Professional identity: The identification and self-perceptions of organisational social media workers
(2024) SKOM12 20241Department of Strategic Communication
- Abstract (Swedish)
- Social media workers have become an important communication profession within the organisational context. However, workers behind organisational social media accounts remain understudied. This study problematises the limited emphasis of existing research on the self-perceptions of communication practitioners and introduces the perspective of social media workers. The purpose of this study is to explore and understand how social media workers perceive their professional identities by investigating their identification with, emotions towards, and understandings of the role of a social media worker. To achieve this, this study conducted 13 interviews with social media workers responsible for organisational social media accounts in the... (More)
- Social media workers have become an important communication profession within the organisational context. However, workers behind organisational social media accounts remain understudied. This study problematises the limited emphasis of existing research on the self-perceptions of communication practitioners and introduces the perspective of social media workers. The purpose of this study is to explore and understand how social media workers perceive their professional identities by investigating their identification with, emotions towards, and understandings of the role of a social media worker. To achieve this, this study conducted 13 interviews with social media workers responsible for organisational social media accounts in the European film industry. The findings show that a professional group of social media workers barely exists due to weak identification. Furthermore, this study analyses the feelings that social media workers experience in their professional settings, presenting the affective aspect of their professional identities. The study also portrays the group prototype of social media workers by identifying two types of rhetoric in their professional identities: the culture communicator and the lonesome explorer. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
http://lup.lub.lu.se/student-papers/record/9159250
- author
- Xu, Xinyuan LU
- supervisor
- organization
- course
- SKOM12 20241
- year
- 2024
- type
- H2 - Master's Degree (Two Years)
- subject
- keywords
- social media work, professional identity, self-categorisation theory, organisational social media, communication professions
- language
- English
- id
- 9159250
- date added to LUP
- 2024-06-14 16:06:07
- date last changed
- 2024-06-14 16:06:07
@misc{9159250, abstract = {{Social media workers have become an important communication profession within the organisational context. However, workers behind organisational social media accounts remain understudied. This study problematises the limited emphasis of existing research on the self-perceptions of communication practitioners and introduces the perspective of social media workers. The purpose of this study is to explore and understand how social media workers perceive their professional identities by investigating their identification with, emotions towards, and understandings of the role of a social media worker. To achieve this, this study conducted 13 interviews with social media workers responsible for organisational social media accounts in the European film industry. The findings show that a professional group of social media workers barely exists due to weak identification. Furthermore, this study analyses the feelings that social media workers experience in their professional settings, presenting the affective aspect of their professional identities. The study also portrays the group prototype of social media workers by identifying two types of rhetoric in their professional identities: the culture communicator and the lonesome explorer.}}, author = {{Xu, Xinyuan}}, language = {{eng}}, note = {{Student Paper}}, title = {{Professional identity: The identification and self-perceptions of organisational social media workers}}, year = {{2024}}, }