Patricia Nicole S.

Dandan October 1, 2020

BACMS-1A Ms. Mau Gines

Ethics of Communication

When you think of Ethics, what comes to your mind? Probably, some phrases or words such
as ethical behaviors, professional ethics or maybe code of ethics. Basically, ethics refers to the
concept of having morally acceptable behaviors and values in all aspects. If one aligns his
behaviors and actions with these morals and values, one engages in ethical behavior.

In every aspects of life, may it be within one’s profession or in a school setting, comes with a
set of questions about how one should conduct themselves in any place or circumstance. If one
cares about the kind of a person that they are, has good qualities and characteristics, abides by
the moral principles, promotes fairness, prevents harm and works to achieve good, then being
an ethical person is equally as important as being successful. If a person understood the basic
principles of ethics, then one will most likely increase the likelihood that he will make a right and
an ethical choice. In the communication field, evidences points to a lack of trust from the public.
Journalists or any authoritarian figure that has an influence to the people needs to work on
understanding what ethics is, how to identify an ethical issue and respond to issues in a correct
manner. Communication Ethics is essential because if the public views someone as not
trustworthy, it can compromise a profession’s reputation. Practicing and applying the ethics of
communication develops trusts and cares for relationships with others. It concerns the
evaluation of goodness in all aspects and manifestations of communicative interaction of
people.

Unfortunately, not all people are educated by these conducts and so, a lot of people still
suffer from putting it into practice. In lieu to this, many problems arise due to ethical misconduct
during different communication practices. Unethical behaviors threaten the quality of all
communication and consequently the well-being of individuals and the society. It can have
serious consequences for both individuals and organizations. One example of violating the
ethics of communication would be plagiarism. Plagiarism is a type of intellectual theft and
considered immoral because you are taking others’ work as your own. Take for instance the
case of Senate President Tito Sotto III’s plagiarism allegations where he copied the late US
Senator Robert Kennedy’s speech. Back in 2012, Sen. Pres. Sotto delivered some parts of
Kennedy’s speech in 1966 about his opposition to the RH Bill (Cabico, 2018). Moreover, in
August 2012, the same year he copied Kennedy’s speech, Sen. Pres. Sotto plagiarized once
more. He copied almost exactly the speech from an article of a blogger named Sarah Pope
(Cabico, 2018). To avoid plagiarism, one should be knowledgeable with any article or journals
used for reference. One should learn how to read and identify papers well, acquire skills for
summarizing and paraphrasing, know how to properly write and know how to cite sources to
give credit to the authors. Another violation from the ethics of communication is disseminating
misinformation or fake news. An example of this violation would be the case of Mocha Uson’s
fake PPE photo post where she posted photos on her Facebook page showing a new set of
personal protective equipment or PPE that is supposedly purchased by the government.
However, some netizens noticed that what Uson posted was one of the photos from SM
Foundation (Alimarion & Ferreras, 2020). According to the article, this case was not the first
time Uson committed such misleading social media post. And so, to avoid disseminating
misinformation, one should always be critical from the source the information came from, check
if the author is a reliable writer, check the date it was published, ask from the experts and other
parties for supporting details and research further regarding the topic. Another violation of
communication ethics would be the disclosing of confidential information to the public without
permission of the affected person or parties. An instance where this conduct has been violated
was in the US where the Los Angeles County Sheriff disclosing unauthorized photos of Kobe
Bryant and Gigi Bryant’s helicopter crash. The widow of the Basketball legend, Vanessa Bryant
has filed a case against the Los Angeles Sheriff for such unlawful act. The Sheriff invaded the
Bryant family’s privacy and did not mind the emotional distress he caused the family for such act
(Bumbaca, 2020). Confidentiality in Communication is essential because its role is to respect
the privacy of personal information about someone. Failure to put this conduct into practice will
most likely have a profound effect. People will probably stop communicating as they won’t feel
safe sharing their views and opinions.

REFERENCES:

Alimario, A., & Ferreras, V., (2020). NBI asks Mocha Uson to explain on fake PPE photo. CNN
Philipines. Retrieved from https://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2020/5/13/NBI-
summons-Mocha-Uson-fake-news-.html
Bumbaca, C., (2020). Vanessa Bryant sue Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department over
alleged photos deputies took at crash site. USA Today. Retrieved from
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/nba/2020/09/22/vanessa-bryant-sues-la-county-
photos/5863897002/

Cabico, G. K., (2018). Sotto on plagiarism allegations: Translating isn’t copying. Philstar
Global. Retrieved from https://www.philstar.com/headlines/2018/05/23/1817926/sotto-
plagiarism- allegations-translating-isnt-copying