Business and Professional Communication Quarterly Dec 2017

Confronting Negative Narratives: The Challenges of Teaching Professional Social Media Use

Sara West University of Arkansas at Fayetteville

Abstract

Because social media skills are increasingly viewed as essential for professionals, social media is incorporated frequently in business communication courses. When students are asked to consider professional uses of social media, however, they are often unwilling to critically engage these technologies. This article continues discussions of students’ reticence due largely to negative cultural narratives that label social media as unprofessional, or that link social media only with reputation management. Using student interviews and writing from a social media writing course, I discuss challenges posed by students’ adherence to these narratives and conclude with five suggestions for implementing social media successfully.

Journal
Business and Professional Communication Quarterly
Published
2017-12-01
DOI
10.1177/2329490617723118
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
writing pedagogy teacher development professional writing social media
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (7)

  1. sharma (2025)
    Teaching Social Media Content Creation Through a Client-Based Project
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  2. Phan (2024)
    Conceptual Framework for Teaching Business Writing via Social Media
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  3. Sharma (2024)
    Teaching Professional Use of Social Networking Sites Through a Hypothetical Cas…
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  4. Sharma (2022)
    Teaching Professional Use of Social Media Through a Service-Learning Business C…
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  5. Joglekar et al. (2022)
    Developing Digital Communication Competency in the Business Classroom
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Show all 7 →
  1. Cistulli et al. (2022)
    Student-Professor Social Media Relationships: An Exploratory Study of Privacy a…
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  2. Melton et al. (2021)
    Student Social Media Self-Evaluation: Addressing the Posting Paradox in the Age…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication

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CrossRef global citation count: 9 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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