Friday, September 17, 2010

Opening Doors: Developing Diverse Audiences

With the start of Hispanic Heritage Month September 15th, it is a good time to think about how much the country's population is changing and how these changes will impact the practice of public relations. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the racial minority population of the United States is expected to exceed fifty percent by the year 2050. Today Hispanic's constitute 16% of the nation's population with a count of 48.4 million and an additional 4 million residents of Puerto Rico, making people of Hispanic origin the nation's largest ethnic minority. In order for today's organizations to remain relevant to this changing cultural mosaic, it is important that public relations professionals adapt their programs to ensure that they reflect the cultural interests of everyone.

A most recent example of programming that reflects the interests of a large multi-cultural population, was the opening of an exhibition at El Museo del Barrio, entitled Nueva York(1613-1945) which opened September 16th. This is the first exhibition to explore how New York's long and deep involvement with Spain and Latin America has affected virtually every aspect of the city's development, from commerce, manufacturing and transportation to communications, entertainment and the arts.  Check out the review of the exhibition in the New York Times.

Stay tuned for more on developing diverse audiences in my upcoming article in PRSA's Tactics.

1 comment:

  1. I agree the country's population is everchanging and because of that it is important that the U.S. accomodates and makes those that are not from the United States feel welcome.

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