Social media principles in PR education

Okay, so I thought I had this all figured out, until the contrarian caught me in a contradiction. In my post about social media and PR curriculum, I argued that we should incorporate the principles of social media into our teaching, suggesting that they are different. Then, in my response to Bill Sledzik's comment, I argued that the principles, like collaboration. are not actually different. Huh?

I defend myself by pointing out that I did say it was a work in progress.

Here are the five principles I had identified as present in social media:

• Collaboration: harnessing collective intelligence
• Narrative: characterized by transmedia storytelling (term borrowed from Henry Jenkins, Convergence Culture) 
• Entrepreneurship: seeing a problem, taking risks to try something new to solve it
• Identity production: of individuals, of brands, of organizations
• Culture: online culture as well as cross-cultural communication, necessitated by global nature of online communication 

(There are undoubtedly others; these were just a few I thought of in preparation for the summit.)

In looking over my list again, I think these are all present in traditional PR as well as online PR, but I think they are enacted differently online, and that by moving online their implications are sometimes different. So I retract my statement that they're the different and replace it with something weasel-ish like "they're the same and different."

I want to again emphasize that teaching these principles is more important than teaching tools. Teaching blogging or podcasting is like teaching typing or grammar rather than writing. Having said that, we all recognize that we do have to teach grammar and spelling at times -- but we do so toward a larger purpose, like writing strategically -- and teaching blogging or podcasting should be done in the same spirit. Within a few years we'll have a different kind of Web so the tools will be irrelevant anyway. The principles stand a better chance of lasting.

OK, feedback time. Agree or disagree with the principles I've outlined? More to add? My next post will discuss ways the principles can be taught, providing examples of assignments and/or student work when possible, but I'd like your thoughts before I move ahead. Just in case a helpful contrarian spies a flaw in my logic.

Comments

[Melanie James]

I agree wholeheartedly with your take on this. Teaching principles that can be applied as technologies change is paramount - those of us who went to university a decade or two ago haven't all curled up in fright with the advent of new technologies. We've worked to apply principles and worked to undertake quality research into what these changes bring for theory and practice. That being said, I think social media challenges many functionalist tenets of PR - the magic bullet might have received a fatal shot as we now seem to have little choice but to fully embrace cocreational approaches. I think the rhizome analogy may have lot of potential for concpetualizing strategic communication in a social media environment. This may require significant change in thinking, not least of all by those organisations commissioning public relations services. Thanks for the opportunity to comment. Melanie

[Karen Russell]

Melanie, welcome and thanks for your thoughts. I'll move ahead with my principles post one of these days. : )