see a dedicated digital expert at agencies. In my mind this is the most effective way to inform colleagues who can then build this knowledge into their account management.

The accompanying research did show that organisations are starting to focus on online communities, but the main battle we PROs have on our hands is to convince senior management the value of social media and how it can be used effectively. In order to do this we need to become better at putting things in language that senior management will understand and be less abstract about the outcomes. The rationale for going digital is clear – 1.5 billion people are online, but all too often the benefits are fudged and not explained in a way that will have directors becoming digital evangelists.

I am not saying drop everything and put all your resources into digital activity, but we are in the digital age. It is another channel that people communicate through and for many it is the first stop to finding out information on organisations. It is too big to be ignored or given to a junior member of staff.

Another challenge we have is to shift people’s perception that digital comms should be a matter for the IT team. Whilst their technical skills are very important, it should at the least be a joint venture between comms and IT or something that comms leads on with techie support from the IT crowd.

The ‘battleground’ that Mark Adams of Next Fiftheen describes is all too common. He went on to say ‘there needs to be an IT person who is a communicator. For PR people, this poses a problem, because their technical skills are usually low.’

So for all budding PR students out there, I believe there is a real gap in the market for a PRO with strong IT and digital media skills. I for one am trying to brush up on mine. A prospective employee with these two distinct skill sets will prove to be an asset to any organisation.