Ethical Practice of Social Media in Public Relations [Hardcover]

Given the high rate of social media use by the public, organizations are compelled to engage with key audiences through these outlets. Social media engagement requires organizations to actively participate with public groups, and this highly-interactive exchange raises a new set of ethical concerns for communicators. In this rapidly changing communications environment, the long-term implications of social media are uncertain, and this book provides the much needed research to understand its impact on audiences and organizations.

Through an examination of a broad range of ethics concepts including transparency and online identities, policies, corporate responsibility, and measurement, this book explores a variety of topics important to public relations such as diversity, non-profit communication, health communication, financial communication, public affairs, entertainment communication, environmental communication, crisis communication, and non-profit communication. The chapter authors, expert scholars within their fields of public relations, offer insights drawn from original research and case study examples of ethical dilemmas raised by social media communication.

Foreword: Social Media is Lost without a Social Compass Brian Solis  Introduction Marcia W. DiStaso and Denise Sevick Bortree  Part I: Transparency and Online Identities  1. Openness and Disclosure in Social Media Efforts: A Frank Discussion with Fortune 500 and Philanthropy 400 Communication Leaders Richard D. Waters  2. Considerations Regarding Ghost Blogging and Ghost Commenting Tiffany Derville Gallicano, Thomas H. Bivins, and Yoon Y. Cho  3. Bank of Americas Facebook Engagement Challenges its Claims of High Ethical Standardló;