Social Media, Organizational Identity and Public Relations

3 Critical Sensemaking (CSM) in a virtual environment

In this chapter, I provide a detailed discussion of the CSM framework (Helms Mills, Thurlow & Mills, 2010; Helms Mills, 2003), expanding upon the micro-level psycho-social properties of sensemaking and making connections to the critical context in which these properties operate. This will provide the necessary tools to evaluate how virtual identities are made meaningful through social media as future chapters present examples of identity enacted. CSM offers a useful method of understanding power and its influence on processes of organizing and identity construction. Drawing on the sensemaking property of plausibility in particular, I investigate how some organizational identities are made ...