New moral agenda for PR: updated essay
In the late 20th century PR had to manage an increasing number of controversial issues. Firms were invited – forcefully – to address their reputations the way they once addressed profits. This essay interrogates the response of leading academics and examines the historical roots of the problem.
The rumble in the jungle: modern PR's Edwardian birth
The largely forgotten Peruvian Amazonian Rubber Company scandal gave birth to modern corporate governance. It illustrated how public opinion, which abolished slavery in the British empire in 1833, and later rallied against King Leopold in the Congo, was a positive global force.
Cant or Kant? PR-think gets heavy (part 2)
We PRs cannot avoid philosophical matters because, as Martin Sandbu says in his new book Just Business – Arguments in Business Ethics, decisions made by business have consequences for other people.
Cant or Kant? PR-think gets heavy (part 1)
Public relations professionals don't really do philosophy: we're in the people business. Yet how our clients juggle individual moral rights, social roles and social conventions cuts to the heart of what PRs communicate.
The decline and possible rise of nuclear energy
This essay exposes a few misconceptions and speculates that 50 years of living with nuclear power may be producing a greater respect for it, and less awe.
