By: Erika Conaway, Sarah Phan, Jacquelyn Pozon, Sandra Thach
We had the great opportunity to conduct a Zoom interview with Cal State Fullerton’s Professor Spaulding about his work, Discerning Cases in Public Relations Strategy. Our group asked the following questions about his work, as well as, a deeper dive into the impacts of social media on communication strategies.
Questions:
- What decisions influenced you and your author peers to publish a book connecting real-world cases to the structure of public relations?
Professor Spaulding confessed that the book’s publisher had reached out to him and his author peers to evaluate this particular study. Like the mass amounts of studies in the world, there is always a lack of, or absence of written works about certain topics. In the field of Public Relations, studies of public relations strategies pulled from examples of real-life communication cases were nonexistent. A helpful tool that could support PR professionals and students in their endeavors. Within the book, there are vast PR topics that are employed to help readers apply these tactics to their chosen or interested professions. Topics such as Interactive Media, Crisis Communication, Issue Advocacy, etc. The realized importance the book’s research could play in the PR community and the current short supply of these publications ultimately influenced Professor Spaulding’s decision to go through with the study.
- While gathering real-life communication cases for the book, how often have you looked upon cases surrounding social media?
As Professor Spaulding gathered cases for his book, he didn’t emphasize gathering specifically from ones that included social media. He explained how when he and his co-authors were gathering data, they were just using any cases that were submitted to them. He wanted to have a slightly more broad and accurate representation of what an average person’s communication strategy looks like. However, they did receive some submissions regarding the use of social media, it just was not the focal point of the book’s topic. Professor Spaulding did find it interesting to make a version focusing on the use of social media because now more than ever, social media has become the number one way of communication and became that way very quickly.
- In the book, there were many facets of strategies and tactics that were drawn from real-life communication cases. What do you think are the most important factors when trying to decipher strategies from these cases?
When it comes to the real-life communication cases that are relevant within his book, Professor Spaulding identifies that the most important factors when trying to decipher the strategies are focusing on the layout of the case is, how the author explains the strategy they used and the way one interprets the case strategy themselves. He reveals that when it comes to cases that are used within his book, it is crucial to really focus on what you’re given. The layout provided gives the clear takeaways and implications intended and is supposed to be easier for students to decipher the main points trying to be conveyed. Although his book does give great strategies and how to decipher them, but Professor Spaulding reveals that people tend to confuse strategies and how to execute them based on gathering information from different works that have been published, ultimately creating a different outcome of understanding than originally intended. Professor Spaulding encourages students to be cautious and mindful of the outcome and strategy they want to achieve and be thoroughly particular of all of the things that can hinder them from successfully reaching their desired goal.
- What do you think are some necessary changes that PR has had to make to better communicate with the fast-paced and short attention span of today?
Looking towards today’s modern technology, Professor Spaulding brought up the relevance of artificial intelligence. It is well known that people fear AI’s ability to take over jobs or possibly even do a better job than us humans. However, he emphasizes that this technology can not replace those in PR, but rather can be used as a tool. In order for PR to be done well, there must be a strong foundation with knowledge of the building blocks. From his experiment, he has found that AI can provide us with a good formula or idea, but it isn’t accurate or lacks a lot of information. Even when there is a lot of content, it may not be important or relevant. This is why real people are still needed for PR work and many other fields. People have the ability to understand what is wrong with the information provided by AI and what steps need to be taken to make an idea work. The biggest takeaway in Professor Spaulding’s response to this question is that AI is just a tool that can be integrated into PR, but it can not actually displace the people who have a deeper understanding.
- Do you believe social media is fundamentally changing how students process and retain information, especially in academic settings? If so, how?
Being an academic instructor at CSUF, Professor Spaulding understands the current strain social media has on his students. He pulls instances from his in-person and Zoom classes about the impacts of social media imposed on his students and teaching curriculum. He states that social media has influenced his instructions as students developed shorter attention spans, in particular to the result of the popular platform, TikTok. With connections to the study in his book and academic experiences, he expresses that students’ cognitive retention is being severely impacted by social media, and rapidly so. Interactive media is a topic studied within the book and touches on the factors that make it a surging fad in today’s digital world, something that brings both excitement and cautionary presets. In his class, he has personally taken upon adjusting his teaching materials and reducing the screen time of a video to keep students engaged. A change that Professor Spaulding is hesitant, but fundamentally has to do to keep up with the digital impacts.
- Are there strategies that you recommend to college students who want to manage the negative effects of social media on their attention and academic performance?
Professor Spaulding has witnessed the effects of social media can have on a student firsthand while being an instructor at CSUF. He recommended that students should take periods off their phones if they can so they aren’t drawn to social media. He talked about how he’s noticed that students retrieve much of their information and “facts” from social media such as TikTok and X, formally known as Twitter. Especially with the rise of TikTok since 2019, students have relied on the app to give factual information and trust that what’s said is true. He expressed the importance of reading books and articles from educated and trustworthy sources and that many students forget about how opening a book is even an option. Even though social media, like TikTok, is not a trustworthy source to receive all information from, it does provide some benefits like sharing ideas or just to even get inspiration from. However, at the end of the day, reading sources that require critical thinking and talking to people face-to-face can be more rewarding and beneficial than any application on a device.
- Looking ahead, how do you think social media will continue to evolve, and what future impacts might we see on college students’ attention and academic success?
Pertaining to the idea of social media continuing to evolve, Professor Spaulding hopes that it will grow to be a credible source of information for students in the future. He expresses his want for social media to be reliable platforms for engagement amongst students rather than platforms of miscommunication that don’t benefit the quality of education. He touches base on the idea that popular media platforms such as Twitter, now goes by the title of “X”, was created to be a place where people were able to gather and share different points of view in a productive way but feels it has devolved from a profitable environment in this new era of technology. Professor Spaulding shares that he wishes to encourage students to be willing to disengage with social media platforms. With the idea that the younger generations lives’ revolve around social media, he believes that an educational space should be free of technological distractions and instead be full of attentiveness so that technology doesn’t serve as a disservice to their time and education as a whole. Worries of hindered ability to interact is another issue he touches upon. Having our educational environment be full of opportunities to interact and engage with others is a privilege and a skill he wants students to utilize now and in the future.
Infographics:
R.A.C.E. Model –
Department of Communication Studies. (2024). Strategic Public Relations Planning. Pressbooks.pub; Pressbooks. https://caul-cbua.pressbooks.pub/publicrelations/chapter/constructing-the-strategic-plan-for-a-public-relations-campaign/
2021 TikTok Engagement Data Graph –
Wallaroo. (2024, May 7). TikTok Statistics – Everything You Need to Know [May 2024 Update]. Wallaroo Media. https://wallaroomedia.com/blog/social-media/tiktok-statistics/
Interview with a Communication Scholar:
The Society for Communications Research 