Ghostbusters?
A discussion paper published by the UK’s Chartered Institute of Public Relations raises lots of questions about professional PR practice and social media.
Some of it is unsurprising (copyright’s an issue online and offline); some of it is just silly (I had thought the issue of deep linking had gone away years ago; if not, how come Google’s still in business?). But one of its questions is intriguing.
This concerns the role of the ghost writer - and the inevitable question of ethics and transparency. Once again, the issue is not new. It’s established practice for PR copywriters to draft quotations in news releases in the name of senior executives and to write bylined articles on their behalf. It’s common knowledge that presidents and prime ministers employ teams of speech writers.
In all these cases, the practice is accepted (and acceptable) because the senior executive or political leader takes responsibility for their words. In the case of the speech, they even stand there and deliver it.