"Linkedin Is My Office; Facebook My Living Room, Twitter the Neighborhood Bar": Media Scholars' Liminal Use of Social Media for Peer and Public Communication. (July 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: LaPoe, Victoria L.; Carter Olson, Candi; Eckert, Stine
• Is Part Of: Journal of communication inquiry. Volume 41:Number 3(2017:Jul.)
• Page Start: 185
• Page End: 206
• Publication Date: 2017-07
• Subjects: social media -- faculty -- academia -- scholars -- liminality -- social networking -- university -- public sphere -- academic freedom -- free speech -- Twitter -- Facebook; Communication -- Periodicals; Questioning -- Periodicals; Inquiry (Theory of knowledge) -- Periodicals; Communication -- Périodiques; Recherche (Théorie de la connaissance) -- Périodiques; 302.205
• DOI: 10.1177/0196859917707741
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0196-8599

Abstract

This study grounds 45 interviews with media scholars in liminality theory and analyzes how scholars use social media as they transition to combined offline and online communication. Scholars employ highly personal strategies to decide if and how to integrate social media into their professional lives for peer and public communication. Scholars struggle with a double bind of needing to be social media savvy while worrying about career consequences of posting publicly. Few best practices exist.