BOONE – Dr. Tina McCorkindale, assistant professor of communication at Appalachian State University, has received a grant from the Arthur W. Page Center for Integrity in Public Relations to fund research surrounding ethics in social media.

McCorkindale’s 2011-12 project is titled “Clouded Transparency: An analysis of the perspectives and policies of social media in organizations.”  She will focus on a number of different national corporations’ policies for social media, such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.  The list of corporations ranges from Fortune 50 companies to nonprofits to private hospitals.

She will also analyze components of the corporations’ social media communication, including transparency, authenticity, frequency of dialogue between the organization and its public, and the topics discussed.  This analysis will be followed by interviews with social media managers at various companies in order to understand the most common philosophies in communicating through social media.

According to McCorkindale, most organizations using social media to reach their audiences lack strategy and the ability to monitor its impact on their bottom line.  Her research will guide organizations as they take advantage of the social media trend and offer a set of guidelines for how to conduct themselves ethically and responsibly through social media.

“People expect organizations to be good corporate citizens,” said McCorkindale.  “They expect them to give back to the community, they expect them to treat their employees well, they expect them to not destroy the environment.”

McCorkindale explained that today’s businesses are using social media to create a dialogue with their consumers, shareholders and those who have an interest in their business, with the hope that this will build trust with these audiences.  This form of open communication offers them an opportunity to serve their audiences more quickly and efficiently.

“The U.S. is in a trust deficit; people are less trusting of corporations,” said McCorkindale.  “Because there is less trust, companies are trying to be more transparent and open.  If you have a restrictive social media policy, you may not appear to be transparent.”

McCorkindale earned her Ph.D. in communication from the University of Miami as well as a master’s in public and corporate communication from the University of Southern Alabama and a bachelor’s in journalism from the University of Southern Mississippi.

The Arthur W. Page Center is a research center at the Penn State College of Communications dedicated to the study of ethics in corporate and public communication.  McCorkindale’s grant is one of 10 grants, totaling $55,600, awarded to communication researchers around the world for their important contributions to knowledge of responsibility in public communication.

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