Abstract The proliferation of social media technologies have seen public relations practitioners adapt their practices for the emergent digital media ecologies, with the growing phenomenon of social media influencers (SMIs) presenting new opportunities and challenges for the industry. Indeed, the profession’s rapid adoption of SMIs as part of their campaigns raises questions regarding the ethics of their use and the extent to which they fit with normative models of public relations practice that promote genuine dialogue and responsible advocacy. This study explores this tension between the uses and potential misuses of SMIs by examining the worldviews, strategies and practices of senior public relations practitioners at several agencies in Sydney, Australia. It proposes a new critical framework for understanding the influences that SMIs are in fact having on public relations practice, which builds on models of dialogic public relations and a critical eco-systems perspective. Ultimately, this study argues that the affordances provided by the emergence of SMIs are predisposing practitioners to persuasive strategies and covert activities that lack transparency and are inconsistent with ethical ideals of best practice for organizational public relations.

中文翻译：

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不可抗拒的可能性：检查社交媒体影响者在当代公共关系中的用途和后果

摘要 随着社交媒体技术的激增，公共关系从业者开始调整他们的实践以适应新兴的数字媒体生态，社交媒体影响者 (SMI) 现象的日益增长为该行业带来了新的机遇和挑战。事实上，该行业迅速采用 SMI 作为其运动的一部分，引发了有关其使用伦理以及它们与促进真正对话和负责任倡导的公共关系实践规范模型的符合程度的问题。本研究通过检查澳大利亚悉尼多家机构的高级公共关系从业人员的世界观、战略和实践，探讨了 SMI 使用和潜在滥用之间的这种紧张关系。它提出了一个新的批判性框架，用于理解 SMI 实际上对公共关系实践的影响，该框架建立在对话式公共关系模型和批判性生态系统视角之上。最终，本研究认为，SMI 的出现所提供的可供性使从业者倾向于采用缺乏透明度且与组织公共关系最佳实践的道德理想不一致的说服策略和隐蔽活动。