Diversity and Social Media

Diversity and Social Media

by Kevin Wolfe

After the Web 2.0 Conference in 2005, Anil Dash commented on the lack of diversity in social media. Mashable's Pete Cashmore picked up on this as a discussion point on his site.

Through the comments on the post, it seems as though the social media world at it's roots, the creators and event organizers, are not as diverse and do not come across as accepting as it may seem from the general user's experience.

Marshall Kirkpatrick also wrote about this issue on his blog after reading about it on mashable.com. Kirkpatrick provides some suggestions, such as stepping outside of the normal realm of "A-list" bloggers when considering experts in the field and bringing together the for-profit and not-for-profit organization.

User diversity doesn't seem to be that large of a problem at the user level. The largest barrier to using social media may be the accessibility to the Internet by some lower income people. But all the average citizen needs to become a user of social media is access to the Internet, something that most library systems provide free of service to patrons.

Social media may end up being a great unifier in the common person's ability to create and access media on their own.

Picture from http://mobasoft.com/wordpress/category/social-media/

Ethics and Social Media

Ethics and Social Media

by Kevin Wolfe

Transparency in social media is one of the major areas of ethical concern in the subject.  As more and more companies move to online social media to try to connect with their publics and stakeholders, 

it is even more necessary to increase organizations’ transparency in the online communication.

When organizations ignore transparency in their online communication, it can create a lack 

of trust between the organization and publics. Companies such as Belkin have recently been caught writing fake reviews on amazon.com. Writing fake reviews or overly positive reviews for a company with 

which you have an affiliation, but without acknowledging the connection, is referred to as astroturfing. In Belkin’s case, the company released a statement saying the actions were not in accord with the company’s ethical standards and were being dealt with swiftly. Public relations professionals are taking a stand against astroturfing and the blatant lack of transparency by some organizations.

On the other end of the spectrum, companies such as Starbucks seem to understand the importance of transparency to the point that they list exactly who posts updates on their twitter page. An appropriate use of transparency helps to hold the company accountable to their message and to their relationship with the public.

Picture from http://www.mojaveinteractive.com/think/ethics-in-social-media.html

My Research Topic -- The Future of Public Relations! -- by Christina

When I first began developing my research topics I looked into my future. I thought about what I wanted to do and how I wanted to get there. After much soul searching I knew I did not want to go on to attain my doctorial degree, but rather wanted to go into the practice of public relations, either corporate or agency work. With this decision made, I had to answer the question of how my studies can help me get the job I wanted. My focus turned to what it was I wanted to get out of graduate school and how my studies could help me attain my career goals. I decided the best course of action would be to focus on the future of the public relations industry. One major portion of the future of public relations is the utilization of Web 2.0 tools in the practice of public relations. The industry to catching onto the importance of using Web 2.0, but there is not much scholarly work on the topic. I decided that I wanted to become a pioneer in the study of utilizing social media as a public relations tool that should be implemented into public relations campaigns. Ultimately this is how my research topic was decided. When it is all over, I want to use my newly found expertise in this area as a stepping-stone to the career I choose. Also, I strongly believe that social media is the future of public relations. Becoming an expert in implementing social media tools is something that every public relations practitioner must understand and use sooner than later.
The Public relations industry is beginning to show interest and see the importance of using social media in public relations, hosting multiple conferences to assist practitioners in this new, untraditional form. The academic side, however, has been slower in acceptance and studying about social media use in public relations. Our own Dr. Michael Kent is one of the leading researchers about the importance of using interactivity on Web sites in order to build relationships with publics. Being published in the next Public Relations Review, Dr. Kent conducted a critical analysis of blogging in public relations. Another scholarly article that is a key part of my research topic will be from Trent Seltzer and Michael Mitrook about the dialogic potential in social media for relationship building. Blogging is a key component of social media. Some of the most successful blogs that my research project could potentially study include Southwest Airlines, General Motors, as well as social media experts blog, like that of Giovanni Gallucci’s Blog and The Marketing Blog. The experience with my research topic so far has been wonderful, yet very overwhelming. There are many different opinions out there about what is social media even is, what purpose it serves, and many critics call it a fad. The most difficult part about choosing a research topic so new is that there are very little scholarly reviewed articles about this. Though there has been a lot published in the practitioner and trade journal world, most of it is not based on actual methodological research studies. Taking on a topic like this will be very rewarding and has great potential to be extremely significant to the field of public relations.