台灣社交媒體對資淺公關人員工作經驗的影響 - 政大學術集成

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(1)1 國立政治大學國際傳播英語碩士學位學程 International Master’s Program in International Communication Studies College of Communication National Chengchi University. 碩士論文 Master’s Thesis. 政治大台灣社交媒體對資淺公關人員工作經驗的影響立. 學. ‧ 國. Social Media’s Impact on the Job Experience of Junior Public Relations Practitioners in Taiwan. ‧ sit. y. Nat. n. al. i n U. Advisor: Professor Yi-Ning Chen. Ch. engchi. 中華民國104年7月 July 2015. er. io. Student: Jonathan David Haynes 徐強. v.

(2) 2. Abstract. This qualitative study, using an in-depth interview design, utilises the theoretical framework of public relations role theory and pigeonholing to assess the impact social media is having on junior Taiwanese public relations practitioners job experience. All interviews were conducted in Taipei, Taiwan during the winter/spring of 2015 with participants from in-house. 政治大 Fashion. The major findings of this research found evidence to support the notion that social 立 and agency environments, from a mix of industry focuses including: FMCG, Technology &. ‧ 國. 學. media, in terms of role theory, is largely managerial in nature, as opposed to technical, exemplified through participants reporting an emphasis in undertaking strategic, decision-making. ‧. tasks with large amounts of autonomy over their job role. This study was also further concerned. Nat. sit. y. with the phenomenon of pigeonholing of digital natives into social media positions, and this. n. al. er. io. study found that, although younger practitioners are the ones involved in social media, the. i n U. v. negative consequences associated with pigeonholing, such as an emphasis on undertaking. Ch. engchi. technician tasks, leading to slow career progression and low job satisfaction were not replicated for those working in social media roles. Therefore, this study is also evidence to support the notion that social media is not pigeonholing digital natives in their social media roles. Keywords: Social media, pigeonholing, role theory, Taiwan. 2.

(3) 3. Contents Abstract………………………………………………………………………….....2 Introduction…………………………………………………………………..........5 Literature Review………………………………………………………………….7 - Public Relations………………………………………………………………….....6 - Public Relations Roles……………………………………………………………...7. 政治大 - Social Media and Public Relations……………………………………………….. 10 立 - Social Media………………………………………………………………………..9. ‧ 國. 學. - Digitalisation of PR: The Debate & State of the Industry 2015………………….. 10 - Social Media and Public Relations Roles………………………………………… 16. ‧. - Task Enactment & Purporter of Task Discrepancies……………………………....17. Nat. sit. y. - Managerial Roles as a Benchmark for Success……………………………………18. n. al. er. io. - Public Relations Roles & Pigeonholing……………………………………………18. i n U. v. - The Femenization & De-Femenization of PR……………………………………...20. Ch. engchi. - The Pigeonholing of Digital Natives into Social Media Roles…………………….21 - The Consequences of Pigeonholing Digital Natives on Digital Immigrants………22 - Mentorship in Public Relations………………………………………………….....24 - Reverse Mentorship………………………………………………………………...25 Research Questions………………………………………………………………....26 Methodology………………………………………………………………………..26 - Paradigms and Qualitative Methods………………………………………………..29 3.

(4) 4. - Sampling…………………………………………………………………………..28 - Data Collection…………………………………………………………………....29 - Data Analysis……………………………………………………………………...31 - Interview Guide…………………………………………………………………...31 Findings & Discussion…………………………………………………………….32 References…………………………………………………………………………59. 政治大 Appendices II……………………………………………………………………..60 立. Appendices I……………………………………………………………………....59. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. n. er. io. sit. y. Nat. al. Ch. engchi. 4. i n U. v.

(5) 5. Introduction. Social media has revitalized debate in the public relations industry, both in terms of practice and academic works. One popular school of thought hail that it has completely changed the way brands communicate with their audiences, citing that we live in a public relations revolution, an industry that was once viewed with scorn, and pessimism is, through social media,. 治政 taking great strides in becoming transparent, ethical, global and 大multi-dialogical - realising 立 Grunig's excellence theory.. ‧ 國. 學. Commentators routinely suggest social media has given so-called digital natives, that is,. ‧. those junior practitioners and even interns currently entering the workforce the power to gain. sit. y. Nat. huge social capital and managerial experience early in their careers through the ability to offer. n. al. er. io. developments such as reverse-mentorship. However, others question if this actually is the reality,. i n U. v. or a dangerous over-emphasis that may be pigeonholing new practitioners into becoming. Ch. engchi. unbalanced and disproportionately versed in the social media side of public relations, as opposed to what they call, a well-rounded practitioner, who is someone versed in media relations and social media, and how this has implications for their long-term career goals. In terms of role theory, this study is an empirical approach that also looks at how social media has impacted whether junior practitioners are performing managerial and/or technicians roles. Though the majority of earlier literature supports the perceived merits of striving for more managerial roles, new evidence has found that the typically perceived lesser prestigious role of. 5.

(6) 6. technician may be more beneficial for practitioners development when undertaking social media tasks. This study is a holistic approach, aiming to garner insights into the overall job experience. This study will add well-needed literature for questions such as: 1) How young practitioners get involved in the social media and digital side of public relations. 2) The role of social media, as defined by role theory. 3) Underpinned by excellence theory and role theory and the big social. 政治大 social media output - that is, is it really dialogical, global and two-way symmetrical, or otherwise. 立 media debate currently raging, this study will investigate how junior practitioners feel about their. ‧ 國. 學. Finally, this study will not only investigate the specific tasks junior practitioners are performing on social media, whether it is technical and/or managerial, but also the applications. ‧. they use, and whether they are also technical (Google+) or managerial (Google Analytics) in. Nat. sit. y. nature. This study aims to strike a balance between the possible negative impacts social media. n. al. er. io. may have, such as pigeonholing, with the possible positive impacts social media expertise may. i n U. v. bring to the practitioner, such as reverse-mentoring. Though extremely focused in design, the. Ch. engchi. keyword for this research is 'experience' and as such, findings hope to be be plentiful and broad as opposed to narrow - as the current literature is extremely thin, to which other research can refine. This research also hopes to bring fresh implications to PR education, PR theory, and PR practice.. 6.

(7) 7. Literature Review Public Relations Kotler et al (2002) define PR as activities committed to building strong relations with the varying publics a company has identified. The CIPR, the professional body for PR in the United Kingdom, defines PR as "Public relations is about reputation - the result of what you do, what you say and what others say about you... It is the planned and sustained effort to establish and. 政治大 definitions of public relations are ever the same, it is an industry rich in debate, and rich in the 立 maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics'. No two. ‧ 國. 學. diverse way it is practiced, and perceived. Over the decades, the industry has grown exponentially. Naturally then, it is no surprise that there have been giant leaps in the academic. ‧. interest and body of literature for public relations.. n. al. er. io. sit. y. Nat. Public Relations Roles. i n U. v. Academic interest in PR roles began in the 1970s, led by scholars such as Grunig, Dozier. Ch. engchi. & Broom. Conceptually a role can be seen as “the expected behavior associated with a social position” (Banton, 1996). Broom has fostered the debate about roles in public relations practice, being abstractions of the everyday activities of public relations practitioners (Broom, 1982; Broom & Smith, 1979) Broom and Smith (1979) identified four dominant roles: the expert prescriber, the communication facilitator, the problem-solving process facilitator and the communication technician. In their research, it was found that the first three roles were highly correlated, sharing traits found in managerial roles. Supporting this, Dozier (1984) also found 7.

(8) 8. two major roles, the manager and technician, leading Dozier (1992) to argue that “the manager and technician roles emerge empirically time and again in studies of different practitioners”. The prominent role theorist, Broom (2009) asserts that the role of the technicians are roles and tasks that are to do with the production and spreading and distribution of messages under the influence of those in managerial roles. As such then, the identified role of the managers are those practitioners who are part of the decision-making (Dozier, 1992).. 政治大 success (Dozier, 1984). However, Nothaft (2010) in studies conducted by shadowing 立. Managers also use research to inform their strategies (Dozier, 1985) and evaluate their. ‧ 國. 學. communication executives in German companies, found that the all encompassing role of 'manager' is not that simple. He further that there is a major distinction between what he calls. ‧. first order management and second order management. First order management refers more to a. Nat. sit. y. non-manager's ability to influence the outcome of tasks, as opposed to second order management,. n. al. er. io. which is the traditional notion of a hierarchy of a manager managing people. Furthermore,. i n U. technology has been identified as a factor that can influence role.. Ch. engchi. v. However, Dozier (1989) found that technicians and managers benefit more depending on the affordances of the specific technology. Dozier (1989) also argued that such technologies tools that are only useful in improving communication are more beneficial to technicians, while tools that improve research capabilities are more beneficial to those in managerial roles. For example, in terms of social media, Google+, a site to distribute messages, would be, according to them, more beneficial to those performing technicians tasks, while Google Analytics, a research tool to identify patterns in your social media output, would be a tool for planning, analysis, 8.

(9) 9. research and part of a longer-term, managerial role, enhancing the practitioners exposure to managerial tasks. Supporting this, Anderson & Reagan (1992) unsurprisingly found that that PR managers and technicians utilised different tools and application packages based on the tasks they perform.. Social Media. 政治大 defined as “a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological 立 Public relations has been quick to adopt social media as a tool. Social media can be. ‧ 國. 學. foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user-generated content.” (Kaplan and Haenlein 2010). Solis and Breakenridge (2009) have defined social media as. ‧. "…the democratization of content and the shift in the role people play in the process of reading. Nat. sit. y. and disseminating information (and thus creating and sharing content)".. n. al. er. io. However, both of these definitions, and most definitions, fail to view social media as the. i n U. v. relationship builder and manager and focus more on its role as information dissemination and. Ch. engchi. facilitator role. The relationship building and maintenance aspect of social media is that which is key to public relations, and has been found to be useful in doing so. As Kaplan and Haelein (2010) state, social media belongs to the so-called Web 2.0, a platform where content and applications no longer have to be institutionalized, created and published by individuals, but instead are continuously modified by all users in a participatory and collaborative fashion (Kaplan and Haenlein 2010). This has led other scholars to assume that social media transcends one-way or two-way models of communication, that social media platforms infect allow multiple 9.

(10) 10. users to communicate simultaneously in multiple directions as illustrated by the multi-directional communication model (Thackeray & Neiger, 2009). In this model, the original sender or creator of a message will often lose control of its dissemination (Thackeray & Neiger, 2009). These notions can all be found a recent definition of PR offered by Lee et al's. (2012) who stated [social media] “is an electronic communication platform built along the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0 for multi-directional communication, which enables. 政治大 a number of different social media applications, each with their own affordances. PR activity can 立 the development and facilitation of dialogues and organizational-public relationships”. There are. ‧ 國. 學. be found on almost every channel. For example:. - creation and publishing content (blogs, wikis, podcasting). ‧. - content sharing (i.e. Flickr, Youtube, del.icio.us). Nat. sit. y. - Microblogging (Twitter, Ponderous, Pinterest). n. al. er. io. - networking or community services (Facebook, LinkedIn, MySpace) - joint content production (Wikipedia). Ch. engchi. - virtual worlds (Second Life, HabboHotel). i n U. v. - add-ons: services, which you can use in other service environments like Google maps. Digitalisation of PR: The Debate & State of the Industry 2015. Unlike earlier technology, such as the internet boom of the late 90s early 2000s in which PR had been slow to utilize, and a low-priority, social media, was quickly accepted as a major tool in PR practice. It is no surprise then, that it fosters much debate within the PR field, with 10.

(11) 11. many attributing the social media boom as redefining the industry, while others hold more reserved opinions. Some practitioner's believe we are living in a healthy time for PR, as opposed to the more stagnant, media relations focused and non-management oriented pre-internet decades, however, some believe that PR is on the verge of evolution, with the very name itself - Public Relations - being a thing of the past. The perceived root of driving this revolution and/or evolution, always leads back to social media and the affordances and impacts it has on the. 政治大 As Phillips (2014) argues: ‘I believe we are entering the final decade of the Public 立. industry.. ‧ 國. 學. Relations industry as we know it. To many, PR has become the ugly spawn of the consumer society; has encouraged wants over needs and jeopardised our planet; has celebrated “spin” over. ‧. honesty; and has sought to manage the message to the people rather than let the people speak for. Nat. sit. y. themselves. “Spin” is now officially dead. We should focus instead on actions, not words. The. n. al. er. io. future lies in what we do, not what we say.’ This is an interesting point, as it highlights that there. i n U. v. is internal sentiment within the community that PR should not be practiced if it is to only add to. Ch. engchi. the unhealthy consumerist society - what Phillips (2014) is promoting here, is the notion of shared value between people and organisation driven by excellent communications. Waddington (2013) agrees and highlights the importance of harnessing social media in this reinvention when he argues ‘The public relations industry is attempting to modernise and reinvent itself. Broadening its reach beyond traditional media relations as a proxy to engage with audiences will be critical to future success. It is inevitable that as media continues to fragment because of technological change, and consumer behaviour becomes increasingly participatory, 11.

(12) 12. that organisations must change how they communicate. However, unsurprisingly with increasing digitalisation of an industry, it is no surprise that this then comes with new responsibilities and pressures onto practitioners junior and senior, as Waddington (2013) speaking about the digitalisation of PR affirms ‘The public relations industry is enjoying a renaissance. But it’s also incredibly daunting. Practitioners must learn new skills and expertise if they want to have a future in the industry.’. 政治大 and practice more transparent, with this transparency as the necessary building block of driving 立. Furthermore, it has been argued that social media has made the public relations industry. ‧ 國. 學. public relations into authenticity and credibility (Bridgen, 2013). Moreover, this digitalisation can readily be seen in the massive fragmentation of job titles new graduates are adopting (Bailey,. ‧. 2015). Amongst these titles, the majority of these jobs did not exit 10 or even 5 years ago, such. Nat. sit. y. examples include: Digital Engagement Executive, Content Marketing Manager, Digital Publicist,. n. al. er. io. Social Media Content Officer, Digital Communications Manager, Senior Social Influencer,. i n U. v. Content Strategist. Examples such as 'Content Strategist' is an extremely new job title that. Ch. engchi. reflects the current boom in content marketing.. On the other hand however, as Grunig (2009) bluntly states - PR is an industry infatuated with the latest gimmick, and there is much fluctuation that surrounds exactly how PRs actually use social media and how they should use social media. Grunig (2009) states "journalists first used television just as they used radio. Accustomed to reading news on the radio, they continued to read the news on television without making use of the pictures that the new medium allowed". In the same respect, he further argues that practitioners of PR are now using the one-way 12.

(13) 13. communication methods of traditional media on the 'two-way' social media platform. Supporting this, Robson & Sutherland (2012) reported that although practitioners are demonstrating awareness and knowledge of social media and its so-called principles of best practice, organisations generally fail to make efficient and effective use of the potential for twoway symmetrical communication and multi-faceted dialogue. Furthermore, Macnamara (2010) highlighted the problem when interviewing practitioners thoughts on social media, and. 政治大 networks positive attributes, rather than how the organisation utilises these positive attributes. 立 concluded there was the feeling that these practitioners were highlighting the specific social. ‧ 國. 學. This suggests that practitioners are fully aware of the benefits of social media, but social media still creates an 'easier said than done' situation, which can be one explanation for some. ‧. organisations hesitation in getting involved.. Nat. sit. y. Moreover, Robson & James (2013) also found when interviewing practitioners that. n. al. er. io. "while practitioners were engaging with social media as part of their public relations practice, the. i n U. v. majority lacked a strategic approach to their current use and their plans for future use". This is in. Ch. engchi. contrast to the more common belief that social networking tools emphasise the importance of two-way or multi-directional communication in public relations rather than the dissemination of information (Wright & Hinson, 2009). Grunig (2008) does however agree that, in reference to excellence theory, practitioners in the digital era of PR do have the potential to now engage more dialogically, by listening to publics, discussing problems and issues with them, and interpreting their organization’s actions and behaviours to publics, but just because there is potential, doesn't mean it is always to be 13.

(14) 14. realised. He further argues that these new media have the potential to make the profession more global, strategic, two-way, interactive and socially responsible, again, there is potential, but is it currently being practiced. Grunig's research has found that the problem still lies with the fact that many practitioners are using the new media in the same ways they used the old—as a means of "dumping messages on the general population rather than as a strategic means of interacting with publics and bringing information from the environment into organisational decision-. 政治大 Though social media advocates, Waddington & Bridgen (2013) still agree that social 立. making" (Grunig 2009).. ‧ 國. 學. media is not magic, and does not immediately change everything and states “If an organisation has a blog or a Facebook page and invites comments from its publics, asymmetrical form of. ‧. communication, does it conform to Grunig's Excellence Theory?” “The answer is clearly no. It is. Nat. sit. n. al. er. io. symmetrical relationship".. y. only symmetrical communication if the organisation engages but it is unlikely to be a. i n U. v. Overall, the debate is still strong as to whether the visions of a reinvented, digitalised. Ch. engchi. business communication strategy built off shared values with ethical strides, is just that, ideological and utopian but not widely practiced (DiStaso & Bortree, 2012; Kietzmann 2010 ;Macnamara, 2010). Furthermore, other scholars do not hold the view that Grunig's excellence model is indeed excellent - rather, unfounded, normative in nature and based not on consistent empirical evidence, but rather consistently shared opinions that, in theory, sound progressive and nice. Edelmen's CEO Robert Philips (2013) states that public relations “recognised the conversation economy early on "but remained wedded to a “perverse 14.

(15) 15. determination within PR to defend ‘topdown’ behaviour in a horizontal, networked world”. In contrast, Dickerson (2010) questions what is wrong with asymmetrical communication and why are modern practitioners so afraid of this, that is, why do theorists such as Grunig and excellence theory reject asymmetry and persuasion when, as Fawkes (2007) argues, the denial that persuasion should not exist in public relations, is nothing more than an "academic fantasy" rendering excellence theory further into an ideological, normative state.. 政治大 advocating a highly human storytelling content strategy, that we firstly have to question whether 立 Furthermore, Theunissen & Wan Noordin (2012) highlight, amidst a current hot PR trend of. ‧ 國. 學. an organisation can truly engage in dialogue in the way that a natural person does. Waddington (2013) believes they can, but warns that in order to do so, dialogues must remain consistently. ‧. human, as social media is what he calls "human media". The example he gives, is that a brand. Nat. sit. y. that has no affinity with sport, should not attempt to engage its audiences in dialogues with. n. al. er. io. sports related content simply because a major sporting event, such as the superbowl, or world. i n U. v. cup, is taking place, this he states is currently rife within the industry and is an example of lazy. Ch. engchi. content with no strategy, unnatural and therefore, not human.. Overall however, what unites all these differing opinions is that it is clear that it is still largely in the hands of the practitioner that dictates how the message is crafted and distributed, social media only offers the potential for those who wish to engage in multi-dialogical communications. As the example previously alluded to, advertisers can still use television like radio if they wanted to, but they aren't realizing the full benefits of television. Finally, It is simply too naive, to assume companies who have a presence on social networks can 15.

(16) 16. automatically be said to be engaging in two-way, or multi-dialogical excellence. The questions that are raised from this debate include; who are the ones using social media, what are there perceptions about the true benefits of social media, how are they using (or allowed to use) social media, and what tools do they use to achieve this.. Social Media and Public Relations Roles:. 政治大 body of literature specifically looking at how social media impacts the practitioner's job role, as 立 It must be stated that for each of these findings, more research is needed as the current. ‧ 國. 學. to whether they are mainly technical, or managerial, at any level junior or senior is almost nonexistent. However Lee (2014) found that practitioners with 5 or less years of experience showed. ‧. no significant pattern that social media tasks performed were mainly technical, or managerial.. Nat. sit. y. That is, that social media itself did not influence role, as the practitioners who performed. n. al. er. io. technical social media tasks, also performed a similar amount of managerial offline tasks also.. i n U. v. Therefore, "social media should not be used as a predictor of role enactment".. Ch. engchi. This supports an earlier study by Diga & Kelleher (2009), that found social media tasks were equally shared out between technicians and managers - and at this time, social media cannot be, empirically at least, said to be that of a function for managers or technicians, rather, the results show social media is used across the board and the question we should be asking is what specific tools and applications are used and for what purpose, as opposed to viewing social media as one monolithic entity.. 16.

(17) 17. Task Enactment & Purporter of Task Discrepancies Furthermore, as empirical evidence stands at this moment, social media tasks, whether technician or managerial, do not reflect the role of the purporter of the task. Simply, this means that senior managers can be social media technicians, and juniors can be social media managers. This then, may have consequences, as Grunig (2009) states, using excellence theory, that socalled excellent public relations, will have a clear definition of role. Furthering this, James (2009). 政治大 wonder why it would be undertaken at all and if such activities could be called public relations”. 立 states, “if everyday public relations is undertaken without strategic intent, one would need to. ‧ 國. 學. However, this may just reflect what Grunig (2009) argues, in that, the technology is still relatively new, and is still in a trial and error phase, with no clear boundaries as what constitutes. ‧. managerial or technical roles.. sit. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. Managerial roles as a benchmark for success. i n U. v. In terms of traditional role theory it is clear that there is a systematic bias that assumes. Ch. engchi. management is the inherently positive and prestigious role to strive for and benchmark career success with, whilst the technician role is the less prestigious role. This type of bias is problematic, especially considering job satisfaction. Though most research follows the trend of managerial tasks leading to higher job satisfaction and quicker career advancement, it is not the absolute rule. For example, one study, by Broom and Dozier (1986) found that manager role enactment is not positively related to job satisfaction. This longitudinal study of practitioners who started in 17.

(18) 18. the technician role and moved to a management role reported gains in job satisfaction over the six years, whilst those who remained in the technician role achieved a much higher job satisfaction (Broom & Dozier, 1986).. Public Relations Roles & Pigeonholing Pigeon-holing, an extension of role theory, usually attributed to the over-emphasis on a. 政治大 organisations to perform certain tasks. On a more exemplative level, someone who is 立. practitioner performing mostly technician tasks, is the act of restricting certain people in. ‧ 國. 學. pigeonholed into performing certain tasks are done so without say. Workers who feel they have been pigeonholed may not have job satisfaction amongst a range of other potential consequences,. ‧. a major one being diversity of skill set and, as stated previously, and one that this research is. Nat. sit. n. al. er. io. workplace promotion.. y. concerned with, the emphasis on technicians roles, leading to less chance of upward mobility in. i n U. v. Moss (2010) states that pigeonholing is a controversial topic within the roles and duties. Ch. engchi. people undertake within the profession and pigeonholing can take many forms. Pigeonholing has been evidenced mainly due to age, race and gender. In terms of race, African-American practitioners are consistently found at the low-levels, often with no upward mobility. This, in part, is due to small responsibilities of minority hires. That is, minorities within organisations are simply there to deal with their minority markets, which are usually perceived in the organisation as lesser important, or niche markets. Of course, there are times when this is logical and necessary, such as when minority markets become periodically very influential, such as the case 18.

(19) 19. with the 1992 LA Riots, in which PR and all communicative efforts were handled by practitioners with ties to the African-American community. As Grunig, Hos and Toth (2001) highlight however, this type of constant pigeonholing of efforts toward minority markets may not be tapping into the full potential of 'minority' practitioners. Further also pointing out that even multinational, global PR firms, hire the majority of their practitioners from the majority local race. Backed by Hofstede's (1980) Cultural. 政治大. Dimensions theory, Wise (1993) argued that minority groups can cultivate a winning dynamic or. 立. edge to the organisation.. ‧ 國. 學. In terms of minority African-Americans, she theorised that, unlike the hallmark of American individualist culture, the black communities show the opposite - a collectivist mindset.. ‧. With this appreciation for the community, Wise further argues this would, in western firms. Nat. sit. y. dominated by white practitioners enhance two-way symmetrical public relations.. However,. n. al. er. io. Sriramesh (1992) further warns against the dangers of being a race-representative of a PR. i n U. v. organisation, as this assumes that the one minority practitioner can account for the vast amount. Ch. engchi. of variables found within a collective ethnicity.. Therefore, having small amounts of minority practitioners dealing with minority issues as 'experts' is based upon logical but false pretenses and potentially dangerous to an organisation, in the same vein that solely young entry level practitioners are those disproportionately representing a companies social media output and essentially, the companies salient online voice. Furthermore, Mallet (1995) found that minority PR practitioners around the globe felt as though they were defined first by their race or ethnicity, and second by their role as a PR practitioner - this is what 19.

(20) 20. Mallet (1995) further describes as race-representatives. Fern-Foxworth (1993) found that it isn't just race, but also gender that influences pigeonholing, his study found that it took women longer times to be promoted from technician role to a management role.. The Femenization & De-femenization of PR During the 1980's the femenization of PR happened, that is, a mass influx of women. 政治大 women may be pigeonholed into enacting the technician role more often than men do (Broom, 立 rapidly joined the previously male-centric profession and studies have consistently found that. ‧ 國. 學. 1982; Broom & Dozier, 1986) One explanation could be provided by Diga and Kelleher (2009) who suggest that the technicians role may be getting more attractive through social media. ‧. developments allowing for juniors to gain structural power.. Nat. sit. y. This is supported by the significant development highlighted by Bridgen (2013) that. n. al. er. io. found there is a current movement in public relations that is seeing more men entering the. i n U. v. profession as it becomes fragmented and increasingly digitalised. Bridgen (2013) also argued. Ch. engchi. that men may be more willing in embracing the so-called traditionally 'feminine' and traditionally lesser attractive technicians role through being part of the social media team to gain social capital and structural power. Furthermore, Diga and Kelleher (2009) argue that since technicians are likely to spend more time writing and reading materials than managers, this is evidence to suggest "technicians may be the ones handling the social media”. However, (Bridgen, 2013; Grunig 2009) also warn that there are still no clear lines between ‘technician’ and ‘management’ responsibilities when 20.

(21) 21. dealing with social media. However, we must not forget that social media is still in its infancy. As an analogy, commercial television was introduced in 1941 in the US - in terms of social medias age, we are comparatively currently still only in the year 1949.. The Pigeonholing of Digital Natives into Social Media Positions As previously stated, pigeonholing usually comes in 3 forms - we have discussed gender. 政治大 section discusses the type of pigeonholing influenced mainly to that of age or generational 立. and race, these are what is usually attributed as the traditional pigeonholing theory. This next. ‧ 國. 學. pigeonholing, which this study aims to bridge the gap in literature and add to the development of generational pigeonholing theory. Recently, it has been found that those juniors entering the. ‧. workforce in the last 5 years have been expected to perform social media tasks, or even to be in. Nat. sit. y. charge of all social media duties (Lee, 2014). Many of which are starting their professional. n. al. er. io. careers in PR as the resident social media guru, as opposed to that of the traditional well rounded practitioner.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. The commonality that unites those entering the workforce now are what is known as digital natives. A digital native is an individual who has grown up with social technology and as such, is native to them. Therefore, it is logical to see why the digital native generation can be those that can be pigeonholed by their so-called native technology. However, DeGraff (2014) argues that not all digital natives are digitally minded, and to assume the young practitioners should be versed in social media is a dangerous emphasis, as, although digital natives, and young practitioners, these juniors may be more suited to traditional 21.

(22) 22. media relations roles, but feel forced to take up a primarily digital role as it has been found that most employers expect new graduates to be well versed in social media (Schell, 2014). However, & Swanson (2012) found that In today’s public relations workplace, juniors often do know more about key tactical and tool issues than senior-level executives. This is in contrast to digital immigrants, whose generation entered the PR workforce in the era where public relations equated to media relations - an era, in which the press release was. 政治大 'jumped ship' or due to the significantly restricted degree options at the time, undertook more 立. dominant. These workers, a significant amount of which, were originally trained journalists who. ‧ 國. 學. traditional degrees (History, English, Law) that emphasised writing prowess. Furthermore, Cole (2009) highlighted the perceived writing skills of new graduates. ‧. looking for jobs in the PR industry is a concern - so the traditional major writing tasks may be. Nat. sit. y. then left to seniors. The controversy surrounding pigeonholing, at its root however, is worrisome. n. al. er. io. as it may not allow for a well-rounded practitioner, and something that is seen as inherently good. i n U. v. - the learning of cutting edge skills, may secretly be damming these junior practitioners now,. Ch. engchi. who will become senior, and managerial practitioners for the future as Matis (2014) states one should never 'sacrifice expertise for flexibility'.. Consequences of Pigeonholing Digital Natives on Digital Immigrants. Looking at it from a different perspective is also worrying as the pigeonholing of new professionals as social media technicians may also have a negative effect on more experienced communication technicians that are not learning these new skills that have become increasingly 22.

(23) 23. desired. However, another layer to the pigeonholing debate comes in the form of pre-existing employer expectations. As Schell (2014) found 'most employers expect young people to be wellversed in social media skills'. It is this expectation, along with senior staff members not developing these other skills that bares the potential of pigeonholing digital natives as the digital experts. Furthermore, it has been noted that baseline skills of communications graduates, such as. 政治大 knowledge of social media in new PR practitioners is not as much a concern. Whether 立. writing are not as developed as they should be (Hines & Basso, 2006), however the sound. ‧ 國. 學. pigeonholed or not, when there is a gap in knowledge or expertise, and someone of close proximity, especially within the workplace environment, has that knowledge and expertise, this. ‧. then gives opportunity for a mentorship dynamic. Which can have a major impact on job. sit. y. Nat. experience.. n. al. er. io. Overall, the questions that are left to be investigated include, whether generational. i n U. v. pigeonholing is occurring, or if it is the rapid digitalisation of the public relations workplace that. Ch. engchi. may harbour an emphasis on certain jobs that require learning new skills, through the perceived changing environment of public relations and firms attempts at staying in vogue. Furthermore, we need to decide whether it is pigeonholing if the junior practitioner chooses to be in a primarily social media role, however, pigeonholing by employer, or consciously and willingly applied for on the junior practitioners part, it is still of upmost importance to assess the future implications of this important development. and this is a debate that can utilise the relative merits of technician/managerial role theory, that is, more managerial tasks lead to greater career 23.

(24) 24. prospects in terms of advancement and promotion. However, again, one must make sure firstly, what exact function specific social media tools emphasises - technical (Google +) or managerial (Google Analytics). Finally, it seems that the practitioners side of public relations are increasingly segmenting their work force broadly, with massive generalisations based on generations, to re-iterate, the young are social media savvy, the older are media relations savvy. This problem of huge generalisations is a dangerous. 政治大 some companies may be gambling heavily on the rapid digitalisation of the industry, while 立. implication that must be considered from a managerial point of view and seems to highlight that. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. others completely ignoring it as a passing fad.. Mentorship in Public Relations. Nat. sit. y. Mentoring can be defined as a situation in which a member of staff 'helps a protégé or. n. al. er. io. mentee become more professionally competent” (Cotugna & Vickery,1998). This increase in. i n U. v. competence can involve improvement in specific skills or knowledge, or acquisition of general. Ch. engchi. understandings about workplace norms and culture. Although an important foundation, education alone will not result in a well rounded public relations practitioner who can add value to the organisation. Despite the best education, professional development occurs on the job and through informal and formal exchanges with peer networks (such as professional associations). A combination of theoretical (obtained through formal education) and practical (obtained through professional peer networks) elements helps mould the young communication enthusiast into a well-rounded public relations practitioner who can add value to organisational process. 24.

(25) 25. There are many benefits to mentoring that have been identified by researchers. For example White, Vane & Stafford (2010) found that mentoring builds personal influence between leaders and subordinates.. Reverse Mentorship Reverse mentoring is a concept initially introduced by former General Electric CEO Jack. 政治大 members and younger/less experienced workers. Though it could be debatable as to whether 立. Welch (Greengard, 2002). It involves a structured workplace relationship between senior staff. ‧ 國. 學. mentoring needs to be completely structured or if it can be natural, studies have found that mentoring works best when it is planned carefully (Epstein, 2011).. ‧. In terms of prevalence of reverse mentoring in public relations structured reverse. Nat. sit. y. mentoring programs are rare, with reverse-mentoring usually being typically informal, infrequent. n. al. er. io. liaisons for specific digital matters, which, according to Leh (2005) does not constitute as. i n U. v. comprehensive mentorship training. In reverse mentoring, typically, the younger workers have. Ch. engchi. less expertise within the organization but more technological familiarity and skills, which is consistent with the technicians role. The recent poor economy that struck the United Kingdom, America and most of Europe has resulted in layoffs of established, senior public relations executives who thought they had stable jobs (Sweeney, 2010; Woloshin, 2009). Many who were laid off found they lacked the social media skills needed to be perceived as competitive in the marketplace. In essence, within the public relations industry, reverse-mentoring, whether formal, or informal, revolves around technology; specifically social media. 25.

(26) 26. Research Questions. RQ1: What Social Media Tasks Do Junior Taiwanese Practitioners Perform? Are they technical, or managerial?. 政治大. RQ2: How did junior practitioners get involved with the social media aspect of public relations?. 立. ‧. ‧ 國. 學. RQ3: How do junior PR practitioners feel social media will impact their professional future?. Method. sit. y. Nat. n. al. er. io. Paradigms & Qualitative Methods. i n U. v. Due to the name and nature of the thesis a qualitative research approach is appropriate.. Ch. engchi. The methodology appropriate for this research is qualitative in-depth interviews with practitioners of 3 years or less experience working in their roles. Kvale (1983) defines the qualitative research interview as "an interview, whose purpose is to gather descriptions of the life-world of the interviewee with respect to interpretation of the meaning of the described phenomena". This is appropriate as the paradigm that underlines this research is a constructivistinterpretivist stance. Constructivists see the world as inherently subjective, as Shwandt (1998). 26.

(27) 27. explains ”constructivism means that human beings do not find or discover knowledge so much as construct or make it” as we “invent concepts, models and schemes to make sense of experience and, further, we continually test and modify these constructions in the light of new experience”. This paradigm, that informed a natural selection of methodology were then consciously chosen for the broader insights that are gained from the analysis of subjective opinions based on differing personal experiences of the same situation - social media's impact on junior. 政治大 Interviews are more likely to have internal validity or measure what the study seeks to 立. practitioners public relations job experience.. ‧ 國. 學. measure because meanings can be discussed in-depth in order to reach a mutual understanding between the researcher and participant (Babbie, 2007).. ‧. However, because qualitative research relies on the understanding of the investigator, it is. Nat. sit. y. more often discussed in terms of credibility, rather than validity (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). This is. n. al. er. io. also true in terms of the second paradigm underlining this research, the interepretivist philosophy,. i n U. v. Denzin & Lincon & Padgett (1998, 1995) state that such studies are also concerned with that of. Ch. engchi. trustworthiness, as opposed to conventional positivistic criteria of internal/external validity, reliability and objectivity. Lincoln & Guba (1985) argue that this credibility is formed through using established and appropriate methods, such as qualitative in-depth interviews and researcher familiarity with the topic (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). Furthermore, Daymon and Holloway (2002) highlight the importance and relevance of credibility specifically for public relations scholarship and state “Interpretative researchers recognize that in order to understand the world of Public Relations 27.

(28) 28. and Marketing Communications, they must first actively engage in it before going on to interpret it. This enables them to conceptualize reality from the point of view of those involved in it”. The researcher in this study is of the same demographic as those being studied, i.e - the researcher is of the digital native generation, who has worked in public relations, but has less than 3 years of public relations experience. Researchers tend to rely upon the "participants' views of the situation study (Creswell,. 政治大 and recognised. this is not to say that the researcher should immediately assume they are without 立 2003) And although the impact of the researcher’s own background and experiences is accepted. ‧ 國. 學. bias, and should still make the conscious effort to mitigate interference (Babbie, 2007). Furthermore, other methods are proposed to achieve the credibility constructivist-interepretivists. ‧. conducting qualitative methodologies want to achieve. Denzin and Lincoln (1994) suggest that. Nat. sit. y. four factors be considered in establishing the trustworthiness of findings from qualitative. n. al. er. io. research: credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability. In order to achieve this. i n U. v. Padgett (1998) states six strategies for enhancing the rigor of the research: Prolonged. Ch. engchi. Engagement, Triangulation, Peer debriefing and support, Member checking, Negative case analysis and Auditing. Bowen (2005) states that researchers should aim for no fewer than three to establish what can be considered trustworthy qualitative research.. Sampling As a qualitative study, in which Daymon & Holloway (2002) state “Qualitative approaches demand different sampling techniques from the randomly selected and probabilistic 28.

(29) 29. sampling which quantitative researchers generally use” this study will make use of convenience sampling, as there will be a conscious effort directed towards relevancy and quality, as opposed to quantity. Furthermore, The sample taken to be interviewed are junior practitioners, with 3 of fewer years of full-time public relations experience. The participants were taken from a mixture of inhouse departments or public relations communication agencies. Furthermore, the researcher. 政治大 or near-native level, this was done by targeting larger and internationally focused agencies and 立. came over the difficulty of English barriers by choosing only those participants who had native. ‧ 國. 學. in-house teams within large globally focused companies. Being situated in the internationalised and cosmopolitan city of Taipei was also a plus to conducting research in English As the. ‧. researcher is heavily involved with public relations practice, the researcher had the resources to. Nat. sit. y. select potential participants from personal and professional networks. From these personal. n. al. er. io. resources, the researcher was able to generate further leads to generate further candidates for interviews.. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Data Collection The data that formed this research was firstly led by an in-depth exploratory effort to amass objective, credible literature pertaining to PR theory; role theory, developments in public relations and their consequences. This part of the data collection process included academic articles, books, practitioner talks, practitioner opinion blogs - there was a conscious effort to explore and include the vast array of potential literature public relations discipline naturally 29.

(30) 30. affords. This is also highly beneficial tactic when the aim of the study is conducting qualitative interviews with busy practitioners who may not be readily involved in thick purely academic debate, but rather, are active within the less empirical debate found in opinion posts and industry news presented in the form of industry e-zines, newsletters and specialist magazines. As documents which have been produced by other people can be a rich source of supplementary or. 政治大 present actions, achievements and people". 立. primary evidence in research, indicating the way an organisation or industry views its past and. ‧ 國. 學. Data collection was collected in the form of in person interviews. Interviews were recorded for supreme accuracy and minimal notes for immediate reference in the interview will. ‧. be taken. Interviewing was semi-structured and the interview guide can be found in the appendix.. Nat. sit. y. These semi-structured interviews will take the form identified as oral histories. Oral. n. al. er. io. histories are interviews that focus on collecting data on people's life stories in their own words,. i n U. v. and is particularly useful in recording experiences of people that are not yet well known. As such,. Ch. engchi. this is an extremely useful method for developing an understanding of an as-of-yet not fully understood or appreciated culture, or experience, Semi-structured interviews allow researchers to focus the respondents' talk on a particular topic of interest, and may allow researchers the opportunity to test out his or her preliminary understanding, while still allowing for ample opportunity for new ways of seeing and understanding to develop. Furthermore, semi-structured interviews can be an important preliminary step toward the development of more structured interview guides or surveys, for follow up research when there 30.

(31) 31. is a bigger pool of relevant questions to be further tested.. Data Analysis All interviews were listened to in full several times. without transcribing as to immerse the researcher within the data. Subsequent listens to the data will then have each individual research question in mind, and portions of the interviews relevant to each research question was. 政治大 strip meaning through the identification of key themes and trends found embedded in the data 立. noted in full. After this was completed for all research questions. these new texts were read to. ‧ 國. ‧. Interview Guide. 學. and the overarching key-quotes can be found throughout the findings section.. Nat. sit. y. The interview guide was designed as to make sure the interviews fully answer the. n. al. er. io. research questions put forth. However, though semi-structured as to cover all questions. i n U. v. effectively, the researcher also made it a priority to allow for more natural and flowing. Ch. engchi. interviews, therefore, questions asked may have been performed in different orders dependent upon the context of the interview and some questions may have been phrased slightly differently to accommodate participants understanding, the researcher also used filler questions, prompts and extensions that semi-structured interviews allow for. The research questions in this study focus on two things - that is, what social media tasks junior practitioners perform and how they get involved in the social media side of public relations in the first place. The first research question was developed as to assess the 31.

(32) 32. interviewees use of social media in terms of the technical/managerial debate, as well as the specific types of social media applications they use, and how this fits into the social media as a technician/managerial role debate, the results of this question laid the foundations for and were used in connection with that of the second research question. The second research question focuses on the issues surrounding how they got involved in social media, and their thoughts and feelings towards how they got their job, what they do in. 政治大 is specifically looking at the phenomenon of pigeonholing and the participants range of thoughts 立 their job, and how this impacts their professional future. Of course, the second research question. ‧ 國. 學. and feelings on this matter. During this design, every effort was taken to utilise relevant openended questions, that allow for the probing of issues in-depth and the allowing of participants. ‧. leading the discussion.. Nat. sit. y. The sections used include: A background section, a second section related to participants. n. al. er. io. feelings toward the public relations industry, a third section related to tasks performed at work, a. i n U. v. fourth and final section detailing the respondents feelings of tasks performed. The full interview. Ch. engchi. guide can be found in the appendix, along with participant demographics.. Findings and Discussion. RQ1: What Social Media Tasks Do Junior Taiwanese Practitioners Perform? Are they technical, or managerial? Overall, social media was the largest part of the majority of participants daily tasks. In 32.

(33) 33. terms of technicians tasks and managerial tasks, social media tasks, though having some clear technician tasks, overall fell heavily into the managerial task bracket, according to traditional role theory definitions. These most salient tasks participants discussed will be outlined individually below:. Research. 政治大 activities are research oriented, with one participating noting "my job is almost all research". 立. Most participant acknowledged that a significant part of their day-to-day social media. ‧ 國. 學. Research tasks include scanning specific pages on social networks. ("Scanning clients social media pages, making sense of conversations is a big part of my and my teams job.") Participants. ‧. also stated a specific research example, as they use social media to what they call. Nat. sit. y. "trendwatching". Which involves scanning social media generally to get a "feel" of the. n. al. er. io. environment on a day-to day, week-to-week and month-to-month basis.. i n U. v. As one participant stated "Once a month, each of my team will research topics of interest. Ch. engchi. and give a 15 minute presentation on developments in the social media world that can directly help our business and our clients". Another participant noted also that they use social media as a way to keep up to date with significant happenings, or popular memes, stating "every week there are weekly trends, and we try to implement them in the [facebook] posts". These examples show research, via social media is a very constant, ongoing task and this data shows that participants are engaging in long-term and short-term research.. 33.

(34) 34. Analysis, Interpretation & Evaluation One of the major tasks participants performed was that of analysing and interpreting the social media data. This task was especially important for those participants who named research as one of their most salient, and important tasks. Analysis and interpretation is used both by algorithmic applications and manual human-oriented analysis and interpretation of the data. One participant, who worked in-house for a technology firm noted "When I have a post with say. 政治大 "establish what posts are those that have furthest reach [shares], or were well received [likes]". 立 100,000 thousand likes, or half a million views, my job is to create meaning from that" and. ‧ 國. 學. Participants stated that they were mainly involved in "metrics" "sentiment analysis" or "conversation analysis" & as stated before "trendwatching" or "insights".. ‧ sit. y. Nat. Production. n. al. er. io. Broom (2009) asserts that the role of the technicians are roles and tasks that are to do. i n U. v. with the production and spreading and distribution of messages under the influence of those in. Ch. engchi. managerial roles. Many practitioners produced their own content, but they had such autonomy over their work from research to dissemination to analysis and back, that this seemingly technicians tasks was actually managerial in nature, as they were not under the influence of a typical managerial hierarchy. This is an example of a role that utilizes what Nothaft (2010) calls First Order Management, and refers more to a non-manager's ability to influence the outcome of tasks. It is furthermore, evidence to suggest that social media’s managerial role could be further defined as 34.

(35) 35. FOM and this managerial role may differ from the traditional managerial roles. Specific types of production will be discussed below:. Information Dissemination The dissemination of information was noted by almost every participants job role. What differed between participants was the frequency or intensity on "putting out content". One. 政治大 in-depth however, was the feelings participants had towards this output. One participant stated 立. participant noted that their team has a target of "4 unique updates per day for Facebook". More. ‧ 國. 學. that although it could be considered the spread of information in a one-way fashion, which has been noted as a restricted form of social medias affordances, it always had a purpose, along as. ‧. you had systems and research intuitive to make meaning.. Nat. sit. y. As the participant stated "Yes, you cannot respond to everyone, and in some respects it is. n. al. er. io. one-way, but social media is experimental, you need to see what posts do work, and this. i n U. v. [repetitive] way is effective". Participants also noted that frequency and timeliness of social. Ch. engchi. media output was hugely important. One participant who worked at an in-house app development company stated that "If you don't have the people there to monitor and respond to social media and update daily, multiple times a day even, people will forget about you". He further added that "Take a look at Sony for example, they only upload content 3 times a week, they are a bigger company than us, but we have triple the amount of fans [the participant bases fans off Facebook 'likes' as them". The participant noted that pages that don't update daily are risking the public viewing 35.

(36) 36. them as unresponsive, or not engaging in the discussion. "All their posts are about their products, that's it, it's just information, while ours are human and can literally be about something as boring as the weather, it sounds basic, but it works". The same participant also stated "Sometimes, we spend weeks on what we believe is a great [facebook] post, only to get a third of the response [likes, shares, views] of some basic update that took us maybe a day or even 1 hour".. 政治大 In contrast to the one-way communicative tasks detailed above. dialogical and multi立. Dialogical Social Media Utilisation. ‧ 國. 學. dialogical conversations are seen as using the true potential of social media, and all participants were involved in using social media as a means to interact with consumers. This interactivity. ‧. usually took the form of responding to customer queries and complaints publicly. As one. Nat. sit. y. participant states "we all try to respond and create a dialogue with as many customers as we can".. n. al. er. io. However, this dialogical social media utilisation, to some participants, made them feel as though. i n U. v. one of her job roles was to enact that of a customer service representative.. Ch. engchi. Dialogical social media interaction is, as defined by role theory, a technicians task & these results show that many participants did in fact show less satisfaction in performing these technicians tasks than the managerial tasks. Which is evidence to support Sha & Dozier's (2012) finding that managerial tasks does lead to higher job satisfaction and technician only tasks, to lower.. RQ2: How did junior practitioners get involved with the social media aspect of public relations? 36.

(37) 37. Do they feel pigeonholed into this role? There were many differing and multiple reasons as to why juniors were assigned to the social media division or to social media tasks. Some were very straight forward, conscious decisions, such as the participant applied for this specific job role with that title, as well as others such as age. Interesting and less obvious patterns and opinions were apparent also, such as the major difference between organisational resources and the big difference between in-house and. 政治大. agency environments, in which the social media role takes place.. 立. ‧ 國. 學. Pigeonholing. Firstly, with the exception of 2 participants, who focused only on social media activities,. ‧. other junior participants, though still with a significant social media emphasis did hold a mix of. Nat. sit. n. al. er. io. relations roles.. y. traditional and digital roles, however, no participants were involved only in traditional media. i n U. v. Furthermore, participants noted that it was all junior practitioners or young, digital. Ch. engchi. natives that held social media roles, giving further evidence that age (which will be discussed indepth later) is a determiner for social media role enactment. Furthermore, the majority of participants highlighted that their social media team, and themselves also, were very much included and integrated in the overall team. There is a feeling however, amongst participants that the emphasis on social media tasks is mainly because that is the way the industry is going and a clear distinction is being made between public relations and social media communications, to which young participants have a choice. 37.

(38) 38. As one participant put it "We are a social marketing team, we are separate from what we believe public relations activity is, we have a separate team for public relations our public relations team is locally targeted and does not use social media". That said, most participants felt that being an all-rounded practitioner is a good thing, but at the same time, did not believe that being a social media specialist was a bad thing either. However, some did acknowledge that their skills and jobs are in the hands of the success. 政治大 goes and does a myspace [becomes suddenly and rapidly unpopular], then it'l be a tough time". 立 of third-parties, such as Facebook. As one participant noted "If Facebook and all social media. ‧ 國. 學. Participants are wary of the troubled history of some social media sites, myspace being the classic case-study, however, all participants believed that social media is here to stay, and. ‧. although aware of the risk are generally not worried about this reliance on third-party. sit. y. Nat. applications.. n. al. er. io. Others are also very happy to take on social media roles and welcome the opportunity as. i n U. v. they prefer it over traditional media relations tasks. Some participants also felt it was actually. Ch. engchi. riskier staying or having over-emphasis in traditional media relations than being on board with what one participant deemed "[social media] it's the future".. Age Social media job allocation can be explained through age in three distinct ways. One is that participants believe they & other young people themselves are the best candidates & that senior practitioners believe this to be the case also. Furthermore, this research revealed that most 38.

(39) 39. people working in social media and PR are in fact, of the average age of around the mid-20s, with no distinct age difference of senior managers and entry-levels. For example, one participant, who was the manager of a social media team, was the youngest on the team, at the age of 22. Furthermore, this manager, who had under 2 years experience, who held the job title of 'Social Media Manager' was very adamant that social media is for digital natives stating "we grew up with this [social media] and understand everything …. 政治大 strategy, they simply cant as easily as young people". 立. ask an older executive to even tell you about snapchat, let alone implement it into a working. ‧ 國. 學. This particular participant also noted that he would be more hesitant to hire a significantly older person into his team, preferring to keep the team full with digital natives, like. ‧. himself, interestingly, he was the youngest member of his team but also the most senior. Other. Nat. sit. y. participants highlighted similar things, with one participant stating "I wouldn't say senior or older. n. al. er. io. employees don't understand social media, but I feel it is true that the younger generation are the. i n U. v. ones who are involved more and see more potential". This sentiment was echoed by almost all participants.. Ch. engchi. A separate participant, but from the same company as the manager, stated that it isn't the digital natives that are creating this issue either, rather, the older generations are often suspicious to even cynical about social media, he states "the older generation, the CEO, the higher ups, they don't know much about social media, and they don't think it's something with power, so they don't fund it well". When further asked why, the participant stated "It's like learning a language, if you're 39.

(40) 40. native to the language or it's your mother tongue, you're way ahead of someone whose had to spend time learning it consciously". The participant also stated that they have trouble interpreting social media into meaningful data when he says "They see a bunch of numbers, or likes, or whatever, but they don't know how it helps them, or what this means, and this creates the problem where they don't know what purpose it serves…for example, if my video has 100,000 likes, or has been viewed a certain amount of times, I can explain that, that has meaning to me. 政治大 This shows that, even at the intern and junior level, current PR practitioners who are 立. beyond the numbers".. ‧ 國. 學. social media focused, managerial roles encompassing management tasks such as planning and research, are very apparent and at the forefront of their day-to-day role enactment. From this data,. ‧. a main conclusion can be argued in that social media allows for managerial job experience early. sit. y. Nat. on in careers.. n. al. er. io. On the other hand, participants from agency and smaller resourced in-house backgrounds. i n U. v. noted that they were given social media accounts due to their entry-level status as they weren’t. Ch. engchi. experienced enough to be undertaking media relations work with established media contacts. One participant from an agency setting noted that their seniors give social media tasks to junior or entry level practitioners due to the ability of having an immediate impact.. Reverse Mentorship As a consequence of their age, many participants, in agency and in-house environments where digital natives & digital immigrants co-exist, noted that they do have some experience 40.

(41) 41. mentoring senior staff on social media. Though no company had specific formal reversementorship programs, it was clear that the junior practitioners were the ones in the company that were seen as most knowledgeable about social media. Such tasks included giving social media presentations on new technology or trends, drafting and disseminating briefs of developmental social media trends via e-mails, and informal, impromptu discussions. When prompted if they felt this enhanced their job satisfaction, all. 政治大 participants who were currently interns. 立. participants answered that it gave them satisfaction, with the greatest satisfaction coming from. ‧ 國. 學. All participants also expressed the feeling that it is a requirement for them to be comfortable with the use of social media, and that, if, as entry-level juniors, not knowing about. ‧. social media would make them feel very uncomfortable and even insecure about their usefulness.. Nat. sit. y. The respondents gave a very strong general feeling of being in control of social media, through. n. al. er. io. being informal reverse-mentors and felt that it does seem to promote their time spent on social. i n U. v. media activities to using work hours in discussing social media. One participant from in-house. Ch. engchi. backgrounds noted that there social media team are a distinct team that works very closely with the separate PR, Analytics, Insights and Digital team, that they do trade ideas and to some extent mentor each other, but the participant stated also that the company is digitally focussed and most people are young, so there isn't much opportunity to engage in reverse-mentorship. The effective use and prevalence of reverse-mentoring social media programs is a research topic that could stem from this research.. 41.

(42) 42. Resource of Organization & In-House VS Agency The allocation of resources impacted job role and social media usage frequency greatly and was undoubtedly a key area that every participant expressed the reasons behind their usage. Some participants were solely involved in specific social media duties, as part of a wider social media team, whilst those with smaller resources, were often the entire voice of a clients social media accounts.. 政治大 resource allocation choices of the organisation the participant worked for, however, there was a 立 The significant difference for this was usually attributed to the overall resources or. ‧ 國. 學. trend with participants from in-house backgrounds being specifically allocated to solely social media tasks, whilst those in agency settings, though involved in social media, were also involved. ‧. in media relations and traditional public relations also. "Having a team dedicated to [just] social. Nat. sit. y. media is expensive, clients are wary of where their budget is being spent", when prompted. n. al. er. io. further, the participant noted that "ROI [Return on Investment] problems turn many people off social media".. Ch. engchi. i n U. v. Two participants, from the same organisation, who noted prior that they had large resources and many staff, interestingly also noted that this does not necessarily mean they can use every social media application they want. As one participant who worked for the organisation stated "Facebook insights gives us a better insight into how to plan our social media campaign long term, and all the team use it. We could use more like social baker [research social media tool], but we don't have the budget for it, it's super expensive." Therefore, the simple difference of resource allocation has had the capacity to change the entire analytical method of 42.