Teaching Ethics in the Public Relations Curriculum at the Undergraduate Level

Abstract

Ethics is one of the domains of learning in the National Qualifications Framework of Higher Education. It is one of the main duties of universities to develop a curriculum that can produce graduates who meet this requirement. As well as other professional curriculum at the higher education level, no public relations graduates should enter the field of public relations in present-day society without a full commitment to ethical practice. The main objective of this paper is to be the pilot study to explore the teaching of ethics in the Public Relations curriculum. The documentary research method is used by studying the curriculum bulletin of five universities, which provided an undergraduate program in Public Relations such as Bachelor of Communication Arts, Bachelor of Arts, and Bachelor of Journalism. The public relations curriculum undergraduate programs in this study covered the following universities: Assumption University, Bangkok University, Chulalongkorn University, Rangsit University, and Thammasart University. The study indicates that most public relations curriculum provide ethics content in specific courses such as law and ethics for mass communication, communication ethics, or ethics. Moreover, the result shows that not only are specific courses offered, but some learning objectives and the content of the public relations courses are also placed within the context of public relations ethics.