A Social Networks Approach to Public Relations on Twitter: Social Mediators and Mediated Public Relations

Himelboim, Itai; Golan, Guy J.; Moon, Bitt Beach; Suto, Ryan J.

doi:10.1080/1062726x.2014.908724

Cited by 86 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…Yang and Taylor (2015) argued that networked public relations scholarship should examine diverse relationships around organizations, but the relationship between organizations and publics-one of the most extensively examined topics in previous public relations paradigms-is mostly absent in studies with semantic networks and interorganizational networks. Himelboim, Golan, Moon, and Suto (2014) presented a study that involved organizational publics. They identified social mediators by examining the follower network of Department's ordinary stakeholders-could help the organization reach its foreign publics, especially in the Middle East and North Africa.…”

Section: The Absence Of Publics In Networked Public Relations Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As argued above and visually presented in Figure 1 panel B, all organizations are embedded in networks with other organizations and publics. The ego network constructed by Himelboim et al (2014) might have overlooked the effects of other organizations that did not have direct following relationships with the US State Department. A visualization of the possible network types in a public relations network ecology is presented as Figure 2 panel B to conclude this discussion.…”

Section: The Absence Of Publics In Networked Public Relations Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Bring publics back into networked public relations research: A dual-projection approach for network ecology

Zhou

2019

Public Relations Review

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This essay critiques the absence of publics in networked public relations research, and proposes the dual-projection approach as a solution to simplify and analyze the multi-mode public relations network ecology (Yang & Taylor, 2015). Compared to most previous studies that employ organization-centric networks where ties stand for hyperlinks, collaborations, or coalitions, the new approach projects organization-public relationships and public-public relationships onto interorganizational ties. By doing so, it 1) brings publics back into networked public relations research; 2) presents organizations and publics-the two most important subjects of public relations research-equally in the same network, 3) drives literature further away from a dyadic view of relationship management, and 4) constitutes one of the first techniques that can analyze direct and timely consequences of organization-public relationships in the network ecology. To demonstrate the new approach, the network of publics overlap is introduced and applied to US-based LGBTQ advocacy groups. The essay also discusses the theoretical inquiries needed to further dual-projection networks, and invites scholars to create novel ways to incorporate publics into their network studies using dual projection.

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Section: The Absence Of Publics In Networked Public Relations Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Absence Of Publics In Networked Public Relations Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Bring publics back into networked public relations research: A dual-projection approach for network ecology

Zhou

2019

Public Relations Review

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“…Beyond the emergence of clusters, self-organized networks are also characterized by a highly skewed distribution of links or ties among nodes, suggesting a network structure and dynamics that result in a few nodes with large and disproportionate number of connections: hubs (Newman, 2001). Himelboim et al (2014), drawing from these unique characteristics, introduced the term social mediators who are highly effective in making bridging relationships and highly connected in their own clusters. Social mediators are influential key actors who attract more attention in their own clusters (defined by in-degree centrality) and act as a bridge between two clusters (defined by betweenness centrality).…”

Section: Social Movement As Social Networkmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This study takes a social networks approach to address these limitations, bridging key concepts in social movement literature with social networks' conceptual approach. Conceptually, it defines key network clusters as publics, and users who play a role of cross-communities information flow as social mediators (Himelboim, Golan, Suto, & Moon, 2014), and the content that successfully travels across cluster-lines as mediated content (Himelboim, Jin, Reber, & Grant, 2015). Empirically, it maps the social network structure created by the movement, identifies clusters, and examines the key players and content type that made this social media movement successful.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A Social Networks Approach to Online Social Movement: Social Mediators and Mediated Content in #FreeAJStaff Twitter Network

Daud

Himelboim

2018

Social Media + Society

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The movement to free Al Jazeera journalists (#FreeAJStaff), imprisoned by Egyptian authorities, utilized social media over almost 2 years, between 2013 and 2015. #FreeAJStaff movement emerged as a unique blend of social movement and news media, taking place primarily on Twitter. This study applied a social networks approach to examine patterns of information flow within the #FreeAJStaff movement on Twitter: the emergence of information siloes and social mediators, who bridge them. Twitter data of 22 months were collected, resulting in social networks created by 71,326 users who included the hashtag #FreeAJStaff in their tweets, and 149,650 social ties (mentions and replies) among them. Analysis found social mediators to be primarily core movement actors (e.g., Al Jazeera) or elites (e.g., politicians), rather than grassroots actors. Furthermore, core actors exhibited more reciprocal relationship with other users than elite actors. In contrast, elite actors evoked denser exchange of messages. Finally, this study identified the mechanism used to create a Spillover Effect between social movements (such as #FreeAJStaff and #FreeShawkan), finding that mediated content, which travels across clusters, was more likely to include non-FreeAJStaff movement hashtags, than siloed content, which remains within a cluster. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

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“…Social media, however, presents an environment for community building where fans can easily express team support, participate in discussions, and exchange information with fellow fans (Clavio & Kian, 2010). In such online communities, any individual can become a key source of information for many others about a wide variety of issues and potentially become a social mediator (i.e., key actors that bridge users across clusters; Himelboim, Golan, Moon, & Suto, 2014). Social mediators are identifiable and distinct (i.e., organizational, industry, media, individual, and celebrity social mediators; Himelboim, Reber, & Jin, 2016).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Keep the Ball Rolling: Information Diffusion within Large Sports-Related Networks through Social Mediators

Vermeer

Araujo

2019

Communication & Sport

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Social media have enabled sports fans to interact with their favourite clubs, players, and fellow fans. By using a sample of over 4.5 million tweets, we applied a social networks approach to examine whether and, if so, how different types of users influence online engagement and patterns of information flow of professional football clubs on Twitter. We focus on five types of social mediators (i.e., key users who connect organizations with their publics): (1) organizational (e.g., teams or players), (2) industry (e.g., competitors or associations), (3) media (e.g., journalists), (4) individual (e.g., fans), and (5) celebrities. Our results indicate that the power of media social mediators-the most traditional mediators-has declined over recent years, and they were negatively associated with engagement on Twitter. Instead, relationships between football clubs and publics were primarily mediated by individual social mediators, for top division clubs in particular. Taken together, scholars and practitioners should recognize the potential impact of social mediators, given that even individuals can function as powerful users in the information diffusion process.

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A Social Networks Approach to Public Relations on Twitter: Social Mediators and Mediated Public Relations

Cited by 86 publications

References 65 publications

Bring publics back into networked public relations research: A dual-projection approach for network ecology

Bring publics back into networked public relations research: A dual-projection approach for network ecology

A Social Networks Approach to Online Social Movement: Social Mediators and Mediated Content in #FreeAJStaff Twitter Network

Keep the Ball Rolling: Information Diffusion within Large Sports-Related Networks through Social Mediators

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