Ethical and

Unethical
Communication
PREPARED BY: J.D. GARCIA
• Communication is powerful, and has ethical
boundaries.
• Communication used to improve interpersonal
relations or to bring moral changes to society is
Ethical Communication.
• Communication used to undermine relationships
or encourage social immorality is Unethical
Communication.
• National Communication Association
• CREDO for Ethical Communication
• Approved by the National Communication
Association Legislative Council, 1999
ETHICAL: RIGHT OR WRONG?
 RECITATION
• HAVE YOU BEEN IN A SITUATION WHEREIN
YOU FELT CAUGHT IN BETWEEN CHOOSING
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE VERSUS WHAT YOU
WANT DONE?
 ETHICAL COMMUNICATION

• Responsible thinking
• Decision making
• Development of relationships and communities
within and across contexts, cultures, channels, and
media.
• Enhances human worth and dignity by fostering
truthfulness, fairness, responsibility, personal
integrity, and respect for self and others.
 UNETHICAL COMMUNICATION

• Threatens the quality of all communication and

consequently the well-being of individuals and the
society in which we live in.
 NAT’L COMMUNICATION ASSOCIATION –
PRINCIPLES OF ETHICAL COMMUNICATION
• 1.We advocate truthfulness, accuracy, honesty, and
reason as essential to the integrity of
communication.
• 2.We endorse freedom of expression, diversity of
perspective, and tolerance of dissent to achieve
the informed and responsible decision making
fundamental to a civil society.
• 3.We strive to understand and respect other
communicators before evaluating and
responding to their messages.
• 4.We promote access to communication
resources and opportunities as necessary to
fulfill human potential and contribute to the
well-being of families, communities, and
society.
• 5.We promote communication climates of caring
and mutual understanding that respect the unique
needs and characteristics of individual
communicators.
• 6.We condemn communication that degrades
individuals and humanity through distortion,
intimidation, coercion, and violence, and through
the expression of intolerance and hatred.
• 7.We are committed to the courageous expression
of personal convictions in pursuit of fairness and
justice.
• 8.We advocate sharing information, opinions, and
feelings when facing significant choices while also
respecting privacy and confidentiality.
• 9.We accept responsibility for the short- and long-
term consequences for our own communication
and expect the same of others.
 EXAMPLES OF UNETHICAL COMMUNICATION:

• 1.Advertising outcomes you know are not realistic

(Get thin quickly scheme)

• Diets and dieting

• ‘I thought it was a miracle. Then I started
shaking’: the danger of buying diet pills online
• They promise instant results, but put lives at risk.
So why is the market booming?
• (The Guardian International Edition, 11-3-2018)
• 2.Misrepresenting facts to investors (Investment
Scam).
• 3.Promoting products that are harmful to people
by referring to biased research you paid for.
(Whitening products, Food Supplements)
• 4. Sharing information you promised to keep
private.
• 5.Spreading lies to defame someone in order to
sideline them from a political race.
• 6.Telling someone what they want to hear in
order to win favor VERSUS telling them the truth
they need to hear in order to improve.
 7. PLAGIARISM - Copying another's work
verbatim and presenting it as our own.
• SOURCE:
https://www.enago.com/academy/fraud-research
-many-types-plagiarism/

• TYPES OF PLAGIARISM
• 1. Complete plagiarism - where a researcher takes
a manuscript or study that someone else created,
and submits it under his or her name. It is
tantamount to intellectual theft and stealing.
• 2. Source-based Plagiarism - when a researcher
references a source that is incorrect or does not
exist, it is a misleading citation.
• Plagiarism also occurs when a researcher uses a
secondary source of data or information, but only
cites the primary source of information.
• 3. Data fabrication is the making up of data
and research findings.

• 4. Data falsification involves changing or

omitting data to give a false impression.
(Ex.False medical research can adversely
affect clinical decisions.)
• 5. Direct or verbatim plagiarism occurs when an
author copies the text of another author, word for
word, without the use of quotation marks or
attribution, thus passing it as his or her own.
• This refers to sections (rather than all) of another
paper.
• 6. Auto-plagiarism, also known as self-plagiarism or
duplication, happens when an author reuses
significant portions of his or her previously
published work without attribution.
• Published researchers; Academic journals, have
strict criteria on the percentage of reusable
author’s work. Many journals run manuscripts
through a plagiarism-detection software before
review.
• 7. Paraphrasing plagiarism - most common type of
plagiarism. It involves the use of someone else’s
writing with some minor changes in the sentences
and using it as one’s own.
• Even if the words differ, the original idea remains
the same and plagiarism occurs.
• 8. Inaccurate authorship or misleading attribution -
when an individual contributes to a manuscript but
does not get credit for it OR when an individual gets
credit without contributing to the work.
• This happens when someone else edits a manuscript,
leading to substantive changes. Always acknowledge
the contributors at the time of publication, even if
they are not listed as authors.
• 9. Mosaic plagiarism may be more difficult to
detect because it interlays someone else’s
phrases or text within its own research. It is
also known as patchwork plagiarism and it is
intentional and dishonest.
• 10. Accidental Plagiarism - may be accidental
if it occurred because of neglect, mistake, or
unintentional paraphrasing. Students are
likely to commit accidental plagiarism.
(Ex.Forgot to cite source.)
• ASSIGNMENT
• 1.CHOOSE AN EXAMPLE OF UNETHICAL
COMMUNICATION.
• 2.IN YOUR OWN WORDS, BRIEFLY NARRATE A
SAMPLE NEWS THAT HAPPENED IN THE COUNTRY.
OR BRIEFLY NARRATE A SAMPLE STORY.
• 3.EXPLAIN THE LESSONS LEARNED FROM THE
NEWS OR STORY. GIVE RECOMMENDATIONS TO
AVOID BEING A VICTIM OF UNETHICAL
COMMUNICATION.
• 4.MATERIAL: SHORT BOND PAPER, TYPEWRITTEN,
FONT 11 TIMES NEW ROMAN
• 5.DUE NEXT MEETING
 EXAMPLE:

• Misrepresenting facts to investors (Investment Scam)

• A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investing scam
promising high rates of return with little risk to
investors. Ponzi scheme generates returns for early
investors by acquiring new investors. This is similar
to a pyramid scheme in that both are based on using
new investors' funds to pay the earlier backers.
• Specific News : How KAPA Ministry took advantage
of investors (Rappler)
• KAPA Community Ministry International accepted donations
and promised its followers that their one-time donation will
earn 30% per month and for life. In a year, a person who
“donated” P10,000 will receive P36,000, or 360% return on
investment.
• Compared to other investments, mutual funds offer 5% to
9%. Government securities like T-bills and T-bonds yield only
6%.
• The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) charged that
KAPA is guilty of a Ponzi scheme, an investment program
that offers impossibly high returns and pays investors out of
the capital contributed by later investors.
• SEC called KAPA’s operation as scam because no
company can afford to pay such high interest
income. SEC ordered the shutdown of KAPA.
• Followers have ignored the red flags of an
investment scam. They still support KAPA and called
the SEC order as “anti-poor”.
• KAPA Leader Pastor Joel Apolinario claims they have
5 million investors thus making it one of the largest
scams in Philippine history.
• LESSON LEARNED: PEOPLE SHOULD BE AWARE OF
RED FLAGS OR WARNING SIGNS OF A POSSIBLE
INVESTMENT SCAM.
• 1.KAPA PROMISED HIGH RETURN ON INVESTMENT
OF 30% PER MONTH COMPARED TO PREVAILING
RATE OF 5%-9% PER ANNUM.
• 2.FOLLOWERS WERE ENCOURAGED TO RECRUIT
BECAUSE IN ORDER FOR A PONZI SCHEME TO
FLOURISH, THE PAYMENTS TO EARLIER INVESTORS
ARE SOURCED FROM NEW INVESTORS.