ABSTRACT
The pursuit of truth is common to all who seek to practice ethical communication. Yet public relations practitioners may be caught in one of the hardest arenas for truthfulness because of the special challenges arising from their liaison role. Practitioners enjoy multiple opportunities to shape information communicated to internal and external audiences. Controlling the dissemination of information-from carefully staging the news conference to artfully nuanced statements-offers practitioners a chance to stage manage the truth. For example, consider the typical corporate website. Graphics, copy, audio, and video are carefully selected and placed. Some sites are animated to draw viewer attention; some open only after other items have been highlighted or selected. Tabs link to pages filled with targeted information about management, performance, history, values, employment, and news. Archival data may be present. All the information presents the corporation’s point of view. It may be completely accurate and yet still be incomplete or one-sided. Just as those who receive information from news releases or press conferences have always found, visitors to websites must remember that the information gleaned there has certainly passed through a public relations “gate” before moving out to various audiences. Similarly, consider an organizational blog post or a brand’s Facebook page. All the information provided may be completely accurate, but its truthfulness may be diminished or lost completely because of what is omitted or recontextualized, or because of the lack of full disclosure about its sponsorship or partisanship.
