The Anti-Astroturfing Campaign :: Time for Ethics Education?
The initial blog storm around the anti-astroturfing campaign has died down. Many bloggers have stated their support and there’s a great collection of resources at the campaign home page, but the question is - where is the next step from here?
The campaign has attracted mainstream media attention, blogosphere buzz and the support of some PR agencies (Jackson Wells Morris, Altyris, Flatiron Communications and Voce Communications take a bow) but no professional association or large PR agency has lent any meaningful support. Maybe it’s too difficult, maybe it’s because they lack courage.
Of course it is a complex issue full of nuance. Richard Bailey, one of the most upstanding PR practitioners you’ll come across, can only offer luke-warm support. It’s not black and white, it’s not the only ethical issue facing our profession, and it’s only a small part of the overall transparency debate we must confront in order to convince the public to allow us to perform our role in the new world online.
The difficulties in definition do not alter the fact that astroturfing is one of the most deplorable practices in our industry, and at the very least there are astroturfing activities that every communicator can oppose in every instance. It is an issue that an impressive collection of communicators see fit to oppose, and while it’s a difficult topic to confront – it doesn’t deserve the too-hard basket.
The thing that has struck me with the campaign so far has been the number of PR students and new practitioners who were blatantly unaware of the tactic and uncertain about why it is so wrong (this video is an example). I’ve been regularly discussing the issue with my peers for several months now and few have had cause to consider the ethical implications of their practice.
The vast majority of the industry are intelligent, ethical operators who will always avoid these dodgy tactics … but these are not the kind of people who will fall down with astroturf.
The ones who will be guilty of the worst examples fall into two groups:
- The ‘evil’ communicators, the spin doctors we hear about from time to time who are actively trying to influence people with devious means (not many of these folk exist.)
- The people who don’t know better and don’t realize their behaviour is wrong and hurts all of us.
The first group will only have their behavior curbed by enforcement or by the fear of being caught out. It will be harder to stop them, but I don’t believe many of them exist. When these folk are exposed they deserve every bit of the vitriol directed at them.
The second group will only be saved from falling into the astroturfing trap through education. This isn’t only young practitioners - Shel Holtz points out that a 25 year veteran is perhaps more likely confused by social media ethics than us newbies.
However, while education on ethics seems important there is only a limited range of educational resources available. Examples include the many resources at the anti-astroturfing page, WOMMA’s new 20 ethics questions and Edelman’s EarSHOT episode on social media ethics (Edelman deserve kudos for letting the public share in this informative internal training session – it’s a must listen if you want to learn the ABC’s of ethics online.)
I’d like to see more opportunities for PR professionals (new and experienced alike) to consider their ethical approach and learn more about communicating honestly and transparently. We’re all about education here at Forward – so what do you think would be the best way for the industry to move forward with ethics education?
I’d love to hear your views – here are a few questions to get us started, but run with this where ever you’d like. Perhaps we can conclude this conversation by taking some real steps towards increasing the ethical standing of our profession!
- Is there a need for more ethics education for PR professionals?
- Do you feel like you’ve been taught much about ethical conduct in your career to date?
- Who should be responsible for education on ethics – the individual practitioner, employers, professional bodies or something else?
- Would an online resource on ethics be valuable? If so, how would this best work – on the New PR Wiki? A living document (a la Lee and Trevor’s social media guide)? Something else entirely?
Technorati Tags: astroturfing, anti-astroturfing, PR, public relations, ethics, education, social media, new media
You’re right to make this an ethical issue, since ethics is one of the defining qualities of a profession (along with education and development). And public relations is, on this count, at best semi-professional; less like medicine, more like management consultancy.
Yet there are practical and political considerations too. Imagine you lived in a police state, and wanted to protest about abuses of human rights. Would it be more evil to do so whilst trying to protect your identity, or more evil to meekly accept the abuses?
Comment by Richard Bailey — November 9, 2006 @ 5:03 am
Absolute transparency is an unobtainable ideal. The situation you’ve outlined, while extreme, highlights that sometimes transparency is not possible.
I’ll quote Keith Jackson here:
Grey PR is selective without being untruthful. It requires close ethical scrutiny before use.
Then there’s ‘black PR’, which is unambiguously unethical because it deliberately denies people the honest information they require to make reasonable decisions.
So in the situation above - you could practice ‘grey PR’ and advocate for your legitimate beliefs while hiding your identity out of necessity, but you would need to be extremely careful that the methods you use remain ethical.
Otherwise you’ll enter black PR territory - and while your objectives may be noble, you can’t ethically communicate with deceit.
After all, one man’s terrorist is another’s freedom fighter. Just because you think your cause is clear-cut and correct doesn’t mean others necessarily will… and it definitely doesn’t mean you should use deceptive means to promote it.
Comment by Paull Young — November 9, 2006 @ 6:39 am
Paull, call me confused. What is the campaign other than a button for a website and a wiki? Is there any collateral? Stats on astroturfing? A fact sheet? It seems the cast of supporters is the usual suspects who would probably latch on to most anything in the blogosphere.
How much of this campaign should be online and how much offline? I don’t know it’s fair to question people’s courage for not participating. A few of your supporters of your campaign at Edelman recently found themselves in the midst of astro-turfing accusations. Where was the campaign?
Richard, I think that results and process define a profession as much as ethics. And most PR agencies are nothing more than telemarketers. We aren’t medicine, we aren’t law. Hell, all you need to get into this profession is a B.A. And the truly sharp communicators often time move on to another industry. Leadership among agencies is promotion by atrition.
Comment by Mike Sacks — November 9, 2006 @ 6:50 am
Mike,
I guess I will call you confused because you seem to be reiterating my questions
.
If you take a look at the anti-astroturfing campaign page you’ll find links to dozens of posts discussing the issue - case studies, practical examinations, theoretical discussion. The resources have been collected for those who are willing to learn.
Originally we’d hoped for the support of some of the professional associations - after all they should be concerned about moving forward the ethical standing of the profession. No dice.
We’d also hoped for some of the large PR agencies to get on board. Some movement from them would have been significant. Again, nothing.
I went too far in saying ‘lack courage’. What I meant (as you’ll see if you read the post I link to) is that supporting the campaign would prove courage on the part of a big agency or professional association.
It’s understandably hard for these groups to lend support - so the question here is what can we do now?
I’m an advocate for education. I’d like to find some ways to increase education on this issue - and that is what I’m asking here.
I’d like to see the campaign become more than ‘a button on a blog and a wiki’ (though I think the wiki is pretty informative - if you have a good look around at the resources hopefully you’ll agree.) But to do so it will require support and assistance - feel like helping out?
Comment by Paull Young — November 9, 2006 @ 7:09 am
Paull, I do feel like helping, only because astroturf campaigns are now hindering democracy as here in the U.S. Congress is making it harder to send emails to representatives. The rationale is that a lot of emails that come in are generated through false campaigns. Astroturfing diminishes my voice in my country, and that makes me angry.
You are right, there are some good resources on the wiki. But as you know, not as many pr pros have latched on to new media as we would hope. Perhaps the first step is to move from that wiki to an actual website? If you want more folks to latch on, there has to be something to do. What do you expect from people who want to take part?
Just like in American football, the game is always better when played on real grass.
Comment by Mike Sacks — November 9, 2006 @ 8:27 am
Mike,
Fantastic, great to have your support.
Anger seems a typical response to astroturfing. If you follow some of the posts that expose astroturfing (especially the ones on non-PR focused blogs) you’ll see tremendous anger directed at those responsible by those they’ve tried to dupe.
It serves as a great lesson on why you should avoid that behaviour.
I agree with your sentiments - we need a stronger resource.
What I think could be ideal would be a living document (similar to the Todd Defren’s or Lee Hopkins/Trevor Cook’s social media guides) on the topic.
This could then be distributed online, but it could also really penetrate the industry if it was promoted by a professional association or agency.
Step 1 would be to produce a standout resource. I think there is enough material already available on the wiki - it just needs to be condensed and the best parts need to be picked out.
This step would require a lot of work and thinking… and surely the assistance of some experienced professionals.
Step 2 would be to try to get a professional association (ideally) or agency to promote it amongst their staff/members.
Signing up as a supporter of the campaign might be too difficult for them, but maybe disseminating a free high quality document would be something they could do.
However, I also think the debate needs to go a bit further in the meantime, as Richard and others have explained.
But hey, if we teach one person what astroturfing is and why they should avoid it, I reckon it’ll all be worthwhile.
Comment by Paull Young — November 9, 2006 @ 8:36 am
Paull - First, let me congratulate you and thank you for all the effort you put into the astroturfing campaign. It keeps an important issue on the radar.
Have you officially approached someone at one of the professional societies or large agencies? In PRSA’s defense, they do not move fast enough or have enough resources to be proactive about this. They just created a blog for their annual conference (baby steps).
They can help vet your education efforts and raise awareness of your resource. I do think we need more education about ethics. And I think individuals needs to take matters into their own hands. Employers and professional societies will certainly support these efforts.
It’s not a problem that can be solved completely. But I think you can really help educate students and new practitioners before bad habits set in…much like the bad pitch blog.
To that end, your role as industry watchdog is critical in reminding everyone about this issue.
Hope this helps.
Comment by Kevin Dugan — November 9, 2006 @ 3:59 pm
Kevin,
Thanks for the comment.
The PRSA has contacted Trevor and I, amongst other bloggers, with a renewed professional directive about astroturfing.
My local PRIA has done nothing aside from release a statement - despite media coverage in Australia including a recent column in B&T magazine, the leading title for the media comm. industry Down Under.
I’ve only recently joined the IABC, and this is an issue I will be raising with them as I become more familiar with the workings of the organisation.
In addition to this, I’ve had some discussions with a couple of the big agencies. Staff from the large firms have also joined the campaign individually as supporters.
The point here is that this is not my campaign. It kicked off at my blog, and I care about the issue, but it’s a campaign for any communicator who cares about the professions ethics.
With that said - rather than the issue being pushed to the big organisations by a young Wallaby who knows 3/5ths of bugger all… I think it would be best for supporters of the campaign to champion the cause within their organisation.
I definitely agree with your point about the real value of this being the education of new practitioners - and as Shel Holtz says, perhaps experienced professionals as well.
Comment by Paull Young — November 10, 2006 @ 1:51 am
Paull,
I think this conversation is good. Mike, thanks should go to you too for asking some important questions.
Thus far, the discussion of astroturfing in the PR blogosphere has been relatively abstract and theoretical — what it is, how to identify it, what it means to the profession, etc.
To truly have a campaign, you need more than just the things Mike suggested (a web site, a fact sheet, collateral). You need a GOAL.
So what is the goal of the anti-astroturfing campaign? And don’t just say “to stop astroturfing.” A goal needs to be measurable and realistic. Is it awareness? How much awareness? Is awareness enough, or does there need to be adoption? Is it adoption of a specific code of ethics? What is the deadline for achieving this goal?
Lots of questions to answer.
Any thoughts on how to move the campaign forward?
Comment by Steve Field — November 10, 2006 @ 10:44 am
Steve,
Here’s our anti-astroturfing campaign statement:
We oppose the practice of astroturfing, defined above, in any form. The practice should never be a part of a public relations campaign as it is anti-democratic, unethical, immoral and often illegal.
We will attempt to raise awareness of this practice, expose it for what it is, and encourage our fellow communicators to join us in opposition.
We call for all professional communication bodies to strongly, publicly and actively oppose astroturfing; alongside PR agencies, individual practitioners and bloggers.
And ‘How You can Help’:
Join the conversation - write against astro turfing on your blog or comment on the blog posts listed on this site
Declare you and / your agency astroturf free
Expose possible examples of astroturfing
Link to this page with the button provided and add your name to the list of supporters
Call on your politicians to take tougher legislative action against astroturfing
Call on your industry / professional association to speak out against astroturfing
Encourage friends and colleagues to get involved
We want to expose astroturfing for what it is, and educate people so they’ll know how to avoid it. We’d also like to increase visible opposition to it.
What I’m trying to look at here is - what is the best way to educate PR practicioners about the issue?
Comment by Paull Young — November 10, 2006 @ 10:34 pm
Paull,
I think all of that is great. The real question I have it, to clarify: what is the end state?
When can the anti-astroturfing campaign be considered “successful”?
Ultimately, all education efforts, other strategies and tactics should stem from this end goal.
Comment by Steve Field — November 11, 2006 @ 6:42 pm
I think case studies demonstrate what’s good and what’s bad in business. How about compiling a list of companies that conduct astroturfing campaigns?
Also did anyone see the AIR program on the issue of astrosturfing. http://www.pbs.org/wnet/air/
Comment by John Cass — November 12, 2006 @ 5:16 pm
Steve - The overall aim is for every PR practitioner, around the world, to know what astroturfing is, what it looks like, how they can avoid it, and why they should avoid it.
However, the campaign is ever changing and fluid - there’s no hard and fast rules about how it should play out.
In saying that - it seems pretty clear that the route against astroturfing involves education so that those unaware of the practice don’t get caught up in it. And greater enforcement so that the temptation for dodgy operators to use the tactic is greatly reduced.
John - Great work starting a new page on the anti-astroturfing wiki, and thanks for the pointer to that program - it looks really interesting.
Comment by Paull Young — November 13, 2006 @ 6:38 am
I think it’s embarrassing to the industry that these underhanded practices publicly occur at the one of the largest, and perhaps the most well-known, agencies. I do think it was good PR for their firm, however, to publicize their internal training session. I agree with Paull. As a PR student, I think it is imperative to teach the up-an-coming practitioners about such practices and why they are unethical before they even join the ranks of the workforce. It is the newest generation of PR professionals who are no doubt better equipped to shape the realm of social media and have to potential to change the practice altogether. I think it is important to charge this cohort to begin a ground-up movement of intolerance of this practice, thereby creating a generation of practitioners who will not endure this sort of dishonesty.
Comment by Audrey — June 3, 2007 @ 6:12 pm