Ethics Post 2: Mum's the Word (Does anyone say that anymore?)

 Information is valuable. You can never get enough of it, and without it you can easily find yourself in the dark. Since starting the MACOMM program, I've gained a better understanding of the importance of confidentiality from a media/communications standpoint. I've also gained a better understanding of the importance of some information being too sensitive. Whether it's information that needs to be shared or confined, that definitely depends on the situation and the information itself. A factor of ethics that I've found my self focusing on more than others is the potentiality that people don't tell the whole truth, whether they are whistle-blowers, journalists, or company reps. In one of the readings from this past week (Arnettetal, ch. 3), I saw a list of values that promote responsible behavior in the "Codes, Procedures, and Standards for Communication Ethics" section. 

The list reads as follows:

• Integrity
• Fairness
• Professional and Social Responsibility
• Equality of Opportunity
• Confidentiality
• Honesty and Openess
• Respect for Self & Others
• Freedom and Safety

....INTEGRITY, CONFIDENTIALITY, EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY...

HA!

 Pretty sure half (if not 3/4) of these values have not been practiced in full by any major corporation in the last 10 years (*cough* Enron and BP *cough). 

One company that entered Public Relations hell following an error and the subsequent Media/Communications backlash was Toyota. Their troubles involved possible faulty equipment, specifically brakes and unintended acceleration; in 2009, a deadly crash was credited to faulty brakes in the victims' Toyota (Lexus is you want to be technical). LESSON TIME (for those who don't know): Lexus is the luxury line of Toyota, much like Acura is the luxury line of Honda. This debacle involved a MASSIVE recall of vehicles to check the brake issue. However, they denied there was a "defect". However, the media saw it differently; The Los Angeles Times released an article that revealed Toyota had ignored 1,200 complaints of unintended acceleration. Ouch. To be quite frank, the Los Angeles Time was all over this issue in the beginning. The situation of the recall and it's complications lasted from September 2009 to January 2010. That's a LONG period in company stock/ Public Relations time. After the ordeal was over (for the most part), Toyota began releasing commercials that tried to clean the image they had over the last 4 1/2 months.

 In hindsight, it was important for the Toyota exploit to happen or else there would've been many more accidents that would have been blamed solely on human error. Los Angeles Times had a credible part in revealing that Toyota wasn't expressing full responsibility in certain areas of this crisis. Twitter wasn't exactly as big as it is now when this happened, but I'm sure there would've been multiple official Toyota accounts dedicated to putting out the fire. I think I would rather lose my job honorably than keeping a dark (or dangerous) secret from the public that will label me a criminal. Not that Toyota is criminal, but you have to consider the CEO's and Reps that probably tried to skate their way around the media frenzy surrounding this situation.