Ethics

Looking for team members!

Garth Beyer

The other day I caught myself with Twitter opened up to interactions. I was sitting and waiting for someone to interact with me. I would tweet an interesting idea or question and wait for someone to notice, someone to reply. Boy, was I doing it wrong.

After realizing this, I switched back to my Twitter feed and started interacting with others. In minutes I was in the middle of conversations with a handful of people.

It seems that on Twitter – and in life, really – more people sit and wait rather than seek what they want out. Often times, what you are waiting for, is more or less, exactly what hundreds, thousands, millions of others are waiting for. Almost everyone I interacted with obviously had there interactions tab opened, waiting for someone to reply.

People seem to be classified as one of two people: either you move or you wait.

This blog post is about a little of both.

A partner and I are getting together a team of creative, passionate, and communicative people. Some ideas we will be producing this summer is a community art event where everyone can be an artist, as well as an online news website where people can go to discuss ethics in regard to recent events, e.g., Boston Bombings.

We are based in Madison, Wisconsin, so first, if you do not live in Madison, I would like you to share this post with anyone who does that you think would have interest in participating. We are very open to ideas and odd talents. If you do live in Madison, right on!

Secondly, I want to note that if you want to be part of the team and do not live in Madison, that’s not a problem! Obviously, we will need tech and organization tasks fulfilled. In this world, distance no longer prevents the important work of getting done. We need you.

Ethics, Energy, And Enigma

We aim to create a positive enigma. We plan to puzzle people in a way that they wonder why people have not put on events like ours before, or surprise people by connecting them with other like-minded people they have been waiting for. Through this transfer of energy, we will make a ruckus that leaves a ripple effect into the thoughts of everyone involved. The way one views the world will be brightened and we are changing the way ethics are influenced in this post-industrialistic connection economy. It’s the time of the creative class. It’s the time to stop waiting and start moving. We are here.

You can get in touch with me through email at: thegarthbox@gmail.com

 

Stay Positive & Be Bold

Garth E. Beyer

 

New Media & Ethics Conference

Garth Beyer

I wish I had it recorded but in print will have to do. Below is my introduction to UW Madison Chapter’s PRSSA Conference. You can also find some great tips and cover by searching #PRSSA and #uwconf on Twitter.

 

I won’t ask you to, but who here can define journalism? If I were to ask each of you, everyone would have a different response, similar, but different.

Almost 100 years ago, journalism emerged and was defined by Lippman as the translator between the public and the policy making Elites. Simple. Straightforward.

Now we have dozens of different definitions and even more subcategories: analytic, backpack, community, enterprise, immersive, mobile, pack, tabloid… you get the idea.

Over thousands of years ago, ethics was easily defined by a few different principals. Aristotle established the Golden Mean principal of ethics, basically it meant that everyone was to strive for the balance between two extremes.

Similarly golden, the golden rule was established. Simple profound, and could be applied to everything in writing and in life.

Unfortunately, long before journalism was established, multiple layers of ethics soon overlapped the golden mean and the golden rule, leaving us with thousands of ethical questions to be asking ourselves.

In this new media age, with so many guidelines, it seems that we can’t do anything without breaking some ethical standard.

We even have people arguing the utilitarian John Stuart Mill and his ethical stance called “the greatest-happiness principle” which holds that one must aim to do that which will produce the greatest happiness among all beings.” How does that not cover it all?

While we have an assortment of speakers here tonight to tell you about new media and a bit about ethics, I would like to express two ideas with you. Think about them throughout the keynote and breakout sessions.

The first is this: have you noticed that we no longer blaze journalists who are the first to report to us? Think to any of the last shootings. Has there ever been a report, the first on a story that was completely correct? That gave the exact number of fatalities? That described the shooter with absolute detail? We have come to trade in ethical standards for being fed information quicker, to being connected, and to being the first to share news with each other.

In a worldwide journalistic mission of getting the story, and getting it first, we sacrifice what historic media interpreters would call professionalism. What were once ethical standards are now breached with the new media methods of being a journalist.

The second note is something that everyone here has heard before, but has yet to be strongly applied to journalism.

With great power comes great responsibility.

We are now more digitally powerful than ever before, most would agree that its beyond governmental control, and definitely beyond the control of one single ethical standard.

With great power comes great responsibility. This means we need to self-regulate ourselves. The age of having ethical standards has passed. There is no right ethical move, or wrong ethical choice, only actions that are popular and actions that are not. It’s up to us to define ethics for ourselves. If we set them correctly, only then will I buy the idea that were journalists.

Now that you have some things to think about and without further ado, I would like to introduce our keynote speaker of the night Theo Keith, reporter for WISC-TV

A PR’s Ethical Respect

Garth Beyer

An underlying principle to the work of a PR Specialist is similar to an old adage about love.

“If you don’t love yourself, how can you love anyone else?”

In this saying, the word “love” is interchangeable with any other word that enforces some form of positivity, amiability or professionalism. Working with PR, the most fitting word to exchange it with is “respect”.

It now reads,

“If you don’t respect yourself, how can you respect anyone else?”

Even a better question: How do you plan to be a successful PR Specialist when respect is simply a cousin of fairness, and fairness is a code of ethics that only authentic PR Specialists and Firms use.

What makes or breaks connections in business and in life can be pinned down to ethics, whether it be fairness, accuracy, honesty, or in this specific case, respect. Respect for oneself as well as mutual respect with a client is what stabilizes the connection.

While the bridge you build with another may not lead to a success, it is better to have a bridge maintained by respect than no bridge at all.