Ethical and Legal Messages

In this project, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following competency:

· Evaluate how ethical and legal issues impact communication messages and goals

Scenario

You work at TalkBox, a company that develops and supports software solutions for workforce collaboration. Its vendors include a number of multinational corporations in English-speaking countries. TalkBox is considered a technology, media, and telecom (TMT) sector business; it has just completed its fifth year and is thus barely out of the startup phase. Its leaders recently realized its business practices may not be fully aligned with their ethical and legal vision, given that TalkBox had been struggling simply to succeed.

As the director of social responsibility at TalkBox, you’ve been asked to draft an employee handbook section that delineates ethical and legal guidelines for your company. You will create your company’s guidelines, which will be reviewed by the company’s legal counsel.

Directions

These guidelines will be the foundation for employee training at the monthly all-company meeting. In particular, the public relations (PR) and marketing professionals need these guidelines; however, those employees have likely had coursework in this topic. Thus, your guidelines are truly for those at the company with no background or understanding of these issues, as their main focus has been business and software technology.

To create TalkBox’s ethical and legal guidelines, you first gathered the following information about what the document should include:

· An explanation of how professional codes of ethics guide the work of communication professionals. The introductory overview paragraph of your guidelines should explain how the document is used as well as its purpose.

· An explanation of copyright law and Creative Commons licensing

· What U.S. copyright law covers

· What categories of work are excluded

· What fair use is

· The potential impact of digital modification practices on company practices

· Manipulating news photos

· Explanations of relevant aspects of defamation law

· Slander

· Libel

· A discussion about confidential versus public sources of information. Additionally, discussion of the role of transparency as it relates to this issue.

· A description of privacy laws and what employees should do to avoid violating them

· Internal and external communications

· Protecting employee and customer private information

· An explanation of the potential impact of not following the guidelines

Preview one or more of the following codes of ethics (or one in the technology sector) to consider formatting, major themes, and wording for the ethical aspect of your guidelines:

· Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ)

· Public Relations Society of America (PRSA)

· The Washington Post

· The New York Times

· International Association for Business Communicators (IABC)

· American Federation of Advertising (AFA)

· American Marketing Association (AMA)

What to Submit

Every project has a deliverable or deliverables, which are the files that must be submitted before your project can be assessed. For this project, you must submit the following:

Guidelines Your document should clarify TalkBox’s ethical and legal guidelines in 2 to 3 pages.

Project Rubric: Guidelines

GuidelinesWhich Resources Can Help?Explains how ethical guidelines function and their purpose in the profession and potential impacts of not following guidelines☐ Mastered ☐ Not Yet

· Unit Resources: Codes of Ethics

Explains U.S. copyright law (including exclusions and fair use) and Creative Commons licensing☐ Mastered ☐ Not Yet

· Unit Resources: Copyright Law

Discusses the potential impact of digital modification practices on the company☐ Mastered ☐ Not Yet

· Unit Resources: Digital Modification

Describes relevant aspects of defamation law☐ Mastered ☐ Not Yet

· Unit Resources: Defamation Law

Evaluates the balance between confidential versus public sources of information☐ Mastered ☐ Not Yet

· Unit Resources: Confidential Sources

Assesses how privacy laws impact internal and external communication messages☐ Mastered ☐ Not Yet

· Unit Resources: Privacy Laws

GeneralWhich Resources Can Help?Clearly conveys meaning with correct grammar, sentence structure, and spelling; shows understanding of audience and purpose☐ Mastered ☐ Not Yet

· Academic Support

Lists sources where needed using citation methods with no major errors☐ Mastered ☐ Not Yet

· Citation Help