As you are aware, I am studying a Masters degree in PR and to be totally honest, I was shocked at the fact that I am the only Asian girl from London who was interested in the PR profession.Due to this very reason, it has inspired me to explore more into this area, and try and establish reasons as to why there is a lack of Asians working in the PR industry.
The PR industry is a public-oriented industry; it therefore, needs to understand the wider community which it intends to serve and in order to do this successfully, it needs to recruit more ethnic minorities.
High-lighted in the CIPR’s diversity policy, only, 8% of the population in the UK is from an ethnic minority. Currently, ethnic minorities, especially British Born South Asians, play an enormously small role in the world of the Public Relations industry. It is evident that the industry has had a very white out-set and in order to advertise itself productively to the wider community, its structure should reflect the UK’s multicultural nature.
What are your thoughts on this and why do you think this is so?
4 comments:
Before I comment on the specifics of under representation it is important to comment on the general perception of PR - what does it really mean?
PRopaganda.
Tell the truth PRovided it is suits the person who pays your salary
But in reality the motto for PR should be “why let a few facts get in the way of a good story!!”
In my opinion Asians on the whole tend to concentrate on being professionals; medicine, law, accountancy, entrepreneurship etc. PR is not really well known outside its own small world and in my view gets hidden under the general “marketing” umbrella.
Call it a myth or misconception PR is perceived to be as “not telling the truth” and generally Asians want to be associated with honesty.
Good luck on being the only Asian in your study group - another good citizen bites the dust!!!
Sincerley, wishing you all the best with your MBA, I hope the PRize at the end is very fruitful.
Kinde
Well thank you for your best wishes!
Coming from an Asian background, i totally agree that Asians focus on being professionals, but what makes you think that PR is not a 'profession'?
I think that the whole issue of Asians NOT working within the PR industry has sparked of many other branches. For example, many people people, like yourself, do not percieve PR as profession,while others may percieve it as a profession and as we all know, this is a whole seperate debate. It would be interesting to see what others think.
Any thoughts?
Pav,
I think this is the main barrier..PR in an Asian community is not seen as being a profession that will give us a higher status. Should this mentality start to die down, we may see a change.
agree with anonymous that PR does not appear to have higher status but this is not the case in the Asian world only. What is "PR" doing to raise awareness of itself??
I would suggest very little and if it is then they need to hire someone to do a better job.
Pav hurry up and get your studies out the way, looks like a job opportunty for you....
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