Ethics in crisis communication and public relations

Odnosi s javnošću i krizne komunikacije dugo su se prakticirali uglavnom u velikim korporacijama dok male i srednje tvrtke nisu imale zaposlenika koji bi izvršavao zadatke i istraživanja vezane za odnose s javnošću. Dolaskom digitalnog doba male i velike tvrtke posvećuju sve veću pozornost na odnose s javnošću i krizne komunikacije. Pojava društvenih mreža omogućila je malim i srednjim tvrtkama da obuhvate puno veći krug ciljane javnosti uz minimalan trošak. Problem u komunikaciji pojavio se s mogućnošću komentiranja objavljenog sadržaja i ocjenjivanjem tvrtki na njihovim profilima društvenih mreža. Masovnim korištenjem novih medija započelo je doba kada se krize stvaraju na društvenim mrežama, a pokretač kriza su upravo komentari. Društvene mreže uglavnom plasiraju marketinške materijale tako da je uvriježeno mišljenje da su marketing i odnosi s javnošću ista disciplina dok se u stvarnosti one preklapaju i nadopunjavaju. Posebnu pozornost treba posvetiti etici, osobito u doba krize, kada je tvrtka najosjetljivija na medijske napade i svaka medijska objava ima nekoliko tisuća pregleda na Internetu isto tako i komentara. Strurčnjaci u odnosima s javnošću posebno su educirani o etičnom ponašanju i poštivanju etičkih kodeksa stručnih udruženja (Hrvatska udruga za odnose s javnošću) ili etičkom kodeksu organizacije. Studije slučaja prikazuju kako se velike tvrtke unatoč osposobljenosti zaposlenih i dalje ne znaju nositi s krizama.Public relations and crisis communications have long been practiced in large corporations, while small and medium-sized companies did not have an employee who would carry out public relations tasks and research. With the coming of the digital age of small and large companies, they are increasingly focusing on public relations and crisis communication. The emergence of social networks has allowed small and medium businesses to reach a much larger circle of targeted public at a minimal cost. The communication problem has appeared with the ability to comment on published content and evaluate companies on their social network profiles. By massive use of new media, the time has begun when crises are created on social networks, and crunchers are just commentaries. Social networks mainly market marketing materials, so it is commonly believed that marketing and public relations are the same discipline as they actually overlap and supplement. Particular attention should be paid to ethics especially in times of crisis when the company is most vulnerable to media attacks and every media release has several thousand views on the Internet as well as comments. People in public relations are particularly educated about ethical behavior and respect of ethical codes of professional associations (the Croatian Public Relations Association) or the code of ethics of the organization. Case studies show that large companies, despite staff qualifications, are still unable to cope with crises