How The PRSA Code of Ethics Guides 6th Street Public Relations
Getting to be one of the only two PRSSA Nationally Affiliated and award-winning Student-run Firms in California does not happen overnight. At 6th Street Public Relations, we adhere to standards of PRSSA. Ethics Month is important for us because it is a reminder of our ethical responsibilities as an agency and public relations professionals. Throughout my time in the agency and my own personal professional career, I have no doubt that these values have been an important addition to me and my colleagues’ professional development.
Fairness:
We represent fairness in our agency internally and externally. Within our agency, we internally practice fairness in our own team environment because we understand that it gets translated into our work for clients. When we are brainstorming as a team for how we will help our client reach their communication goals, we uphold an environment that allows us to share our opinion. We know that we are creating unique, strategically thought-out work, which requires creativity and expression without judgment. As we work remotely from home because of COVID-19, my job as the director is to ensure that my team is still cultivating those environments over video chat rooms, ultimately positively affecting our work as a whole agency. Externally, we help our clients define and reach their campaign goals, and we also encourage them to let us know how we can best help them. Afterwards, we provide them with the best possible campaign plan with their opinions considered.
Independence:
At 6th Street Public Relations, we embody independence by being truth-tellers and truth-seekers. We look for the truth and tell the truth by working with high standards of accuracy and truthfulness. For example, working in public relations, it can sometimes be hard to work to be the middleman in the lines of communication, especially since we do not live in a perfect society Learning to work and analyze the political, environmental and cultural climates allows us to be truth-tellers and represent a message in the best accurate manner without secretively withholding information from the public.
Advocacy:
We advocate on behalf of our clients. We acknowledge that our work is powerful and can bring communities together. When I think of advocacy, I think of being the voice that brings people together. Ultimately, we are building mutually beneficial relationships.
Honesty:
Honesty is a quality that helps us build trust and communication with our clients and other members within the agency. We are honest because we are truth-tellers in the creation and development of our campaigns.
Expertise:
This value has been especially important for our agency this semester because we have a client in the healthcare system. We successfully uphold this value by becoming knowledgeable in the industry and then advocating on behalf of our client. I believe that knowledge is power and how we use that knowledge can make or break success. While I was training our account executives earlier this summer, I made sure to research training materials from prior public relations agency advisers to diversify our training. I think that it is the perfect example of how we don’t retain our expertise from others, but we share in community to benefit relationships worldwide and ultimately our own professional development.
Loyalty:
During my own personal time, I’ve been creating campaign tactics for a fellow candidate running for city council in my own hometown. Being a resident of the hometown has allowed me to see various other competitors who are running against my client. Loyalty is crucial for the success of the campaign because I would be jeopardizing my own tactical goals I have for my client. Not only would it be unprofessional, but it breaks the trust that I have with my client and ultimately affects the message we are trying to give the public.
Helen Calderon is a third-year student at Biola University, majoring in business marketing while pursuing a career in public relations simultaneously. Her dual passion for developing campaigns and targeting audiences with affective and strategical tactics makes her an inspiring entrepreneur. She hopes to run her own agency after working in the marketing/public relations field post-graduation. Outside of directing 6th Street PR, she is currently involved in advocating for her own community, as well as assisting in the city council member election by developing PR work for a candidate running for City Council.
