Acting Ethically With Data-Driven Communication

While obtaining and analyzing data from social media platforms, websites, e-newsletters, and other digital channels is powerful for guiding communication strategies, it comes with the responsibility to use the information ethically.

According to Michele E. Ewing, a professor in the School of Media and Journalism at Kent State University, data-driven communication can lead to privacy issues, subjective data interpretation, algorithmic bias, and unfair profiling and targeting of audiences.

Acting ethically with data was a focus of the Public Relations Society of America’s (PRSA) Ethics Month in September. PRSA highlighted that a 2020-2021 North American Communication Monitor (NACM) study identified “mining and analyzing audiences’ personal data” as one of the top three types of ethical challenges concerning PR professionals in digital communication.

PRSA offers these resources for organizations that want to evaluate its current practices and adopt guidelines for an ethical approach towards data:

  • The PRSA Code of Ethics provides a framework for understanding ethical issues in public relations. The core values are designed to guide the decision-making process and behaviors to elevate the integrity of public relations.  

  • The PRSA Board of Ethics and Professional Standards (BEPS) issues the Ethical Standard Advisories (ESAs) which addresses ethical dilemmas. This includes ethics and social media, deceptive online practices, misrepresentation and misinformation, and position papers and on-demand ethics webinars.