How PR faced the challenge of the “information superhighway”

Before the Internet, social media and search engine optimisation, there was the “information superhighway” and the “Megachip age” in the 1980s. Although PR practitioners were slower than other communicators to recognise the potential of Internet and social media, there was some discussion thirty years ago. Drawing on the archive of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA), this paper reviews 21 papers of contemporary discussion over a 15 year period from 1981 to 1996 and draws lessons about the stages of adoption of innovative technology by practitioners. The views of practitioners varied over time. In the initial period from 1981 to 1987 their attitudes ranged from advancing the potential for rapid international outreach (Plank, 1983; Hietpas, 1984) to gloom about deskilling (McPhail 1987) and the future irrelevance of public relations counselling (Pessalano, 1984). From 1989 to 1996, as PR 1.0 (use of email) came in practice, there was less comment but continued concern that the faster information flow was leading to communication “dis-information” (Linning 1995). Only in 1996 was the term “Internet” introduced and lauded as beneficial development (Wilson, 1996). Overall, public relations practitioners are portrayed as slow to understand the benefits of the rapid technical advances in communication and holding doggedly to models of mediated communication. They also failed to foresee that information would be available for more people through IT developments, rather than fewer. The very evident reticence displayed by the IPRA publications sample may indicate why the digital communications sector was able to form outside the purview of the public relations sector and became a competitor to it (Theaker, 2004; Earl & Waddington, 2012)

PR's early response to the "information superhighway": The IPRA narrative

Before the Internet, social media and search engine optimisation, there was the “information superhighway” and the “Megachip age” in the 1980s. This paper, drawing on the archive of the International Public Relations Association (IPRA), reviews early discussion and adoption of innovative technology by practitioners through the application of historical method. It finds they were slow to appreciate the benefits of technical advances in communication and held doggedly to print-based models of mediated communication. Practitioners and thought leaders did not foresee that information would be available to more people through ICT developments. Practice responses, developed by reference to Rogers’ Diffusion Theory, were in three categories (in descending order of frequency) of Ignorers, Cautious/Sense-makers and Modernists/Adopters

Internet: Culture Diversity and Unification

Culture specifics of the Internet usage is analysed. The analysis done is a preliminary work for the application of the socio-historical theory of human mental development. The practice of the Internet usage is ambigious as it gives rise to both the unification and the diversity. The parameters analysed include the techniques of the hypertexts browsing,\ud and the status/position/rank of the communicators - its influence on holding the floor and turntaking rules, the ways the emotions are expressed while Internet communication, and the way the English language serves the functions of world-wide medium

Electronic stepping stones: a mosaic metaphor for the production and re-distribution of communicative skill in an electric mode

About the book: In this book the relation between architecture, management and organization theory, a relation much under-explored and long overdue for reconsideration, is explored. By looking at processes of organizing from a spatial perspective, the authors reveal interesting insights into how power, culture, change, and identity are embedded, enacted and played out in and through space. Not only do we shape buildings but buildings also shape us. The interaction between how we design our environments, how these environments influence our behavior and by extension, who we are, is the key issue that provides the coherent focus for this volume. Combining both theoretically inspiring as well as practically relevant contributions, the book will be of interest for people studying architecture, design, sociology, and anthropology as well as management and organization theory

HEP Outreach, Inreach, and Web 2.0

I report on current usage of multimedia and social networking "Web 2.0" tools for Education and Outreach in high-energy physics, and discuss their potential for internal communication within large worldwide collaborations, such as those of the LHC. Following a brief description of the history of Web 2.0 development, I present a survey of the most popular sites and describe their usage in HEP to disseminate information to students and the general public. I then discuss the potential of certain specific tools, such as document and multimedia sharing sites, for boosting the speed and effectiveness of information exchange within the collaborations. I conclude with a brief discussion of the successes and failures of these tools, and make suggestions for improved usage in the future.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90828/1/1742-6596_331_8_082003.pd

Mapping ms-ptc programmatic core competencies to emerging professionalization standards: are our students fully prepared?

This paper explores evaluation of graduate student preparedness for work in technical communication and emerging professionalization standards by way of an alumni survey. This paper argues that these core competencies can be evaluated and aligned and provides an example confirming both the New Jersey Institute of Technology Masters of Science in Professional and Technical Communication (NJIT MS-PTC) and the Society of Technical Communication (STC) Body of Knowledge (BOK) and core competencies used in STC certification. The study was conducted through the month of October 2013 and queried alumni of the NJIT MS-PTC program. This paper seeks to suggest a method to map core competencies of any university program to professionalization standards and contributes to the debate on student preparedness and program evaluation

Usability of hypertext : factors affecting the construction of meaning

One type of hypertext application, information retrieval, has become increasingly popular and accessible due to the explosion of activity occurring on the World Wide Web. These hypertext documents are referred to as web sites. Readers can now access a multitude of web sites and retrieve a wide variety of information. The uniqueness of a hypertext document centers around the concept that text is broken into an array of non-sequential text chunks, or nodes, which are connected through links. The hypertext reading can be considered an interactive experience requiring the reader to effectively navigate the document. The potentially complex link and node structure awaiting hypertext readers can lead them into becoming lost in hyperspace Usable hypertext design will maximize document coherence and minimize readers\u27 cognitive overhead, allowing readers to create an accurate mental model of the hypertext structure. Usability testing is designed to determine how easily the functionality of a particular system can be used, In this case, the system under investigation is New Jersey Institute of Technology\u27s web site. The usability of a hypertext document is affected by design elements which contribute to the content and structure of the hypertext. These design elements include good navigation aids, clear link labels, and consistent page layout

Integrating Web-Based Training into Communication Scholarship of Computer-Mediated Communication

As interest and use of the Internet through the World Wide Web increases, it becomes necessary for the Communication Discipline to reexamine its approach to studying computer-mediated communication. A meta-analysis of the discipline\u27s research in this area provides insight into the scholarly history of this subject. Included in this analysis is an examination of the discipline\u27s research in computer-based instruction, placed as a subcategory under computer-mediated communication. This study reveals a gaping hole in the communication scholarship of computer-mediated communication and offers suggestions as to how research of Web-based training might fill this gap. Additional discussion also reveals how research of Web-based training might provide a means for expanding the boundaries of the discipline\u27s current approach to studying computer-mediated communication