Authenticity: Meanings,targets, audiences and third parties

Research shows that perceived authenticity conveys value in many disparate domains. The analytical attention of this research focuses on producers of products and services, identifying which actions and structures the typical individual associates with authenticity. Far less is known about how individuals and audiences differ in their interest, receptiveness and response to potentially authentic entities and services. Even less is known about how regulators, certifiers, critics and other third parties play a role in the social construction of authenticity. Yet the perception and valuation of a product or service as authentic rests largely with heterogeneous audiences and interpretive third parties. Accordingly, in this chapter, we review and develop theory and empirical research about how targeted entities (producers, persons, products, services), audiences and third parties combine to produce authenticity. For targets, we examine the range of actions and structures of various entities that have been empirically associated with authenticity. For audiences, we explore variations in interests in authenticity based on domain engagement, cosmopolitanism, and cross-cultural differences. For third parties, we consider the roles of other audience members, certifiers and regulators. Finally, we conceptualize a co-evolutionary process whereby targets, audiences and third parties combine to generate social pockets where authenticity is recognized and highly valued.     

关于网络公共领域中新闻建构者的探讨——以“新浪微博”为例

在后现代社会中传统公共领域逐渐瓦解之时,新媒体技术的运用却使网络形成了新的公共领域。与此同时,媒介的建构也发生着巨大改变,原本的新闻受众也可能成为新闻建构者。因此,受众对于新闻建构的作用更为凸显。在新闻传播过程不同环节的建构行为中,网络使得受众加入建构行列,并对建构结果带来终极意义的影响。但传统新闻产制过程中传播者大多为新闻专业人士,新闻建构问题也主要从其角度讨论。因而以新媒体时代拥有双重身份的受众为研究角度也便有了特殊的价值。     

Distinguishing among publics,audiences, and stakeholders in the social media era of unanticipated publics

Public relations is failing to distinguish among publics, audiences, and stakeholders in today’s social media era, even though the business and marketing literature has begun discussing “brand publics.” This article clarifies the terms and explains the practical value in the definitions and distinctions. It also introduces a new term, “unanticipated publics” and provides a way to conceptualize those publics’ impact from the social network perspective.     

The politics of Latino publics: Immigration reform,political participation and intention to vote

Latinos are the largest U.S. minority group and are poised to play an increasingly important role in U.S. society. Public relations practitioners who work in politics should be interested in what motivates young Latinos to participate in politics. This study reports the findings of a national nonprobability survey with young Latinos (N = 434). The analysis explores how demographic variables, acculturation, political ideology and media use predict perceptions of the importance of immigration reform, reported political participation, and vote likelihood in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Of the dependent variables, findings show that acculturation (β = ?0.13) only predicts perceptions of the importance of immigration reform, suggesting acculturation’s effects are issue specific. Interest in politics is the largest influential factor in predicting all of the dependent variables.