Following from the last post we
realised that ethnic diversity is also an issue within the PR industry.
Does the lack of “ethnic diversity in PR” bother
you?
When I first thought about this question my response was instantly "yes" because I believe that ethnic diversity in PR helps establish different attitudes to the way in which practitioners operate and how audiences from ethnic minorities can identify with PR practitioners and organisations.
When I first thought about this question my response was instantly "yes" because I believe that ethnic diversity in PR helps establish different attitudes to the way in which practitioners operate and how audiences from ethnic minorities can identify with PR practitioners and organisations.
Are you from an African-Caribbean
background? Do you find attaining PR opportunities difficult? The Taylor
Bennett foundation may just be of interest to you. Recent findings have indicated that there are only 8% of PR
practitioners from ethnic backgrounds which indicates how
marginalised this group is. This is a shocking percentage and highlights how unrepresentative the PR industry is.
There are constantly many efforts to
challenge the rates of diversity amongst public relation practitioners. In 2008
the Taylor Bennett foundation was introduced in order to provide equal
opportunities for students from black and minority ethnic groups, due to being
highly under-represented in the PR industry. The foundations ‘offers training courses sponsored
by PR agencies including Brunswick, Talk PR and MHP communications’ for more information. This gives graduate students the
chance to actively work alongside PR programmes, gaining real life experience's and therefore developing
necessary skills which many PR company would require. Diversity is important for
PR profession's in order to appeal to different audience groups, therefore issues
surrounding the lack of representation of ethnic groups needs to be challenged
and changed in order to allow PR industries to be more diverse and representative.
The Taylor Bennett foundation (TBF) is a great organisation built to help minorities achieve their potential but more institutions need to open up their doors and encourage a movement for a more diverse PR industry. The Taylor Bennett foundation is a London based institution so caters highly for the more mobile PR people so therefore it's difficult for people who may be situated in places like Glasgow, Midlands etc to travel accordingly.
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| Taylor Bennett Foundation homepage (website) |
Have you got any ideas? What steps can we make so that the PR industry is more diverse especially where ethnic minorities are concerned?
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| TBF Trainees |
Hi Demi
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading your post about ethnicity and PR. I found it to be informative as well as current and insightful. I'm glad that you spoke about such a sensitive issue because a lot of people may have hesitated before they made an issue like this public.
PR is always around us and its good that you showed the world that even though we live in a world where we are all "equal", the PR world isn't quite ready to completely accept all colours and races yet.
Thank you for taking the time to read my blog post. I agree with the points you made and I think that issues about ethnic diversity need to be at the forefront of the PR industry to allow people from minorities to feel encouraged to get involved in PR practices. It is important to discuss this current situation so professional institutions such as the Taylor Bennett foundation can help challenge and hopefully begin to change the formation of the PR industry. I also believe that the fact that public relations appeal and involve many multicultural audiences also reinforces a need for greater diversity in order to make the profile of PR practitioners in Britain more representative of society as a whole.
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