Jeff Harris is an accomplished non-profit executive who is passionate about civic engagement surrounding racial justice and equality. He heads JB Harris Consulting, which was founded to support organizations bringing programs and resources to BIPOC communities working to mitigate the effects of poverty, violence, and trauma that can prevent young people from achieving their full potential. He previously served as chief executive officer of the Junior State of America Foundation a national, non-partisan, non-profit helping to develop citizenship and civic involvement for high school students. Under his leadership, Harris oversaw the expansion of JSA to the nation’s largest student-run action-civics organization serving 15,000 students annually.
Most recently he was director of School and Community Partnerships for the Compton Unified School District, where he brought resources to the district supporting arts, STEM, literacy, athletics, and other co-curricular programs for the 35 campuses serving over 20,000 K-12 students while managing over 55 partner relationships.
1) To what ethical standard should political communication be held? Where should political communication ethics be grounded?
In thinking about the ethical standards for politicians holding elected or appointed positions, there's no question that they should adhere to and be held to the highest ethical standards. The stakes are too high when serving as official representatives of local, state and/or federal governments. We, the people, deserve and depend upon timely and accurate accounts of policy decisions and administrative actions as well as the political processes that yield them. Messaging that comes from official sources can have life or death consequences, but mostly, the public's trust and confidence in government is at stake. Unfortunately most Americans feel that "the government lies" no matter which political party is in control. This erosion of trust has lowered the bar for the ethical standards to which voters hold candidates to the point that most voters feel that a candidate's past or present behavior is OK if they support the candidate and "disqualifying" if they oppose the candidate.
That said, is it acceptable to hold political candidates to a lower ethical standard than office holders? That's a question that political communications professionals must grapple with. Their job is to get candidates elected. Communications professionals must determine that any questionable past behavior of a candidate doesn't run afoul of their own personal ethical standards. During the campaign, both "spinning" the truth and "evading" uncomfortable questions seem to be in bounds ethically. Particularly because the candidate/campaign isn't deliberately promoting falsehoods. The art and science of campaigning involves skillfully accentuating the positive, eliminating the negative while all the while, being honest and consistent with messaging.
2) Why should someone in political communication behave ethically?
At the foundation of a healthy democracy are healthy, honest and robust discussions and debates. In communicating with voters, political communications professionals are providing the essential information that, for many people, form the core elements of those discussions and debates. Especially in the digital age when the trust in the media is low and the electorate is bombarded with information from social media and other online sources, more people take messaging from the candidates and campaigns they support as fact, base their decisions on that messaging and spread that messaging to friends, relatives and "followers." The old saying "garbage in; garbage out" could apply here. When communications professionals taint our political discourse, voters base their decisions on tainted messaging and the outcomes produced by elections will not necessarily accurately reflect an well informed opinion of the majority. As Americans have historically low opinions of government institutions and politicians in general, political communications professionals must consider their role in helping to elect unpopular, untrusted politicians and in weakening our democratic institutions.
3) Can you give an example of ethical political communication? What can people point to and say “do more of that?”
I am going to succumb to my own cynicism here in that I fear that as soon as I point out an example of ethics in political communication, some scandal or cover-up will be exposed. I can say some criteria I look for when considering ethical communication, especially when the stakes are high. First of all, honesty. Not only is it the right thing to do ethically, in today's society, the truth will always be revealed somehow - it seems that it is impossible to cover up anything in the public domain. Second of all, transparency. Just as important as communicating the facts, is communicating "who knew what, when." Additionally, the phrase "we don't know that, yet" is acceptable when true and preferable to unfounded speculation. Third of all, humility. If a mistake has been made, admit it, apologize and lay out a plan to fix it. In the long run, taking responsibility for an error and working to correct it will work out better than blaming others or pretending that everything is OK, when it isn't.
4) Can you give an example of an ethical challenge or question you or political communication professionals in your field have faced or are likely to face?
It's easy to be ethical when things are going well. The real challenge is sticking to your ethical principles when there's trouble brewing. Often it comes down to when and how to release bad news to the general public. Telling the truth, telling it quickly and telling it completely is the ethical thing to do, but also the smart thing to do. The era of cover-ups is over; in the digital age, someone is always watching and posting to Twitter. Rather than trying to orchestrate a cover-up, use your skill and expertise to manage the aftermath of releasing the bad news. Do so on your terms and control the narrative as best you can.
5) What advice about ethics do you have for people studying political communication or starting their careers in the field?
We all learned the difference between right and wrong around kindergarten or first grade. When confronted with a dilemma, check your inner ethical compass and do what's right. The more experience and skill you acquire in the field, the better you will become at persuading and maybe even manipulating public opinion. Keep in mind your responsibility to ensure that our American democratic systems are strong and that the people can have trust in the process now and in the future.
Jeff Harris