Is using social media “good” for the public relations profession? A critical reflection

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2014.11.009Get rights and content

Highlights

  • The paper presents a critical reflection of existing social media studies.

  • It questions the utility of social media for publics, organizations and PR.

  • It examines how using social media affects interpersonal relations and communications.

  • It highlights the limits of social media research in public relations.

  • It provides a ground for why public relations’ discourse about social media is highly positive.

Abstract

Scholarship in public relations seems to be overly positive about social media. The dominant discourse in public relations is that using social media is “good”, because social media can help organizations in developing dialogs and relationships with publics and in engaging with them. Yet empirical evidence in public relations is mostly case-dependent and limited to the realm of understanding current organizational practices, with limited understanding of the concrete value for organizations or for publics. In this paper I question the utility of social media for publics, organizations and public relations, and I argue that the positive view of social media held by the majority of public relations scholars is grounded on the profession's need to reconcile the two sides of public relations identity—the rhetorical and the relational. A discussion of whether current public relations practices in social media reflect these two main identities is offered, as well as a discussion of the implications of uncritical use of social media for the public relations profession.

Introduction

There is a commonly accepted assumption that the information and communication technologies (ICTs) that have emerged in the past twenty years have contributed to the development of societies (Castells, 1996, Castells, 2004). These technologies have been welcomed for their interactive and dialogic nature and for the possibilities they seem to offer for connecting people to one another (Benkler, 2007, Lessig, 2004). Judging by the volume of publications devoted to research in this field, the literature across the various communication disciplines, including public relations, tends to be rather enthusiastic about digital technologies (van Osch & Coursaris, 2014). Social media in particular are considered to be fast, cheap and interactive channels for reaching targeted audiences. In public relations, social media—those conversational platforms that allow for asynchronic conversations and the sharing of user-generated material using the Web 2.0 environment (Valentini & Kruckeberg, 2012)—have been warmly welcomed because they make it possible to communicate directly with public groups, bypassing the filtering processes of journalists and other gatekeepers (Kent, 2013).

Along with the increasing professional use, scholarly interest in social media has also grown exponentially in the past ten years (Ye & Ki, 2012). Yet public relations research seems—with the exception of a few scholars (c.f. Kent, 2008, Kent, 2013, Kent, 2014, Valentini and Kruckeberg, 2015)—to be rather dominated by a positive assessment of social media use in and for public relations. A number of merits and opportunities in the use of social media for public relations have been asserted, yet the empirical evidence is mostly case-dependent and limited to the realm of understanding current practice. So why is public relations research so enthusiastic about social media? Does the prominence of social media really offer concrete benefits to the public relations profession as well as the organizations and publics that it serves? To answer these questions, this paper explores three major themes: (1) the perceived value of social media for public relations; (2) the alleged benefits of social media for publics and for organizations; and (3) the possible implications of current social media use for public relations.

The subject is approached through critical analysis of the existing studies in the field, accompanied by examples of uses, misuses and abuses of digital technologies. The overarching argument proposed in the paper is that digital technologies and specifically social media do not always represent opportunities for individuals and organizations, but can sometimes pose risks and contribute to failures in social relations. The argument is built upon existing research on the use of social media by publics and organizations. If the public relations function is to serve both organizations and publics, and if public relations scholarship is to “become even more intellectually expansive” (Heath, 2006, p. 95), social media should not be embraced uncritically. In what follows, I have tried to emphasize that the use of social media, though relevant, may be problematic, and that rather than being “good” or “bad” in themselves, it is their use and the purpose of their use that connotes social media as positive, negative or simply neutral. Based on this discussion, I provide a different explanation for the positivist view of social media held by a large group of public relations scholars—an explanation grounded on the profession's need to reconcile two different sides of the public relations identity, the rhetorical and the relational. I then conclude with a discussion of whether current public relations practice in social media reflects these two main identities, and of the implications of an uncritical use of social media for the public relations profession.

Section snippets

“Using social media is good” as the dominant public relations discourse

Among the various digital technologies, social media have gained a particular relevance in the field of public relations as the “new” channels, not only for communicating to and with publics and stakeholders, but for nourishing relationships with them (Verhoeven, Tench, Zerfass, Moreno, & Verčič, 2012). At a time of professional identity crisis (Edwards, 2012, Smith, 2012), the advent of social media was warmly welcomed by the profession. Solis and Breakenridge (2009) are among those public

The impact of digital technologies and social media on publics

Digital technologies, social media and the Internet environment in general have been praised for their democratizing influence in society, which seemingly allows anyone to participate and freely contribute to the online environment. This influence is seen as driving new social and cultural transformations. These technologies can also enhance learning and knowledge-sharing at very low cost. By extending public services such as e-voting, e-medicine, or e-courses to dispersed, low-density areas,

Organizations’ use of social media and the public relations role

Two billion people (1.97 billion) are currently active in social media, a figure that is expected to reach 2.55 billion by 2017 (eMarketer, 2013, June 18). People are turning to social media in search of entertainment, information, social contact, and social status (Avidar et al., 2013, Lee and Ma, 2012). Content is a central element of social media existence, as it is of individuals’ decisions to join or follow a social network site. In the last five years, content production in social media

Reconciling public relations functions via social media use

As previously discussed, using social media and other technologies from a public perspective can provide opportunities, as advocated by technological–determinist scholars (for example Benkler, 2007, Castells, 1996, Castells, 2004, Lessig, 2004) but there are also risks in using social media, and these relate to dysfunctional alterations of human relations and of how social relations form (Formenti, 2011, Harkaway, 2012, Turkle, 2011, van Dijck, 2013). Accompanying increased social media use

Conclusions

This article began by questioning the usefulness of social media for publics, for organizations, and for public relations. Public relations scholarship seems to be overly positive on the subject of social media. The dominant discourse in public relations is that “using social media is good” because social media help organizations to develop dialogs and relationships with publics and thereby to engage them. Yet social media were created to enhance social capital, and to enable more human

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