Proceedings of the 4th World Conference on Media and Communication
Year: 2024
DOI:
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The Optimization of Social Media Affordances in Public Relations Practice in Saudi Arabia: A Public and Practitioner Perspective
Dr.Abdalhadi M Almfleah
ABSTRACT:
This paper contains the findings of a mixed methods research conducted in Saudi Arabia to investigate the optimization of social media affordances by PR and communication practitioners from the perspective of both the publics and practitioners. Visibility, persistence, editability, and sociability were identified as the four social media affordances from extant literature. Data were collected using an online questionnaire completed by the public that follows the Saudi Telecom Company (STC) (N= 142) on Twitter and semistructured interviews with STC PR and communication practitioners (N= 7). Significant positive relationships were reported on all four social media affordances. The public perceived editability and visibility to be the most optimized affordances while practitioners considered visibility to be the most optimized affordance.
keywords: Social Media, Affordances, Public Relations, Saudi Arabia, Communication, New Media