Editorial Record: Submitted November 9, 2022. Revised April 27, 2023. Revised June 20, 2023. Accepted June 27, 2023. Published January 2024.

Authors

Abstract

Technology advances in society demand progressive course development from higher education institutions. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of a new social media course based on PR pedagogy and Dewey’s theory of experience to determine if it adds to the knowledge of communication and responds to the digitally converged public relations industry. The course utilized the pragmatic approach to increase student knowledge in the areas of self, authenticity, privacy, professional use, and relationships on social media. Pre- and post-course surveys tracked the development of learning outcomes. The findings show that critical pedagogy and Dewey’s integration of experience are starting points for designing courses where students have extensive familiarity with the subject matter. This approach to course design moves social media out of the role of a tool to emphasize the full impact of social media and the digital PR industry on students’ personal and professional lives and on relationship-building efforts between brands and their key publics. 

Keywords: public relations curriculum, social media, integrated marketing communication, digital media, social media pedagogy 

Introduction 

Social media is part of daily life and society and, as a result, has become an in-demand industry with economic impact, particularly in public relations, a strategic communication process where organizations strive to “build mutually beneficial relationships” with their key publics (Kelleher, 2017, p.4). As noted by leading researchers, “There is a growing need to provide dedicated academic instruction designed to prepare graduates for careers in which they will use social media strategically” (Freberg & Kim, 2018, p. 380). Communication and business departments have taken on the challenge of educating students on the demands of the integrated marketing communication industry (Rehman et al., 2022). This is particularly critical as two of the professional core competencies outlined by the Accrediting Council on Education in Journalism and Mass Communications (ACEJMC) include teaching students to “1) present images and information effectively and creatively, using appropriate tools and technologies, 2) write correctly and clearly in forms and styles appropriate for the communications professions, audiences and purposes they serve” (ACEJMC, 2022). An online analysis of 75 university master’s programs in public relations (PR), followed by surveys and in-depth interviews with working PR professionals, revealed that participants want a curriculum “that includes the newest digital tools and strategies for communication careers…” including storytelling, digital and social media strategy, and measuring communication effectiveness (O’Neil & Lambaise, 2016, p. 13). 

However, while most universities have PR, advertising, and marketing courses, they may only incorporate social media as a module or a valuable tool. As noted by Luttrell et al. (2021), there is a need for more courses, trainings, and certificate programs that focus on digital and social media in the changing media environment. However, an exploratory literature search on teaching social media in PR revealed very little about training students for this new industry segment from a PR perspective (Hamadi et al., 2021). The desire to build an academically rigorous and industry-centered course drives this research and establishes the goal of testing a pedagogic model frequently used in communication departments to determine the effectiveness of a digital PR course focusing on foundational social media topics. 

Department Needs

The new course need originated from a department with strong public relations and advertising programs. These programs are housed in a department of communication focused on PR, journalism, public speaking, and broadcasting. The course was requested to meet local employer needs and update the curriculum with industry-desired skill sets     (ACEJMC, 2022; Freberg & Kim, 2018). This update in the curriculum also addresses the issues noted in the Commission on Public Relations Education (CPRE) Spotlight Series on technology trends in PR, specifically, proficiency in new tools and platforms, data usage, and new uses for platforms (Kinsky, 2022). These areas were addressed in the course, emphasizing professional and business purposes modules and the privacy modules that discuss metadata usage. 

Although the course needed to focus on training students in technology, it needed to do so but still advance the goals of the existing PR curriculum. The frame of the course was focused on achieving PR objectives like building relationships and maintaining a positive reputation instead of business or marketing goals, as covered by the curriculum in the marketing department.  

Course Design

The new course design needed flexibility for essential topics to be discussed face-to-face in a weekly module structure. Each week focused on crucial communication, PR, and social psychology theories, like social comparison theory, diffusion of innovation, and parasocial interaction, that are exhibited on social media both professionally and personally to help students see the connection between theory and online human communication (Humphreys, 2015; Luttrell et al., 2021; Zhong, 2021). In addition to the assigned readings from strategic communication texts, student assignments included writing weekly online discussions based on prompts in the learning management system (LMS). The prompts asked for student opinions and experiences to leverage the critical pedagogy framework (Talib, 2018). As commonly seen in PR communication courses, writing assignments allow class discussions to synthesize student responses with their experiences or perceptions about the theories. Finally, modules on social media platform functionality were incorporated to underscore digital literacy and reputation management elements of social media and PR. These modules emphasized the form and function of how each of the major platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc.) could be used professionally. 

The initial course conceptualization included essential theories, skill development, and basic functional know-how. A review of essential topics showed that a foundational social media course should touch on concepts similar to traditional public relations and interpersonal courses: a sense of self, relationships, conflict, culture, and professional/leadership communication. Utilizing those course structures, plus the key topics from digital PR courses together, created a framework for the new course. The established interpersonal communication and PR pedagogy allowed social media topics and platform functionality to be discussed along with aspects of relationships, reputation, and conflict while integrating the digital lives that Gen Z college students lead, connecting the basis of the course to Dewey’s concept of pragmatism by using experience in the classroom (Bull et al., 2008; Dewey, 1938; Langmia et al., 2013; Talib, 2018). 

The next step in the course design was reviewing what classes existed and the focus of those courses. Approximately 25 publicly available social media syllabi from 2017 to 2021 from state and regional universities were reviewed for approach, key topics, learning objectives, and course descriptions. Many of the courses used social media as a business tool or for digital journalism. As a result, there was still the question of how to design a social media course that provides academic rigor, ties in key concepts of PR, and provides a foundation for understanding the social media industry. 

The new course was also intended to be the first in a series of courses in a certificate aimed at training students in PR and developing social media skills. Although this course addresses the needs of the developing social media industry, the course and certificate needed to be grounded in concepts essential to producing PR students equipped with the training to become more than technicians of the technology but to embrace professionalism and relationship-building qualities of PR in a digital space (Brunner, 2022). 

Literature Review

Current Social Media Pedagogy

There are three distinct ways social media pedagogy has been discussed in higher education and PR programs. The first way was as a tool to help understand traditional communication concepts or as a learning management asset (Hamadi et al., 2021; Talib, 2018), such as interpersonal communication in digital spaces. The second was a media or digital literacy component in introductory speech courses emphasizing functionality or knowing how to use it for academic research (Reyna et al., 2018; Stewart, 2015). The third way was integrating a section about social media to help understand the relationship between human communication and technology in any given subject, like mass media (Reyna et al., 2018). Although beneficial teaching approaches, these structures did not address the course design needed for a foundational social media course in an integrated PR program that would serve as an entry point in the curriculum for earning a digital communication certificate. Due to the gap in current academic scholarship related to the design of a social media in PR course, the course for this study was developed and tested.

Course Design Challenges

The approach to building this course is different from the three approaches to social media pedagogy mentioned above because social media was addressed as more than functional know-how or a lens into the digital world, but as a course that specifically trained students to design and create messages that achieve purposeful digital PR goals. The variables found in current research connect to three main clusters of learning: 1) knowledge of self, 2) knowledge of the industry, and 3) knowledge of others (Perloff, 2014; Rewaria, 2021; Schlosser, 2020; Talib, 2018). 

The new social media course integrated traditional communication and pedagogical theories like Uses and Gratifications Theory (UGT), Bloom’s Taxonomy, and Dewey’s concept of pragmatism, along with essential topics in social media communication and PR (Perloff, 2014; Rewaria, 2021; Schlosser, 2020; Talib, 2018). The initial process of designing a social media course posed a challenge based on the prevailing view of social media in higher education as an integrative tool instead of a developing industry and potential academic program (Hamadi et al., 2021; Stewart, 2015; Talib, 2018). Additionally, as public relations courses already existed, there needed to be a clear academic framework for the course learning objectives, such as Bloom’s Taxonomy, which is a classification system developed to define and distinguish levels of human cognition (Bloom et al., 1956). The revised version of Bloom’s Taxonomy includes, from highest to lowest:  remembering, understanding, applying, evaluating, and creating. (Anderson & Krathwohl, 2001). As many schools have embraced Bloom’s Taxonomy when writing student learning objectives, the concepts became foundational in creating the new course that could be a part of the PR specialization and a starting point for a new certificate. In addition to balancing industry needs and academic requirements, the new course’s design needed to acknowledge that students were coming in with prior knowledge of the subject matter, as many have multiple social media accounts and have actively engaged on social media for several years across many platforms. Dewey’s concept of pragmatism connects the concepts of learning and experience and, thus, was also the starting place for course design, as student experience needed to be woven into the course assignments. 

Uses and Gratifications Theory

Uses and gratifications theory (UGT) (Katz et al. 1973-1974) is a subtradition of media effects research (McQuail, 1994) and examines the needs, motivations, and gratifications of media users. In the most recent applications as a framework, UGT applies to computer-mediated communication (CMC) environments, including social media, where users are more empowered since switching between mediums that provide similar services or content is relatively easy. Four extracted gratification factors related to social media pedagogy in previous research include trust, profit, learning, and social, all of which have high validity and reliability, along with an expressed desire among learners for co-content creation in social media course design, which is consistent with UGT, “which considers users to be active decision-makers who seek, use, and apply media for their own purposes” (Wu & Song, 2019, p. 2). Therefore, in pedagogical research and teaching related to social media and digital media strategy, professors must understand the needs of learners so that they can use social media correctly and more effectively achieve their teaching goals (Wu & Song, 2019). 

Generation Z (Gen Z), born between approximately 1997-2010, is considered the first truly digital native generation, as members of this cohort have always known a digital world with social media (Francis & Hoefel, 2018; Mosca et al., 2019). Gen Z may be technology dependent and proficient, but these students still need instruction on solving problems and utilizing technology to create and implement effective PR strategies (Gaidhani et al., 2019; Mosca et al., 2019). 

Social Media Usage

In relation to UGT, social media usage was addressed to determine whether requiring students to have a social media account and to communicate on a social media platform for course credit results in positive interactions.      Previous research suggests that requiring any social media usage could backfire and result in a bad experience impacting future usage (Stewart, 2015). Additionally, many of the platforms used by instructors are not used heavily by students (Brubaker et al., 2021). Since this course was designed with the intent of being the first of three courses (followed by content creation and social media management), the class discussions integrated previously observed behaviors instead of creating forced, academically composed responses that are typically observed on required course discussion boards in an LMS (Booth, 2012; Liu, 2019; Suler, 2004). To avoid inauthentic social media participation, assignment prompts were created and housed in the LMS as journal entries instead of forcing students to communicate with each other via social media. Keeping the discussions on the LMS helped students think critically about their previous experiences before class, as the LMS would prompt them about the upcoming deadline while also preparing students to engage in class discussions face-to-face. For example, the prompt on the LMS on social capital was multifaceted and stated, “Explain social capital in your own words. How do you think social media influencers create or build their social capital? Provide an example of positive and negative use of social capital.” The prompts would be integrated into class time to allow students to add their own experiences to the discussion. This understanding led to using (UGT) as a framework for applying critical pedagogy and the pragmatist approach. This is seen in many traditional public speaking or interpersonal communication courses where personal experience is leveraged in the classroom to achieve specific learning objectives. 

Dewey and Experience 

Dewey’s (1938) theory of experience in education was used as a guide as social media is participatory, and students’ experiences provide a basis of understanding that must be acknowledged before introducing new concepts. Students come in with varying levels of expertise since social media is so accessible. Dewey (1938) highlighted experiences as a starting point for education and saw education as a partner with experience (Berding, 1997; Hutchinson, 2015). The emphasis on experience or doing versus discussion or memorization is the heart of pragmatism in education. The concepts of pragmatism as a teaching approach can be summed up with “four critical John Dewey concepts: (1) democratic society, (2) progressive and authentic education, (3) reflection, and (4) freedom and guided discovery” (Milunic, 2013, p. 27). This course touches on all four elements with a focus on concepts two through four, as students leaving the course must know how to communicate effectively on social media and be willing to learn from past experiences.   

Many pedagogical approaches are based on giving students new experiences to help them learn and shape their view of a subject. Dewey’s (1938) theory of experience was chosen as it involves the use of history as “a potent agent in appreciation of the living present” (Seaman, 2019, p. 23). This course needed to use past experiences as a springboard for social media analysis. The reshaping of critical topics through the discussion of experiences is what could make a PR social media course the most effective. Experiences on various platforms (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube) are also a point of emphasis as social media are continually changing, and the trends are constantly shifting. Through exploration and experience, students can see the trends that make specific posts popular and understand, holistically, social media’s effects on industry and society beyond the technical aspects of how to craft an engaging TikTok (or current trend).

Combining a critical theory and a pragmatist approach with Bloom’s Taxonomy creates a course that challenges students to go beyond their current views of social media and begin to see its impact on society, identity, culture, and communication (Talib, 2018). 

Assessment and Assignments

In choosing course assignments to achieve the learning objectives, written assignments in the LMS were paired with in-class discussions to provide opportunities that allow for higher levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy to be mastered. Bloom’s Taxonomy starts with the foundational remember and understand objectives in the classroom and moves to more challenging levels of applying concepts and evaluating quality (Bloom et al., 1956). The final levels of the Taxonomy are evaluate and create, which utilize the foundational levels to achieve complex learning outcomes ((Bloom et al., 1956; Krathwohl & Anderson, 2009). Although the course had the digital topic of social media, written assignments were not abandoned as a pedagogical tool. Bean (2011) focuses on incorporating writing into any course, regardless of the discipline. Integrating PR and social media observations into written assignments provides a clear opportunity to assess and ensure students achieve the learning objectives (Bean, 2011; Li & Guo, 2015). “Good writing assignments evoke a high level of critical thinking, help students wrestle productively with a course’s big questions, and teach disciplinary ways of seeing, knowing, and doing” (Bean, 2011, p. 2). The emphasis on writing helps establish the link between the assignment and learning objectives for the course and prompts critical thinking that sparks the reshaping of experience and understanding of the communication that occurs on social media. 

Additionally, cognitive learning is observed through assignment grades; the knowledge of self was harder to assess, so this study utilized a pre-and post-course survey as seen in other pedagogical research to track the development of specific learning outcomes (Broeckelman-Post et al., 2021; Hufford, 2010; Kirkwood et al., 2011). This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of the new social media course based on PR pedagogy and Dewey’s theory of experience to determine if it adds to the knowledge of communication and responds to the digitally converged communication industry.

PR/Social Media Industry 

The digital PR and social media industry is more complicated than it initially appears, making teaching digital PR and social media challenging as it requires knowledge of a digitally converged industry (Luttrell et al., 2021; Sutherland & Ho, 2017). Developing a topic-specific series of courses that emphasizes human behavior, relationship management, content creation, and account management can address the gap in current higher education training and career emphasis. The burden lies on departments and faculty to be up-to-date on industry expectations and needs (Freberg & Kim, 2018; Luttrell et al., 2021). “As social media becomes an essential part of work and life in general, some argue that social media should be considered a core twenty-first-century skill” (Sutherland & Ho, 2017, p. 262). An intimate knowledge of the industry and theory is needed to create effective courses. Social media should not just be taught as a tool but with a holistic approach to address the new professional and personal communication implications. One guiding principle of social media is that it is ever-changing; thus, emphasizing digital or social media literacy can be limiting as new platforms, trends, and communication styles are developed. 

Foundational Knowledge

Digital literacy, communication, and creating effective marketing content tend to be the most apparent skills for social media courses. The psychology behind human behavior and PR tactics are also foundational to social media effectiveness. The relevant psychology topics significant for social media, include identity/self, authenticity, and in PR, relationships, and reputation management. For Gen Z, these topics are essential, as they seek out truth and authenticity in dialogue and emphasize being yourself in interpersonal communication situations (Abreu, 2019; Francis & Hoefel, 2018; Witt & Baird, 2018). Body image, catfishing, finstas (fake Instagram accounts), misinformation, and relationship problems are commonly cited issues with social media (Jones, 2013; Perloff, 2014; Williams & Ricciardelli, 2014). Understanding these issues and concepts is essential in the industry to avoid writing content that can be seen as tone-deaf or lacking in effectiveness. The viral nature of positive and negative content adds new challenges as the factors that create a crisis situation also include social media crises. Connecting with key audiences becomes a primary focus that requires understanding social media’s pros and cons. This discussion leads to the following hypotheses:  

H1: Students’ understanding of self and social media will increase after taking this course.

H2: Students’ understanding of the authenticity of communication (in relationships) on social media will increase after taking this course. 

Additionally, privacy is a major topic on social media and impacts how people use the platforms. Data breaches and scandals like Cambridge Analytica impact users’ platform choices (Kennedy, 2018; Lawler et al., 2018). Privacy issues are a concern, as seen with the focus on TikTok and WeChat, China-owned companies, and their use of metadata (Vigdor, 2020). Privacy and data usage should become a foundational social media concept to be taught to all students, especially those planning to enter the industry (Talib, 2018). This analysis leads to the third hypothesis:  

H3: Students’ understanding of privacy issues on social media will increase after taking this course. 

  The final important area to highlight is the differences between personal and professional usage. This concept includes using PR to brand a company and communicate based on that brand voice. As seen in Dewey’s pragmatist approach, there should be an emphasis on experience, but experience, in this case, can be utilized to establish the quality of messages posted on social media. The industry sets its trends and standards for what is acceptable. Personal experiences on social media provide a framework for students but also challenge students to consider the business situations that motivate professional social media usage (Schroth, 2019). For instance, in a study exploring the impacts of social media content posted by Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) on Twitter, Yue et al. (2019) found that high personal disclosure by CEOs did not increase the perceived likability or competence of the CEO, but CEOs’ professional disclosures effectively achieved high levels of perceived relationship investment from publics. Therefore, understanding the differences in personal and professional platform usage and how to use social media platforms to communicate most effectively in a business setting and to build relationships between organizations and their key publics is a skill that needs to be developed, especially as students come in with knowledge of how to produce personal content on social media (Fratti, 2013; Schroth, 2019). This discussion leads to the final hypothesis:

H4: Students’ view that social media is useful for professional and business purposes will increase after taking the course. 

Methodology

Procedures

IRB approval was obtained for this study and covered the administration of pre-and post-class surveys hosted on Qualtrics. Participants for this study were students enrolled in the sections of a special topic course, fundamentals of social media, at a university in the Southeastern United States during the spring, summer, and fall semesters of 2019. Although the lead researcher/instructor of record recruited students from the courses and encouraged participation, students were not required to complete these tasks and were not penalized if they chose not to participate. To reduce the variance of this study, all three selected sections met in a face-to-face format that integrated substantial LMS components. The class met twice per week and was taught by the same instructor. In all sections, students completed written social media communication assignments based on the same prompts that were uniquely written by the instructor but based on topics found in Humphrey’s (2015) text on social media theory. For example, the module on identity asked, “How does social media impact the way we see ourselves and others? How can we prevent FOMO (fear of missing out) or the negative impacts on our self-esteem?” The module on digital media laws asked, “What suggestions do you have for helping our laws catch up to our social media use?” During the semesters, all students willingly completed pre-and post-course surveys to measure the variables of self, authenticity, privacy, professional use, and relationships (Perloff, 2014; Rewaria, 2021; Schlosser, 2020; Talib, 2018; Xu et al., 2012). 

Participants 

A total of 75 participants were included in this study. Of the participants who responded to the pre-and post-course survey, 69.3% (N = 52) were female, 29.4% (N = 22) were male, and 1.3% (N = 1) identified as other. For ethnicity, 64% (N = 48) identified themselves as white or Caucasian, 16% (N = 12) as Black or African American, 5% (N = 4) as Hispanic or Latino, 4% (N = 3) Asian and 11% (N = 8) indicated other. When it came to age demographics, 92% (N = 69) of respondents were between 19-24 years old, 5% (N = 4) were 25-34 years old, 1.3% (N = 1) were between 45-53 years old, and 1.3% (N = 1) preferred not to respond. The participants were predominantly communication majors (97%, N = 73) since the course is an upper-level communication course with specific prerequisites like basic communication and introduction to PR.  

Measures

The lead researcher/instructor of record asked students to take a 30-question online Qualtrics survey within the first week of the semester and then asked them to retake the same survey before finals week. The surveys were open for seven days at the beginning and end of the semester. The survey took students around 30 minutes to complete. The survey content focused on social media habits, usage, favorite platforms, and PR concepts, including stakeholder identification (Rawlins, 2006), branding (Mikáčováa & Gavlakov, 2014), professional message usage (Doyle, 2008), and users’ overall comfort level on social media. Some of the questions included assessments like “I am confident posting and commenting on social media” and “I know how to use social media for business purposes,” with a five-point Likert scale ranging from definitely disagree to agree completely. No open-ended questions were used for this study. As mentioned above, the survey was designed to glean insight into the following five variables: self, authenticity, relationships, privacy, and professional use. 

Each of the five variables was addressed in two different questions to help verify student understanding and opinions and were operationalized as follows, using a 5-point Likert agreement scale in each case:

Self – is the perception of one’s qualities and characteristics. This variable was measured with questions such as, “Who I am on social media accurately reflects who I am.”

Social media understanding – is digital literacy regarding the features and functions of each social media platform. This variable was investigated with questions like “I am confident posting and commenting on social media.”

Authenticity – the truthful representation of a person’s identity and personality. This was also an attention-check variable with questions on the authenticity of Relationships and self. One question asked, “Which social media platform do you believe is best for building relationships?”

Privacy – from the Merriam-Webster dictionary (2021), “freedom from unauthorized intrusion” on social media. This variable was measured with do you agree with questions with statements like “Social media platforms protect my privacy and data.”

Professional and business purpose– considers that the motivation for communication is based on a business situation and seeks to meet an organization’s goal or PR message. This variable included an attention check by asking two questions regarding professional and business communication by changing up the terminology to determine if the Likert response had remained consistent. Additional questions asked which platforms were best for specific business functions and also asked about the confidence level of communicating a business purpose on certain social media platforms. 

Results

A within-subjects MANOVA was conducted to determine whether students in class improved their understanding of key social media topics. A MANOVA was chosen based on the number of dependent variables and the ability to simultaneously conduct multiple analyses on the dependent variables. Additionally, a MANOVA limits the possibility of a null hypothesis by reducing a joint error rate with multiple dependent variables. To reduce familywise inflation of alpha, a MANOVA with three independent variables (course, gender, age) and five dependent variables (self, authenticity, relationships, privacy, and professional use) was conducted. Box’s M test for the equality of covariance matrices was not significant at the .001 level [F (36, 4130.64) = 1.07, p >.001], so Wilk’s Lambda values were used. Multivariate tests showed significant main effects for time [F (4, 68) = 1.25, p = .00, η_p² = .07, power = 1.00], which indicates an increase in the dependent variables from the beginning to the end of the semester. The test also showed significant results of time by gender [F (4, 68) = 4.78, p = .03, η_p² = .07, 

power = .6], and time by age [F (4, 68) = 1.11, p = .001, η_p² = .06, power = .3]. No other main effects or interaction effects were significant.   

Tests of between-subjects effects further confirmed that there were significant differences for privacy, [F (4, 68) = 3.69, p = .05, η_p² = .05] and relationship, [F (4, 68) = 3.72, p = .05, η_p² = .07] and professional use [F (1, 71) = 1.20, p = .007, η_p² = .08]. Indicating an increase in students’ understanding of knowledge of industry and knowledge of others, supporting hypotheses 3 and 4.

However, there were no significant main effects for self [F (1, 71) = 264.78, p = .09, η_p² = 1.15, power = .1] and authenticity [F (1, 3) = 1.87, p = .23, η_p² = .097, power = .4] which does not support hypotheses 1 and 2. Pairwise comparisons indicate that students did not change the way they view their identity of self and how they communicate on social media from the beginning (M= 1.88) to the end (M= 1.91) of the semester. Means and standard deviations are shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Means and Standard Deviations
	M	SD	.
Self and social media confidence	1.91	.29
Authenticity Relationships	3.653.39	.76.93
Privacy	2.19	.93
Professional and business purpose	6.24	1.35

Discussion

  This research builds knowledge of how to teach an industry-appropriate PR social media course in a higher education setting. This project approached the topic uniquely as it combined traditional communication pedagogy concepts with industry needs and societal concerns. Creating a course to set the foundation for additional classes was challenging as multiple pedagogical techniques could be utilized, especially considering the digital options. This research used a longitudinal approach to gauge the learning objectives and level of knowledge increase in students who took this foundational course. 

In the first hypothesis, H1: Students’ confidence in using social media will increase after taking this course; the concept of confidence and self while using social media was not supported. These variables explored how identity and image discussions affect how students feel about themselves while communicating in digital spaces. The lack of a significant finding indicates a needed shift in how a sense of self is discussed and further insight into the relationship between identity and self in online spaces. Additionally, the characteristics of Gen Z must be factored in as the students are digital natives and have grown up knowing who they are in digital spaces and do not think about themselves in fragmented identities of real and online/digital self (Francis & Hoefel, 2018). Due to growing up as digital natives, comfortable with social media, the students had high skill levels coming into class and were already comfortable navigating social media platforms and posting their own content. Future research may further explore concepts like fear of missing out (FOMO) and how social media content can influence mental health and individuals’ sense of identity, self, and ultimately their behaviors both on and offline.

This outcome and hypothesis related to hypothesis two, H2: Students’ understanding of the authenticity of communication (in relationships) on social media will increase after taking this course was partially supported with a significant result in relationships and an insignificant result in authenticity, which was surprising. Self and authenticity in digital spaces are important aspects of Gen Z as this generation is comfortable with technology and cannot remember a time without cell phones (Francis & Hoefel, 2018). Gen Z can easily communicate via technology and values individuality but despises labels, which is a motivating factor for communication. The emphasis on authenticity and knowing the self are defining characteristics of the generation (Francis & Hoefel, 2018). After further review of existing literature, this is a trend and supports that there would be no significant effect noted. For instance, the BeReal app was the 5th most popular social media app in February 2022, three years after the course in the current study concluded (Sklencar, 2022, Oct). This app, which is based on the premise of authenticity and the fact that users are asked to post a real photo of themselves, with no filters, one time per day at random, has gained exponential popularity in a short time– jumping from 7.67 million downloads in April 2022 to 53 million worldwide downloads in October 2022, or 315%, according to Apptopia (Davis, 2022). The popularity of such apps like BeReal among Gen Z is notable, and platforms that emphasize authenticity should continue to be explored in courses such as this as students learn to professionally leverage unfiltered, authentic content strategically, on a holistic level, from a PR standpoint. Integrating the topics that discuss self and authenticity is still valuable to include in critical pedagogy and a holistic approach to the subject, especially as the emphasis on digital relationships from a PR perspective adds additional complexity.

The next area that this research examined was privacy. H3: Students’ understanding of the privacy issues on social media will increase after taking this course. This topic’s significant results show that including discussions on metadata, terms of the agreement, and analyzing previous data breach scandals show students that a click is not just a click and that it means something in the digital world. Integrating readings, discussions, and written prompts allows students to engage with a topic they have observed but do not know much about. Using critical pedagogy and Dewey’s pragmatism is especially poignant in discussing privacy, as students can see the impact but do not understand the full implication. As noted by other authors, “Students have told me that they have noticed ads specifically tailored to them based on their previous page views, searches, clicks, purchases, and chats; however, most students underestimate the scale and detail of behavioral tracking, misunderstand its basic processes (particularly the role of third-party trackers), and lack an appreciation for its social consequences (ideological or otherwise)” (Corrigan, 2015, p. 49). Emphasizing restraint and transparency in the discussions can help students enter the workforce in a big data era. 

Finally, the last hypothesis, H4: Students’ view that social media is useful for professional and business purposes will increase after taking the course, had significant results indicating the need to train students with professional communication skill sets in digital spaces. The increase in knowledge will help students take their experiences as consumers and use them to become the producers of information and connect with appropriate influencers. Students are familiar with the platforms from the consumer side but need additional courses on being a producer and receiver of professionally oriented social media information. Integrated marketing communication proficiency includes being familiar with and adeptly employing content designed to generate engagement and a two-way dialogue related to personal and organizational branding, building mutually beneficial relationships with key publics in PR, promoting products and services in advertising, creating effective customer service and hospitality practices, and applying marketing concepts (Yue et al., 2021). Learning such skills will benefit students as they shift their view of social media platforms from leisure, entertainment, and escape to places where they can generate strategically designed business messages to consumers. UGT is particularly salient here and an area for future research in social media scholarship and pedagogy. As noted above, there are four extracted gratification factors related to social media pedagogy, and trust and profit connect to PR concepts of creating mutually beneficial relationships, especially those that benefit an organization (Wu & Song, 2019). Using UGT as a framework for future research on PR conducted on social media allows for emphasis on how practitioners use social media and how users/publics use it to connect to organizations. 

Course Design Outcomes

Considering the findings of this study, the course was altered following the study to allow for additional time in the syllabus to discuss professional communication needs and how the inclusion of brand identity and personality is essential for connecting with key publics and users. As a foundational course, opportunities to build clear professional communication expectations can be carried forward into the following PR and digital courses. Another key aspect of this concept is tailoring the message to the platform and the publics found in each space. As noted above, students are not on every platform and, as a result, will need to be shown and instructed on how to communicate with publics varying in demographics and psychographics. 

Another change is based on the privacy finding that necessitates additional time and assignment opportunities to allow for data security concerns, as seen with social media data collection, to be discussed. Dewey’s theory of experience and UGT come into discussions regarding data privacy as students have stories from their own usage. For example, an additional assignment tests priming from social media ads with an experiment to test a common fear that phones are listening to us. As marketing and advertisers use tailored ads to create relevant ad experiences, it is beneficial to students personally and professionally to be aware of current privacy and data collection methods. 

Finally, as some topics need more time, others have less time allotted on the syllabus. Using the findings, platform demos were reduced and combined. It was also found that assigning students to prepare a demo of the platforms focused the demo on the usage aspects they did not already know instead. This shift increased the value of the demos and took less time, freeing up class time for other significant topics. 

Limitations and Future Research 

This research’s limitations include the sample size and population, as this research was conducted at a regional comprehensive public university in the southeastern United States. A larger sample from a more urban setting should be conducted to assess this course design’s effectiveness in increasing student knowledge about social media. Although the five variables in this study were insightful, studying additional areas relevant to social media, like cyberbullying, extortion, and advertising/influencer messaging, would provide more insight into how students learn and react to communicating and building relationships online. A limitation of this study was the way the variable of relationships was presented from a personal frame in connection to authenticity, and an additional study should focus on the singular variable of the professional PR relationships. Additional research should also be conducted on additional social media courses like content development and social media management to determine if students are gaining the correct digital PR skill sets from academic institutions. 

Conclusion

This study emphasizes the pedagogical implications of a constantly changing digital industry. As PR continues to utilize digital tools and the industry becomes more converged, higher education courses need to be responsive to the changes in technology and how those changes impact PR tools, conversations, and skill sets. The findings show that critical pedagogy and Dewey’s integration of experience through pragmatism are starting points for designing courses where students have extensive familiarity with the subject matter. Coursework should integrate Dewey’s theory of experience and the high levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy of analyzing, evaluating, and creating to account for the knowledge students have of social media while providing industry insight while achieving the course’s learning objectives (Bloom et al., 1956). 

The approach to a foundational course found in this study is not a singular solution but can be a starting place for departments looking to create additional courses and programs that combine theory from multiple areas while also emphasizing the significance of social media communication in PR (Hamadi et al., 2021). This research is novel in that it grounds social media coursework in theory instead of emphasizing social media’s marketing or business purposes. Additionally, it moves social media out of the role of a tool to aid learning experiences and emphasizes the full impact of social media as an industry on students’ personal and professional lives (Freberg & Kim, 2018). 

Integrating experiences through a pragmatic approach is successful and acknowledges Gen Z students’ existing social media and technology experience (Francis & Hoefel, 2018; Mosca et al., 2019). Although this generation is comfortable with technology personally, comfort does not always mean knowledge and proficiency professionally. Social media courses that provide theoretical foundations should be created to help students reshape their current understanding of human behavior and communication as they enter the digitally converged PR and social media industry (Luttrell et al., 2021; Rehman et al., 2022).

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To cite this article: Riddell, H. and Bradshaw, A. (2024). Dewey and Social Media: Using a Pragmatic Approach to Designing a Foundational Public Relations Social Media Communication Course. Journal of Public Relations Education, 9(2), 2-37. https://journalofpreducation.com/?p=3991