Editorial
Welcome to this special issue of Public Communication Review themed ‘Social Media – Social Organisations – Social Interests’.
Much has been said and written about the digital (r)evolution and the transition from Web 1.0 to Web 2.0, particularly the rise of what are widely termed social media. Looking beyond technological determinism and technological transformism that inevitably accompany such developments, scholars are increasingly focussing on the ‘sociology of technology’ – the social changes that both influence and arise from such developments, as well as changes in the practices of media and communication that occur.
This issue was created to particularly explore notions of the ‘social organisation’, a concept advanced by Gartner and other business consulting firms which suggest that organisations are becoming more open, interactive, dialogic and responsive to their stakeholders and publics through use of social media. In turn, this suggest that social media and social organisations are more openly recognising and reflecting social interests – rather than being organisation-centric focussed on achievement of their own ‘strategic’ objectives.
The potentiality of social media, reflected in discourses of media democratisation, prosumerism, and the global public sphere is much celebrated. Social media ostensibly afford two-way dialogic communication, opportunities for user-generated content, networking and even ‘communication without borders’, according to some papers presented at the 2012 World Public Relations Forum held in Melbourne in the same month as this issue. But what of the reality?
Accepting that social media are now recognised as part of the media environment and the public sphere and need no introduction, this issue focuses particularly on the two perspectives that are highlighted in the theme: how organisations are using and being affected by social media, on one hand, and how social interests are being served through social media – or not – on the other.
The new communication environment offers many opportunities for organisations. One is the ability to extend word of mouth communication to what some refer to as ‘word of mouse’ or, more formally, eWOM. Through the internet, the face-to-face limitation of word of mouth is removed and messages that once reached a few can reach millions through social media such as Twitter, causing some to refer to eWOM as word of mouth on steroids. The potential for social media to create and extend positive and negative word of mouth messages, which in turn effect corporate reputation, is explored by Martin Williams, Francis Buttler and Sergio Biggemann in their article ‘Relating word-of-mouth to corporate reputation’.
Nevertheless, social media bring challenges to organisations to which they need to adapt, such as expectation of faster response, a breakdown of communication ‘control’ through single authorised spokespersons and PR departments and a shift to widespread online discussion by employees, resulting in calls for governance, as discussed by Anne Linke and Ansgar Zerfass in their examination of current practices among organisations and future trends in Europe. Also, we are pleased to present a review by Suresh Sood of Brian Solis’ new book, The End of Business as Usual. This reflects on changes taking place, the principles of social media communication and how these challenge organisation-centred thinking and traditional public communication practices.
On the other side, three articles explore social interests and how these are being served through social media – if indeed they are. Ann Louise de la Poype and Suresh Sood examine the role and uses of social media in the public sphere through the example of the nuclear debate in Post-Fukushima France in their article ‘Public sphere dialogue in online newspapers and social spaces’. From a political communication perspective, Marie Grussel and Lars Nord analyse the use of social media for national elections in Sweden in their article ‘Three attitudes to 140 characters’. These contributions to discussion reflect on whether social media enhance the public sphere and afford citizen voice, or whether it is ‘business as usual’.
A further valuable perspective challenges the persistent myth that social media are only for the young. Beyond the world of ‘digital natives’, Daniel Schultheiss examines how ‘silver gamers’ – elderly people – turn to online games for entertainment, stimulation and social interaction – in his article, ‘Entertainment for retirement’. The use of online games by the elderly and their entertainment functions are not trivial. Some health experts suggest that interactive social media and online games can provide stimulation that slows down dementia and other age-related illnesses, as well as providing pleasurable activities for an increasing segment of the population in many societies.
We thank the contributing authors and reviewers for their support in producing this special issue and we encourage all scholars in the public communication field to consider Public Communication Review in 2013.
Anne Linke, Guest Editor, University of Leipzig, Germany
Jim Macnamara, Editor, University of Technology, Sydney
Employee dissent on social media and organizational discipline