Learnings in Ethics and Education

We're almost mid-January, and the end of year break feels like a long time back. Time flies when you're in comms. For this newsletter, I wanted to return to a topic that is fundamental to reputation and trust, that of ethics, as well as pay tribute to the largest education institution for communicators in the Gulf as it goes through some drastic changes.

First, let me return to a topic that I don't particularly enjoy, but which is quite literally the foundation of our industry. Ethics must be the fundamental point for what we do and inform our behaviors and actions. To understand how ethics matters, think of it as the basis for communications, just like the foundations that hold up a building.

The latest story is based on my judging for a regional awards competition. I've been judging awards for a decade, and it's a wonderful way to volunteer your time and experience to help highlight the best work from all over the world. If you want to contribute to the industry and have extensive experience, volunteering to be an awards judge.

This year, I came across something exceptional which I had not seen in over a decade of awards competitions. While judging a specific category, I came across an entry for my own company. Despite it being the first step in any award process, the agency had not reached out to me, the communications owner on the client side, to ask permission to put in the entry. Every reputable awards competition for our industry has a rule requiring agencies to ask their client permission to use the intellectual property of the brand/company.

The agency had neglected to do this (I will not comment on the quality of the submission). To the association's credit, they quickly resolved this and pulled the submission for judging. However, despite reaching out to the regional CEO, and the global CEO, I'm yet to hear back how this happened (update - I have now been contacted by email with an apology, but I'm still none the wiser as to how this was missed, especially as I was in contact with the agency during the submission period). It goes to show that even the world's largest agencies needs an ethics update every now and then; as do we all. And, when it comes to resolving an issue, there's nothing simpler and more worthwhile than actually picking up the phone to sort things out.

Changes at Zayed University's CCMS

Many of us working in the Gulf should be grateful to Zayed University's College of Communications and Media Sciences (CCMS). The institution has graduated thousands of communications professionals, many of whom have gone on to do some remarkable work.

From this year, CCMS will no longer exist. The college's teaching will be integrated into Zayed University's College of Interdisciplinary Studies. Zayed University and the region will also say goodbye to a number of faculty, including Dean Dwight Brooks (pictured above).

The obvious question to ask is how will this impact the number and quality of young communicators in the UAE? Given the growth of the communications function over the past couple of years, especially in the UAE and amongst government-linked institutions that are focused on hiring UAE nationals, what will happen to the pipeline of talent that the University's CCMS graduated annually?

At a time when awareness of the importance of good communications is growing amongst business and government leaders, education must play a pivotal role in equipping young people with the skills they need to help tell the region's story. I very much hope that the entire education sector in the region will step up to grow the capacity for teaching communications, especially for young Gulf nationals. One lesson to learn from this is the need for the industry to speak up, support our ecosystem, and help grow our industry by looking at what we can do to encourage more young people to join the communications industry.

On a personal note, I for one will miss hearing about CCMS, engaging with its students, and talking with faculty. I am grateful to all the CCMS staff, who are exceptional teachers, researchers and communicators. Our loss will be the gain of others. Thank you everyone at CCMS for all you have done for our industry.