How Public Relations Practitioners Perceive Social Media Platforms? A Media Richness Perspective
Prior studies on the use of social media by public relations professionals are often descriptive and did not apply communication theories to fully evaluate the richness of this emerging communication platform. These studies did not explain the technology adoption process of public relations professionals. On the basis of Media Richness Theory, the authors assessed the perceptions of 162 public relations professionals from a national sample in the United States to identify emerging media richness dimensions of social media. This study found that these dimensions are not the same as those in other mass and traditional media platforms. This chapter suggests that social media should not simply be compared to traditional media, because they have demonstrated unique medium characteristics. Both theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.