Communication Ethics in a Connected World

What are the main ethical challenges for strategic communication and public relations professionals today? How can researchers help in understanding and dealing with these challenges in a complex and interconnected world? This book offers some answers to these questions, based on contributions by researchers from different European countries and other continents. The chapters of the first section focus on general concepts about communication and public relations ethics as well as corporate social responsibility. Three sections then deal with: the specific situation of communication and PR ethics in various European countries; the evolution of ethical skills of communication professionals; and the interaction between communication ethics and the public sphere. The final two sections offer insights on recent research in public relations, like employee communication and engagement, mentoring in public relations and the evolution of media relations and social media communication.

Andrea Catellani is tenured Assistant Professor of Communication at the Universite Catholique de Louvain (UCL), Belgium. He is director of the Laboratory for the Analysis of Organisational Communication Systems (LASCO) and of the master program in public relations and organisational communication, both at UCL.
Ansgar Zerfass is Professor and Chair in Strategic Communication at the University of Leipzig, Germany, and Professor in Communication and Leadership at BI Norwegian Business School, Oslo, Norway. He is President of the European Public Relations Education and Research Association (EUPRERA), Brussels.
Ralph Tench is Professor of Communication and Director of PhD programmes in the Faculty of Business and Law, Leeds Beckett University, UK. He is a member of the board of directors of EUPRERA and a Fellow of the UK Higher Education Association.