A Human Nature Approach to Image and Ethics in International Public Relations

This article addresses the role of the concept of image in the ethics of international public relations. It argues that the right to construct mental images is fundamental to the human experience and that ethical international public relations can enhance this right. The article identifies two diametrically opposed approaches to image in public relations. The first view uses instrumental or "i images" in an attempt to manage publics by managing the organization's communication with them. This instrumental approach is essentially one-way and monological, which is inviting for many practitioners and clients. I images are usually unethical, however, because they reduce the public's chance to use symbols and images rationally and to make informed choices. The second approach uses "h images" for the humanitarian view of images. With this approach, practitioners and their clients use two-way dialogical communication and accept the ethical responsibility to enhance, not degrade, the humanity of all parties involved in public relationships. Dialogical communicators assume that their publics have as varied and valid interpretations of the world as do their clients. They assume that the goal of public relations is not reducing publics to the service of clients but joining with publics in the process of interpreting the world together. The h image approach is especially important in international public relations, which can be understood as the attempt of one culturally bound community to deal with the interpretations of another. Based on the humanitarian approach, the article proposes five tests that international public relations practice should pass to be ethical.