11. Serving Diverse Communities

There is an oxymoron: minorities are rapidly becoming majority. In today’s society Multiculturalism is no laughing matter. Ppl are proud of who they are and they want others to acknowledge that. Multicult-l diversity is great: immigrants, ppl of colour. Ppl who work in 1 org-n may have different education, may be of diff-t age, gender, race, physical abilities, religious beliefs etc. PR ppl must be sensitive to this reality, their role is to deal effectively with diverse communities. Communicating effectively in light of the m\c-l diversity of society has become an important pr challenge.

Women – becoming the majority, 25% of cities have a maj of african americans, latinos (spanish), Asians, gays and seniors. All these groups want companies to market products esp-lly for them. They seek specialized treatment and targeted communications. Min-s as customers, and min-s as empl – other TA.

Women – glass ceiling syndrome, salary is smaller than men’s; it’s the matter of time. Ppl of color are maj in such cities as Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles. Their socio economic status has improved. They can be reached by theirs special media – Jet, Black enterprise, Daily Defender. Recent years companies pay efforts to learn the family structure, traditions & so on through special events. Special targeted market for minorities – homosexuality.

The future pr is minority-oriented pr. Ethnic audience is too big to be ignored. One more trend is ethnic market – it’s special form of market segmentation. To recognize the lifestyles, attitudes. Companies have to go to market, to audience, not vice versa.

Moreover, necessary to take into account the time which person spent in other culture. He can be colored, but also was born in this country.

Non-profit organizations: serve social, educational, religious and cultural needs of the community around them. PR ppl in non-profit org are involved in the process of fund-raising. The nonprofit sector is characterized by panoply of institutions: hospitals, schools, religious inst-s etc. Nonprofits also seek to broaden volunteer participation in their efforts. Pr prfs at nonprofits in addition to writing speeches, dealing with the mediam com-g with empl & counseling man-t, must be prepared to FR.

FR – need to raise money to support operations. Like other aspects of pr work FR must be accomplished in a planned programmatic way. Identify campaign plans and objs, organize fact finding, recruit leaders, plan and implement strong comm-s activities, review f-r progr as it progresses.

The number of discrete comm-s with which orgs must be concerned will increase. Intelligent org must be responsive to needs of their communities. Mutual trust, underst-g and support.

Nowadays people are forced to do business, to interact with people with whom they are not most comfortable. Unfortunately, there are a lot of stereotypes – for ex, minorities are low qualified. Indeed, it’s not quite so. Anybody should have equal opportunity to be promoted.