Social Media, Organizational Identity and Public Relations

1 Introduction

Social media construct a reality where networks, artifacts, actors, meanings and identities converge without the traditional limitations of time and space (Gilpin, Palazzolo, & Brody, 2010; Fuchs, 2005). The volume of information available through this media, its persistence and its frenzied nature create a challenging landscape for communicators concerned with authenticity and organizational identity.

Over the past two decades, the literature on organizational identity has expanded, changed and required researchers to explore how, and by whom, identities are constructed. Within this research, essentially two main perspectives are presented on the nature of identity. Traditionally, the organizational literature has held that identity ...