PR and Diversity?

How to enhance communications skills in the increasingly diverse UK?

Guest speaker Zena Martin from Acknowledge Communications gave us a lively presentation about this.

It is quite interesting that hear an opinion from a PR practitioner who used to work in the US before moving to London.

Zena Marti addressed the difference of multi-cultural communication practice between US and the UK.

It was inspiring to have this international approach in PR context and heard many benefits of join a diverse PR agency.

It is more stimulating that when I read Colin Byrne's article in PRWeek, Industry needs to reflect social diversity , which pointed out another interesting topic: PR industry’s diversity.

He mentioned that

Of the 113 photographs of British PR professionals featured, 112 were white. Just one was black or Asian.

To put this into perspective, of the 400 applicants to Weber Shandwick’s annual trainee recruitment programme, 80 % were white, 9% were Asian and only 4 % were black.

It was also mentioned that “this is hardly representative of our multicultural society” and suggested that “a bit more diversity in terms of race and social background would be healthy for an industry now at the heart of consumer, media and social change”.

Artists & Diversity_Sources:Deepindub.org http://www.deepindub.org/promomix001-diversity/

I have a mixed feeling about this, since I previously mentioned in my blog entry Three views on Feminisation of PR and its consequences that I was told that if we look at the PR industry in the UK as a person, it would be a pretty young blond white woman.

How hard could it be to enter the UK PR industry and make it more diverse? One of the reasons that I love London is that it is a city with cultural diversity. Hopefully the industry won’t disappoint too much.

Reference: Colin Byrne: Industry needs to reflect social diversity , PRWeek 06-Mar-08