Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Public Relations Review journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/pubrev Toward a normative social media theory for public relations Michael L. Kent a, *, Chaoyuan Li b a University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia b Xi’an International Studies University, Xi’an, China ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Social presence Conversational human voice (CHV) Engagement Dialogue Social media theory Public relations ABSTRACT Social media might represent the greatest social innovation/revolution in the history of communication, fun- damentally altering how humans communicate, and the practice of public relations, journalism, advertising, marketing, and business. Dozens of theories and concepts including dialogue, engagement, identification, social presence, uses and gratifications, conversational human voice, and many others inform social media. However, what has commonly taken place in social media contexts and public relations has been the importation and application of other theories and concepts, rather than exploring and clarifying the unique features and cap- abilities of social media per se. This essay argues that social media represent a new communication paradigm, and this essay takes up the challenge of building social media theory for public relations by identifying features of social media that have emerged from existing research as fundamental to understanding social media, and eventually developing a theory(s) of social media for public relations. 1. Introduction Research on social media theory in the public relations and com- munication literature is sparse. Ngai, Tao, and Moon (2015), for ex- ample, reviewed what they call an “exhaustive” list of theories that have been used in social media research, identifying nearly three dozen theories from an assortment of disciplines, but argue that no specific theories of social media yet exist. Of course, there are a few scholars trying to build social media theory (cf., Dijck & Poell, 2013). However, just as media scholars have various interests depending upon the medium and their professional practices (cf., Bignell, 2013; Goodwin & Whannel, 2013; Pecora, Murray, & Wartella, 2006), so too are public relations scholars studying social media in a variety of unique ways relevant to their own communication context (Dhanesh & Duthler, 2019; du Plessis, 2018; Gesualdi, 2019). However, no one has yet proposed a social media specific theory for public relations. Social media are more than just an interface that offers visual, textual, and aural affordances. Social media have become a way of life for hundreds of millions of global citizens. However, before academics and professionals can begin to maximize the value of social media for public relations, or any other professional context, the field needs to develop useful definitions and theoretical constructs for thinking about communication in mediated environments. What print and online journalists do with social media tools is very different from what advertisers or marketers do, or what the broadcast industry does. Although the features of social media are still the same, their application or reification are not. As one anonymous reviewer of an earlier version of this essay noted, over the last 100 years, there has never been a theory of media for public relations, rather public rela- tions has adapted its practices to take advantage of the unique features of other media. Public relations needs to do the same in the internet age: to develop an understanding of the unique features of social media most useful in public relations, rather than just treating social media as a tool for messaging. To begin work on building social media theory for public relations, this article first explores normative and positive theory building. Next, four influential concepts that have been used to understand social media theory: dialogue, engagement, social presence, and conversa- tional human voice (CHV) are examined to help guide social media theory. Finally, all four concepts are used to help explain the direction that a social media theory of public relations might take. 2. Building social media theory for public relations Building theory is essential for understanding phenomena, deci- sions, and practices, be it in the social sciences, the “hard sciences,” the humanities, or any other area of research. Theories, like metaphors and frames help direct what we see (cf., Hallahan, 1999; Kent, 2001; Kent & Lane, 2017; Kent & Taylor, 2016b). But there is a difference between extending or refining an existing theory where there are phenomena https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2019.101857 Received 27 July 2018; Received in revised form 31 October 2019; Accepted 31 October 2019 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: MichaelLKent@gmail.com (M.L. Kent), licy029@126.com (C. Li). Public Relations Review 46 (2020) 101857 Available online 21 November 2019 0363-8111/ © 2019 Published by Elsevier Inc. T