The Rules of Public Relations

The Rules of Public Relations: Legal and Ethical Issues in Contemporary Practice
Cayce Myers
Rowman & Littlefield, 2024, 319 pages

Why sorry seems to be the hardest word

This book by a US professor of public relations – and former lawyer – is his follow-up to Public Relations History: Theory, Practice and Profession published in 2021 and reviewed at PR Academy Insights. In that book he’d written:

‘The history of public relations has a direct impact on the field’s view of itself. Public relations’ concern for ethics, debates over definitions of PR practice, the concern over the professionalization of the field, and the profession’s focus on managerial functions are all rooted in public relations history.’ 

This new book takes up this concern for the professionalisation of public relations by exploring legal and ethical issues with its practice and drawing on his past life as an attorney (barrister) to provide a primer in the law affecting PR practitioners, primarily from a US perspective.

As the author notes, student classes on the law are usually taught from a journalism perspective and focus on media law. It’s hard to identify any sources focusing on the laws affecting public relations and marketing. In the UK I can only think of Ardi Kolah’s Essential Law for Marketers first published in 2002.

He reflects on the differing obligations of compliance, legality and ethics and considers the wider question about how to reach the right decision. ‘We cannot just think of the legal consequences because that is often just the baseline of compliance. Considering the legal along with the ethical makes for better decisions for practitioners, publics and organizations.’

Myers takes this a step further, and shows how the law and ethics can be irreconcilable. ‘In a situation where a PR practitioner is asked to reveal client confidences or be held in contempt of court, the PR practitioner is at a legal and ethical paradox – break the law or break your code of ethics.’

He highlights lobbying as an area that ‘demonstrates the interconnectivity between ethics and law.’

Definitional challenges are addressed throughout this book. ‘Public relations practice has always been an admixture of skills: relationship management, reputation management, media relations, customer relations, stakeholder communications, organization communications, organizational conscience, and jack of all trades.’

So he looks at the way lawyers approach their ethical challenges and explains why lawyers and public relations practitioners so often address communication from different perspectives. To illustrate this, he presents a classic crisis scenario and contrasts the questions a public relations practitioner would ask with the questions a lawyer would ask. ‘Traditional PR practitioners view the court of public opinion as the primary means of navigating a crisis, whereas the lawyer sees the actual legal system as the proper space to manage crises.’

The issuing of apologies in order to resolve a crisis is explored as they can have legal implications in the US and because this is ‘an excellent example of the philosophical and professional tension between lawyers and PR professionals.’

‘Apology is a communication tactic that many organizations and PR practitioners use to mitigate negative public opinion. However, apology is a loaded form of communication because its subtextual meaning can create problems in litigation… Being sorry has its legal drawbacks. [It] can be interpreted as admission of fault.’ 

A whole chapter focuses on transparency in digital content, on the use of influencers, and on the rules governing financial public relations.

As ever, the detail is specific to the US, but it’s worth the author retelling the story of the collapse of Enron because it has wider implications and the ripples are still being felt today. In response to the collapse of Enron in 2001 with the loss of $63.4 billion in assets, the US federal government tightened the laws on transparency and disclosure. 

Privacy, intellectual property (IP), trademarks, reputation management and internal communication are all explored through the same legal and ethical lens. In the case of privacy, the European Union has taken the lead, setting new standards with GDPR. The direction of travel is clear: ‘In the 2020s, ethical issues in privacy will become more complex because of technology’s ability to gather, use, and disseminate personal information.’

The final chapter looks to the future of public relations practice in the age of artificial intelligence. This is another area where the author suggests the European Union will take the lead in addressing risks arising from the use of AI.

The finer detail is not the book’s purpose, since laws change and books should aim to have a shelf life. But the breadth of the book’s inquiry, and the questions it raises should be a consideration for all practitioners looking to advise bosses and clients and avoid potentially costly risks and pitfalls.

Where once the difficult decisions could be ducked (editors were faced with decisions about what to publish, not public relations practitioners operating primarily through media relations) – now we are all publishers, and all users of and potentially victims of AI’s ability to generate misinformation and disinformation. Public relations practitioners need to be mindful about what can and should be placed into the public domain, and what can and should remain private.

This book can’t give all the answers, but it does raise these questions and more and prompts with further questions and with case study scenarios to explore. As Myers writes: ‘Reading about public relations and law is not about knowing the answer so much as it is knowing how to recognize the issue.’

Public relations practitioners are rarely qualified lawyers, but we increasingly have to think like lawyers as we navigate the treacherous sands of copyright, privacy, and libel in the digital age.