By Layan Damanhouri
IN many organizations, the public relations department is misunderstood in its actual responsibilities and duties. One challenge among many that public relations officers face is their work may be underappreciated in their own organizations due to lack of clarity of their job descriptions and leadership of organizations are not fully convinced of the importance of PR.
This was disclosed at the first professional meeting held by the International Public Relations Association (IPRA) Gulf Chapter in Jeddah this week. The association, an offshoot of an international network of public relations professionals, serves to improve the PR industry in the world with a representative body in each region.
Based in the United Kingdom since 1955, the non-profit IPRA has over 100 member countries. “Our goals are to increase awareness of public relations among organizations as well as the community, raise the professional standards of the field, and provide services and information to our members,” said Firas Al-Maddah, vice president of the IPRA-GC chapter in the Western region addressing an audience of invited colleagues.
Professionals in public relations are facing a major problem in their own public relations, which might seem puzzling at firsthand, but shows to be a long-term setback faced by employees in the sector.
“It’s an identity crisis,” exclaims invited guest speaker and PR expert Taiseer Al-Mufarrij. “We didn’t work on our own public relations. As a result, the PR industry is unacknowledged and undermined.”
Challenges discussed include the digitalization of the industry, legal issues, and communication obstacles, among others. “The main challenge for Saudis is for them to understand the power of public relations,” Al-Maddah told Saudi Gazette.
Asked about the future of such a network, he said: “It will help increase the knowledge, enhance the professionalism and understanding of PR and its role in changing the image of the organization from within the organization towards its audience.
“At the end of the day, public relations is your image towards a certain audience. We will have more events with speakers crossing different topics such as social media, human resources, the image of an organization, etc. This will always help the people to have a better understanding of the industry.”
PR employees were urged to mobilize and act proactively in their own organizations, offering various solutions to working effectively in PR departments that will reflect in the overall quality of an organization.
Concerns in the public relations sector in the Kingdom were further reviewed in an open discussion by public relations officers from various divisions of both public and private sector working in the Western region.
The association plans to hold monthly meetings to build a network of members from the Western region. IPRA represents individual professionals rather than agencies or companies. The meetings will rotate within the Western region in Tabuk, Abha, Jazan, and Makkah.
