The impact of diversity on university and professional education curricula
By John Paluszek
Senior Counsel, Ketchum
2nd World Public Relations Festival
Trieste, Italy
June 30, 2005
I must begin with a caveat:
My comments may appear to be somewhat askew from those of my colleagues on this panel. That’s partly because I am what some Americans call “a cockeyed optimist” – which means that despite sometimes formidable discouraging evidence, I often see the proverbial glass as more than half-full.
So, as you may have noted in the program materials, my point of departure in these remarks is that “on both pragmatic and moral levels, we (in the public relations profession) are ‘out of the starting gate’ on diversity.”
Oddly enough, this optimism may be because I am of “a certain age”— an age that admittedly can generate skepticism but, more important, can also produce a long-range perspective.
You may also have noticed in the program that I’ve titled this commentary, “The Music of Ideas” – meaning that there is beauty in the mind’s ability to solve problems. Einstein saw it in the elegance of a perfect equation, Picasso in the presentation of a subject’s essence on canvas.
Being of a more simple turn of mind, I found what might be an appropriate expression of the “Music of Ideas” for this occasion when I recently heard my three-year-old granddaughter, Michaela, happily chanting a line from a current nursery rhyme.
“The more we get together, the happier we’ll be.”
My purpose today, in the next few minutes, is to support the position that there are many promising public relations diversity initiatives that, if developed and shared globally, will provide the energy and stamina to move our profession – and, maybe, even the world – forward.
It seems to me that there is an “alpha and omega” to this discussion – the “alpha” being encouragement from some of the world’s great thinkers and the “omega” being the very practical (as they now say, “on the ground”) initiatives that move the needle forward.
So the “cockeyed optimist” in me first recalls author Robert Wright in his epic volume on human progress, Nonzero. Wright tells us that over many centuries “the upward arrow of human history,” despite many tragic setbacks, has made the coming of today’s interdependent global society not quite inevitable, perhaps, but “so probable as to inspire wonder.”
And to dwell for just another moment in the metaphysical before plunging into day-to-day realities on public relations education, we may also benefit from the companion thought of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, who marveled at “that infinitely slow and spasmodic movement towards the unity of mankind.”
But we’ve assembled here at the World Public Relations Festival to reflect on more tangible evidence of progress on diversity. So let me present a few such tangibles.
Although the first set of these offerings deal primarily with public relations education in the United States, perhaps you will take away a few ideas relevant to such education in your own countries.
First, on diversity in the accrediting of universities teaching public relations, journalism and mass communications: This is the responsibility of a national accrediting council that regularly reviews about 160 such institutions.
On diversity, here there is good news and bad news. The good news is that diversity is one of the most demanding of the nine criteria for accreditation. The diversity standard states that “units should demonstrate a commitment to increased diversity and inclusiveness in student populations and faculties, and to the creation of a learning environment that exposes students to a broad spectrum of voices and views.” The bad news is that although there is much progress on this accreditation standard, too many universities, try as they may, are still found to be out of compliance.
However, a second tangible: The accrediting council recently published an 80-page report, “Diversity: Best Practices,” which highlights initiatives in the curriculum, faculty, student body and learning environment. The rationale for the report is this: “As American society diversifies, so must those who bind it together by informing, persuading … transmitting and interpreting culture.”
A third “tangible” here is the undergraduate and graduate curriculum recommendations for the 260 colleges and universities in the United States who teach public relations sequences and have chapters of the Public Relations Student Society of America.
This is report is called “The Port of Entry” and it is the product of the Commission on Public Relations Education, a cooperative of 11 professional communications societies. We have just begun the complex process of preparing a new edition, scheduled for October 2006. For the first time, the Commission will make recommendations on diversity.
And on global diversity, we also intend to expand substantially a section in the current report called ”Global Implications.” That section currently states: “The Commission’s members were principally associated with USA-based institutions and, given the range of factors that can affect higher education in public relations, the Commission did not want to presume to make recommendations for other nations and other cultures. However, the Commission did want educators and practitioners in other countries to adapt or adopt the recommendations if they so choose.”
The next Commission report will be decidedly more global – not in any presumptive, prescriptive manner but with sensitivity to the rapid growth of public relations around the world and, of course, sensitivity to the increasing interdependence of our world. But the report will also reflect the thought that the core universals of public relations are protean, adaptable to many different political, social and economic environments.
We’re delighted that Jean Valin, the current Chair of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communications Management – which, under the direction of our moderator this afternoon, Professor Anne Gregory, is itself beginning to examine public relations standards around the world -- that Jean has taken a seat at the Commission table.
And, not incidentally, since it goes to the title of this panel session, the next Commission report will also have a section on long-term practitioner professional development.
Yesterday, Judith Phair, the 2005 President of the Public Relations Society of America, reported to this conference on how PRSA’s diversity initiative is promoting the value of diversity throughout the American public relations community. So I’ll not revisit that subject – except to remind you that the society will hold a special conference in Washington, D.C., on July 19 called “Strategies to Achieve Minority Diversity in Public Relations.” Incidentally, we are also greatly encouraged by the dedication of our student society to diversity. The Public Relations Student Society of America recently drafted its own diversity initiative to function in concert with PRSA’s effort.
That’s my story on the glass being more than half-full on diversity. For the few minutes remaining, let’s examine how, in the years immediately ahead, we might try to fill the “diversity glass” to its brim through public relations education.
The timing is propitious as the leaders of the G- 8 nations prepare to meet in Scotland to address the challenges of diversity in terms of the north-south, or developed-vs.-under-developed nations divide. They’ll be addressing debt relief, increased foreign aid and renewed energy in support of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals on poverty, education, disease and water availability in the developing world. All topics important to our topic today – advancing public relations in a diverse world.
I believe that this objective requires cross-disciplinary education – an exposure of public relations students to the development of an interdependent world, past and future. Globalization is both old and new, it generates pain and gain and it produces winners and losers. These outcomes threaten harmony and require that the next generation of public relations students understand how our profession fits into this global maelstrom. The answer – applying two-way communications to build and maintain reciprocal relationships – is easy to state, hard to achieve.
Achievement, I believe, has to start with an appreciation of how complex the mission can sometimes be.
The late Daniel Patrick Moynihan provided us with some valuable insights. In his 1993 book, Pandemonium, he warned prophetically of “ the typical war of the future” – i.e., “one waged between different tribes, harboring centuries-old grudges about language, religion and territory and provoking bitterness for generations to come.”
Do practitioners, educators and students fully realize the paradox of creating an interdependent world when that world continues to fractionate? During the 20th century the number of nation states grew from 50 to 200. And what is the criterion for a “people” or a “state”? If it’s language, we have much work to do because, as Moynihan has pointed out, the world now has some 6,000 discernible languages.
Can we educate our students to be conciliators in this kind of world? Challenging as that task will be, my natural optimism was stimulated by recent international travel that leads me to believe that public relations universals can, indeed, be adapted to various political, social and economic systems and can therefore help build the kind of bridges that the world needs now.
On a trip to Buenos Aires, I visited the Universidad Argentina De La Empressa and became convinced that its teaching regimen qualified for PRSA Certification. And with PRSA leaders this spring, we visited six universities in China where public relations is being taught to eager, motivated students; PRSA may soon facilitate a cooperative relationship between Fudan University in Shanghai and an American university.
These initiatives are, or course, related to the foundation for global public relations education that have resulted, in large part, from those pioneering educators who for several years have undertaken temporary assignments in diverse foreign countries to introduce or advance the principles of public relations education.
In all of this – in all of this attention to public relations education in a diverse world – I believe that we can find guidance and encouragement in a sentiment expressed by John F. Kennedy:
“Let us not be blind to our differences – but let us also direct attention to our common interest and the means by which those differences can be resolved.
“And if we cannot end now our differences, at least we can help make the world safe for diversity.”
Thank you.
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