March 5th Diversity in Public Relations

Ms. Zena Martin, founder of Acknowledge Communications, presented to the class on Diversity communications. Her consultancy business specializes in advising commercial, government, and non-governmental organisations on how to respectfully reach diverse audiences. Diversity communications is about creating external and internal communications that target specialist groups such as ethnic minorities, senior citizens, and gays and lesbians.

I enjoyed Ms. Martin's presentation, mainly because many of the campaign advertisements brought back memories of home in the United States. Ms. Martin explained that Diversity Communications has existed in the United States for atleast 30 years. There is a lot of diversity in the United States, especially in large cities. Black and Hispanic populations are the largest ethnic minorities in the United States and both are large consumers. Therefore, many of consumer campaigns will also include these minorities in advertising and promotional materials.

Most of the presentation was a contrast between diveristy communications in United States and the United Kingdom. I was highly disappointed in the lack of diversity communications in London. The sad thing about it is that it does not surprise me. I am not fully aware of the racial demographic throughout the U.K. but I do know that London is a diverse city. Many people from various racial groups have complained about the lack of resources and representation in television and print media. There are stereotypes which persists in society about ethnic minorities, older people, and homosexual people, which prevents the media from representing these individuals in campaigns, advertising, or televesion; and if they are represented, most of the time it is in a stereotypical manner.

One of the arguments in the lack of diversity in public relations is the fact that ethnic recruits are hard to find. From one perspective I can believe it because many immigrants have certain expectation of their children to get "real jobs" such as doctor, lawyer, economist, etc. Public Relations is not a real job to many people so there is pressure on students to study other occupations. However, that does not discount the fact that there are people of color who currently work in the public relations field who could be recruited to help strenghten the numbers of graduates who could possibly consider public relations. You do not need a public relations degree to work in public relations, which we explored during the class exercise.

In the class exercise, my group was assigned the task of getting more men into the PR industry. We targeted graduate males who were not studying public relatons. We wanted to recruit them into the financial, business to business, and corporate sectors. If PR directors recruited from other sectors the minority and gender gaps could possibly be filled.

Food for thought: "Minorities" have been in the United States since before the 17th Century and they are only within the last 30 years starting to be recognized in advertising, what does that say about how far the U.K. will have to go?

Check out this Video of Queen Latifah's "Queen Collection" by CoverGirl Cosmetics http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vTSrxa7niJM

Feb. 27th Feminisation of PR

"Women will ALWAYS work in Public Relations, but they will NEVER run it"

In class we were assigned debate teams which argued the topic above. My group presented for the motion. These are a few points we debated.

1. Women do not get equal play in decision-making roles which is a key attribute of higher ranking Public Relations Practitioners. Thus proving that it is less likely for women to run the PR field.

~ According to Larissa Grunig, author and Professor at the University of Maryland, women are highly skilled. However, they are hired for work in PR for such roles as writing, media relations, and special events. These are the technical roles. Women are over-represented in technicians' ranks and under-represented in management. 1

2. There are a lack of role-models in which younger female PR professionals can seek advice.

~According to the Journal of Business Communications, a primary issue in the lack of female advancement in PR is the need for female role models and mentors, networking, and educational issues in PR.2 If they are no women willing to help the future generation of female practitioners, the cycle will continue and women will NEVER run PR.

3. The Business Journal of Communication: 2/3rds of women surveyed said that stereotypes and preconceptions of women's roles and abilities were the leading barrier to advancement.

~ Although women have advanced, the progression has been slow and the glass ceiling still exists. Stereotypes of women contribute to discrimination from companies. According to a study from the Business Journal of Communications, the salary gap between genders prevent women from truly being considered equal. Also, according to Grunig, "Companies consider PR as marginal to organization function, not central like finance or marketing. They're not afraid to give women a shot at PR because the risk factor is low," says Grunig. "3 Many of these companies also have not proven that they trust women to be as effective in management. You can have a good job title such as director or manager, but the trust level is low and tasks are not as rigorous a a man's.

Sources:

1. Salon 21st: The culture of technology/The technology of culture. Article: Spin Sisters. Web Address: http://archive.salon.com/21st/feature/1998/12/cov_03feature2.html. Date Visited: 27/02/08.

2. (The Business Journal of Communications. By Peter G. Ross. The experiences of women in a public relations firm: a phenomenological explication. Web Address: www.allbusiness.com/marketing-advertising/public -relations/644398-1.html Date Visited: 27/02/08)

3. Salon 21st: The culture of technology/The technology of culture. Article: Spin Sisters. Web Address: http://archive.salon.com/21st/feature/1998/12/cov_03feature2.html Date Visited: 27/02/08.

Feb. 13th Theories of Publics, Audiences, and Stakeholders

In today's class we focused on how to segment stakeholder audiences. Stakeholder audiences include employees, customers, shareholders, suppliers, members, local community, decision makers and key opinion formers. Public Relations practitoners speak directly to these audiences through various forms of media. Ralph Tench and Liz Yeomans in Exploring Public Relations say that the planning and conduct of public relations depends on our understanding of the nature of these audiences.1

In class i was a bit confused about the difference between stakeholders and publics. I thought that stakeholders could be put into the same category as publics. However, after reading the book Exploring Public Relations, it allowed to get a better understanding of the difference. The book explains that stakeholders are "those who have a stake or interest in a particular organization, i.e. they depend on the organization to fulfil their own goals." pg.241. However, the word publics and stakeholders can be used interchangeably. Stakeholders are potential publics because they can be stakeholders who have an issue or problem with the organization. Grunig and Hunt's situational theory sees "stakeholders developing into publics when they recognize that an issue or problem affecting them exists and they see it as worth thier while getting involved with the issue or problem." pg.243

Grunig and Hunt segment publics in the following categories:

Latent publics: those that face a particluar problem as a result of an organizations actions, but don't recognize it
Aware publics: those that recognize that a problem exists
Active publics: those that organise to discuss and do something about the problem

This theory of publics is used as a tool to manage the impact these publics will have on your organization.


I learned particularly how important all audiences can potentially improve the reputation of a business. They are also important to public relations because practitioners need to know their audiences and the best way to reach out to them. You cannot successfully deliver a campaign unless you know the people you will affect.

Michaela showed us nine ways in which to segment audiences. Those include:
1. Demographics
2. Psychographics
3. Geographics
4. Organizational membership
5. Covert power
6. Role in decision making
7. Influencers
8. Opinion formers
9. Decision makers

I think this form of segmenting will is effective in planning out who to target in campaigns. It can serve as a formula to better understanding who your audiences are and what type of power they have.

Sources:
1. Ralph Tench and Liz Yeomans. Exploring Public Relations. (Prentice Hall:2006) pg 235

Feb.6th Can PR Ever Be Ethical

Today’s discussion focused on ethics in public relations. Through a series of exercises, we analyzed PR cases which questioned the ethics of PR practitioners. A difficult conflict of interest that was discussed was the morals of the practitioner. Is the practitioner’s sole obligation to the company and its reputation if the publics interests is at stake? In my opinion, it is the responsibility of a good PR practitioner to balance both. Practitioners need to hold the publics interest in high regard while representing a company as best as possible.

The most memorable exercise in class involved reviewing a case in which a director of an international company used the phrase “nigger in a woodpile” in the public sphere while representing the company. The class was posed with the responsibility of coming up with reasons as to why he should or should not be fired. There were a few students in the class who believed that the Director should be fired for being so irresponsible as to use such a phrase in public while representing the company. They saw him as a potential risk to the company’s values and reputation. The arguments against him being fired where that if he made an honest mistake and didn’t mean for the comment to be taken offensively then he should be reprimanded, not fired.

Although his comments have racially insensitive roots, the director probably did not mean the comment to be taken offensively because maybe it is a popular saying where he is from. But I also believe that as a director of a company, you set an example for the employees and represent the overall values of the company. Therefore, he should not have made those statements. However, I am still undecided as to whether or not he should have been fired. Often times when something like that happens within an organization, the offender will issue a public apology and maybe be required to some sort of cultural communication or sensitivity classes. However, I believe that it is under the discretion of the CEO to determine the punishment of the offender. If the director were to stay in his position it would send out a message to the public and employees that this type of behavior will be tolerated. This will not do anything positive for the company’s reputation. Therefore, keeping the director would run a potential risk to the company.

This class reminded me of the essay for the PR codes that we wrote last semester. I believe that PR can be ethical, but it depends on the practitioners. A profession cannot be ethical if ethical people are not working. Therefore, it is important for companies to hire individuals who have a good record or train new graduates on what is appropriate and what is not in the PR world. By joining professional organizations such as the Public Relations Society of America and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, it hold members responsible for their actions and creates a unified code of ethics amongst its members.