Real Communication An Introduction

362 Part 4  Public Speaking

Speaking Ethically and Responsibly

Your responsibility as a speaker goes beyond simply giving credit to others’ work;

you need to take responsibility for what you say.^1 If you use inflammatory, hurt-

ful, or hateful language, even quoted and cited from another source, you will

bear the brunt of the audience’s reactions.

The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution guarantees every

citizen the right to free speech, but not all speech is ethical. As a public

speaker, you are responsible for providing your audience members with

all of the necessary information for them to make accurate, appropri-

ate decisions about you and your message. The speeches by Chinese leader

Deng Xiaoping, who tried to intimidate Chinese citizens into revealing the

whereabouts of leaders of the unsuccessful 1989 student uprising in Tiananmen

Square in Beijing, were unethical and coercive. In addition, it’s important to

recognize that the right to free speech in this country is not without limits. As

Supreme Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes wrote in 1919, the Constitution “would

not protect a man falsely shouting fire in a theater and causing a panic” (Schenck

v. United States, 1919). Speech that endangers people—for example, speech that

incites riots, advocates the unlawful overthrowing of the government, or causes

unnecessary panic—would not only be ethically questionable but might be ille-

gal as well (Gitlow v. New York, 1925; Schenck v. United States, 1919).

Although everyone has different standards for ethical communication,

the qualities of dignity and integrity are universally seen as core to the idea of

ethics. Dignity is feeling worthy, honored, or respected as a person; integrity is

FIGURE 12.4
SAMPLE RUNNING
BIBLIOGRAPHY IN APA
STYLE

ALTHOUGH THE First
Amendment allows anyone
to step up on a soapbox and
say whatever he or she wants
to say, it’s still important
to refrain from unethical or
derogatory speech. ©NMPFT/
DHA/SSPL/The Image Works

(^1) Much of this discussion was inspired by the work of Michael Josephson, founder and
president of the Joseph and Edna Josephson Institute of Ethics in Marina del Rey,
California.