Ghostwriting: The ethics of using a Quentin Miller to reach communication objectives

While some of you are enjoying your summers abroad or off vacationing with family and friends, others have been occupied with the drama between rappers, Drake and Meek Mill. For those of you who have a life during the summer: don’t worry, I have you covered. Recently, I’ve been occupied with trolling the Internet and analyzing the beef between the two. It all started when Meek Mill called out Drake for using ghostwriter, Quentin Miller, to write popular tracks on his latest album, If You’re Reading This, It’s Too Late.

Ghostwriting is viewed as a dishonest practice in the rap world… but what about in the communications world? The practice of writing material for another person, without a byline, in exchange for profit is common in organizations that have PR professionals working to meet communication objectives. The public is typically aware of ghostwriting when it comes to speeches and autobiographies, but in some instances ghostwriting can be deceiving.

#FeminismFad

According to Time Magazine, Twitter data reveals that the feminism conversation has grown over 300% within the past 3 years. The question is, will it keep the pace or die out like many social movements tend to do?

I hope that this phenomenon is around to stay. Why? This movement for gender equality affects not only me as a woman, but it also affects the 60% of undergraduate degree earners of which only 14.7% will take executive office in business;  also known as, you guessed it, women.

After years of completing classes surrounding public relations at Temple, it is no secret that women make up a majority of the field with men consistently taking over higher CEO and leadership positions. A study published by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) in 2013 reveals that as of 2011, women in PR are only paid 87 cents to every man’s dollar. This information is concerning to me as a female undergrad who has worked just as hard as her male colleagues for the past 2 and a half years.

Social advocacy campaigns for gender equality need a longer lifespan. On September 22, 2014, Emma Watson proposed the “He for She” campaign to the UN advocating for men to embrace the definitional idea behind feminism. Her speech went viral receiving over 1 million views seemingly over night. Many of you probably retweeted, favorited, or shared some of her insightful words through social media around the time of its popularity, but have you recently? Have you seen any social movements for gender equality recently?

Negative repercussions from the word “feminism” seem to turn many men and women off to campaigns for equal opportunity, which is perhaps why social movements for gender equality never quite seem to stick. Too often is “feminism” paired with “man-hating” and it is difficult to change a mentality after it has been implemented in our culture since the late 1800s.

With the new age of social media, it has become easier to voice opinions through trending hashtags and Twitter Q&As. Social movement campaigns seem to sprout from time to time, but die out before they fully blossom. Like a flower, social movements need some TLC before they reach full maturity. To prevent feminism from remaining just an occasional fad in our society, it takes a special group of people that can strategically place the right message in the right hands.

So what can we as PR people do about gender equality? Simple, do what we do best: keep the conversation going.  Questions or opinions?  Let us know in the comments! 

This guest blog post was written by PRowl staff member Olivia Noble.