Personal ethics

Write a journal post that examines your personal ethical outlook using the ethical frameworks you have read about this week. Evaluate your personal ethical framework by examining it from a meta-ethical perspective. Note that you may draw on more than one type of ethical framework in your own decision making. Why might this be a good idea? What are the sources of your personal ethical framework? 

This weeks reading were not about ethical frameworks for non-communication professionals. The only article about basic ethics was the article from Santa Clara University. I have a basic disagreement about the meaning of ethics vs morals. I believe that ethics are a group mentality and our morals are our personal decisions, but I will use your wording for this assignment. 
My ethical framework is highly personalized. Because I do not follow a recognized religion, my ethical basis does not start on that level as many people's do. I do have and enjoy having deep conversations about my own ethics and their basis. Really this means that my ethics are not easily described and more open to interpretation and change. I agree with most basic human ethics- murder is wrong, helping others is good and such. Thus the source of my personal ethical framework is conversations that I have with others and reading. My ethics are still being formed and reinforced by my interactions with society. 
I would say I align more with the rights approach mentioned by Velasquez et al. (2009). I also believe in working for the common good, and I am a Democrat because of my alignment with these ideals.  According to Gallup polls, I am currently in the third lowest rated ethical profession- car sales and hope to move down to a even worse ranked profession: lobbying ("Honesty/ethics in Professions," 2013). I am not beholden to any ethics laid out by an ad agency group since I am not a member (Neff, 2011). My employer expects me to not follow my own ethical guidelines. 

References

Honesty/ethics in professions. (2013, December 5). Retrieved from http://www.gallup.com/poll/1654/honesty-ethics-professions.aspx

Moyer, J. (2011, January 7). Ethics and public relations. Retrieved from http://www.instituteforpr.org/ethics-and-public-relations/
Neff, J. (2011, March 17). Advertisers, agencies get new ethics code for review. Retrieved from http://adage.com/article/news/advertisers-agencies-ethics-code-review/149464/

Velasquez, M., Moberg, D., Meyer, M. J., Shanks, T., McLean, M. R., DeCosse, D., ... Hanson, K. O. (2009, May). A framework for thinking ethically. Retrieved from http://www.scu.edu/ethics/practicing/decision/framework.html