African-American students’ perceptions of public relations educationand practice

Public Relations Review 37 (2011) 522–529

Contents lists available at SciVerse ScienceDirect

Public Relations Review

African-American students’ perceptions of public relations education

and practice: Implications for minority recruitment

Kenon A. Browna,∗, Candace White b, Damion Waymer c

a Department of Advertising and Public Relations, The University of Alabama, 402D Reese Phifer Hall, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, United States b School of Advertising and Public Relations, The University of Tennessee, United States c Department of Communication, Virginia Tech, United States

a r t i c l e i n f o

Keywords:

Minority recruitment

Perceptions of public relations

Diversity in public relations

a b s t r a c t

In-depth interviews were conducted with African-American public relations students to

explore their perceptions of public relations and the role race may play in their career

success. The motivations for pursuing public relations and perceptions of the field are not

different than those of other groups of students found in previous studies. However, the

findings provide insights that are helpful in recruiting African-American students, and also

in retaining them in the major. Central themes that emerged from the data are that it is

important to have African-American role models, and that students’ view race as a fact of

life that can be both a barrier and an asset.

© 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction and review of literature

Diversity in a workforce provides multiple vantage points through which new ways of thinking about problems, ideas,

products, and markets can develop. Diverse points of view promote innovation and creativity that can improve organizational

effectiveness by generating a greater number of possible solutions and ideas (Pellet, 2004). Business Planning and Research

International (BPRI), in a survey about diversity in the public relations field, found 90 percent of senior communications

managers felt that the industry needs improvement in minority representation at all levels (BPRI, 2005). The first step to

increase diversity in a profession is to increase diversity in the college major that is a path to the field. This study provides

insights to recruit and retain African-American students in the academic discipline of public relations. The findings provide

insights that would be useful for recruiting other minority groups as well, and could be used to attract minority students to

a variety of majors.

Communication, journalism, and related academic programs currently are popular majors on college campuses across the

U.S. According to the U.S. Department of Education Institution of Education Sciences’ 1971 (year of inception) through 2009

data, only computer science and information degrees have grown at a percentage rate larger (an increase of more than 1600

percent since 1971) than communication related disciplines, which increased more than 700 percent since 1971. Academic

administrators find communication majors such as public relations advantageous because they attract many students and

cost less per student than some other disciplines. Therefore, it is important to explore the reasons majors such as public

relations are so popular with students, as well as explore students’ perceptions about the field.

Many colleges and universities have goals to increase diversity among students in all majors. While scholars have begun

to explore student perceptions of the field of public relations (Bowen, 2009), this research is still sparse. Moreover, no

research to date has attempted to look at the specific motivations for minority students to choose public relations as a

∗ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 865 243 5617.

E-mail address: [email protected] (K.A. Brown).

0363-8111/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2011.09.017