Ethics or corruption? Moral or immoral? … Not so black and white.



Genetically Modified Chickens from http://www.compfight.com/

As a student at The University of Winnipeg, Professional, Applied, and Continuing Education studying PR, I am quickly learning all aspects of the field, positive and negative. What is PR? Why is PR important? What do most people believe PR to be? What are most people’s perceptions of PR? How much are PR professionals willing to sacrifice for their clients image and reputation? At what point does a PR professional decide to take a stand because their ethics do not coincide with what their clients want them to disseminate? These are all important questions that are discussed in our daily classes, and unfortunately, there are no easy answers.

During class I always try to practice as little bias and possible. I attempt to be open minded, taking in what everyone has to say about many different topics. It’s very interesting to hear the various thoughts and opinions of my classmates who all have different backgrounds, experiences, and biases of their own.

Observing our class, while discussing the dark side of PR, was very interesting for me. Ethics and morals are such broad and complicated ideas. One person’s ideal career opportunity is against another’s general ethics and morals. When discussing ethics in our PR class, there are so many different angles to consider, and it has become quite clear that we will all end up working for companies that have very different ideas of right and wrong.

I would like to think that I have some very strong morals and I usually know where I stand on several ethical issues, but I will be the first to admit that sometimes I question my own opinions. Sometimes I think I know exactly how I feel about a situation, but then I hear an argument from one of the great minds in my classroom, forcing  me to question my own beliefs. This is an interesting, sometimes troublesome feeling, but I believe this is proof that I am practicing open mindedness and constantly growing in my studies of PR and as a person.

An example of my struggle of knowing where I stand on an issue is something that was discussed in our first PR fundamentals class; genetically modified foods. To be completely honest, the thought of genetically modified foods completely freaks me out. I am aware that I consume them each day, and it angers me that I am not able to choose whether or not I am consuming them.

I am not saying that genetically modified foods are harmful or wrong; I simply believe that we as consumers should have the right to know what we are putting into our bodies. My opinion is that we do not know what the possible side effect of these foods could be to the future generations, and I personally prefer to have organic home grown food.

The argument that made me reconsider is the fact that without genetically modified foods, places all over the world, including here in Canada, would not be able to grow certain crops, crops could become infested with diseases, and genetically modified foods help feed the entire earth. Ending hunger is an important issue for me; therefore I am now stuck in the middle of whether or not I believe that genetically modified foods are a positive or a negative.

Is PR what I thought it was? It’s definitely a bit more complicated, but it’s discussions like this that help me to learn, peak my interest, surprise me, and make me want to learn more.

I look forward to discussing ethics and morals more in the future.