The episode that stuck out most to be from the Drilled podcast was Season 3, Episode 3 where they talked a lot about psychological warfare and astroturfing in the oil industry. Public relations was being used to manufacture uncertainty. When releasing statements, PR professionals reframed issues that were occuring as "still debated". 

 

As public relations grew over time, leaders like Daniel Edelman helped shape it into a tool for managing corporate reputation. He focused on building relationships, working with the media and making companies look more credible (Institute for Public Relations, 2022). These strategies allowed trust to be bulit but they also gave companies a way to control how people saw them. As time went on these methods became more polished but the power to influence became even stronger (Isaac, 2023).

 

This raised an important ethical question for me. If early PR campaigns focused on creating doubt, can modern PR shape how people see responsibility and accountability? The line between giving public clear information and managing how it is perceived has become thin these days (PRSA, 2019). 

 

That is why it is important to follow ethical standards like ones listed in the Public Relations Society of America (2019) Code of Ethics. This code requires honesty, accuracy and sharing truthful information. Misleading the public, even without technically lying, weakens trust (Drilled, 2020).