My paper abstract for the ICA Preconference called “The Long History of New Media” can be found below. If you are interested in reading the full paper, I’d be happy to send it to you. The paper includes lots of examples of social media applications (culled from PRWeek and PR News articles) and summaries of research reports on public relations and social media. The paper concludes with the results of an exploratory study of practitioner user.

 A historical examination of the development of social media and its relationship to the public relations industry

Social media have directly impacted the processes of communication and relationship building, not just among individuals, but also between organizations and their publics. With communication and relationship building often the responsibility of public relations practitioners, these professionals have recognized their critical role in helping organizations succeed in this new environment as well as the need to rethink previous approaches.

While much has been written about the development of social media, the relationship between social media and the public relations industry has not been documented. This paper tracks the development of social media and the implementation of its various forms as public relations tools. Also discussed is how traditional public relations instruments, such as press releases, have been transformed to incorporate social media. Surveys of public relations professionals are used to illustrate the increasing acceptance of social media in public relations as well as changing expectations.