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. Brown a,* , 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: kenonabrown@gmail.com (K.A. Brown). 0363-8111/$ – see front matter © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2011.09.017