The public relations literature on social media has focused primarily on how social media platforms can be leveraged to the advantage of organizations for relationship building and so-called dialogue with publics. Yet most research has positioned relationships in social media merely as opportunities for information exchange, perpetuating models of public relations grounded in systems theory that ignore power imbalances. Consequently, this article offers insights from postmodernist theories to first deconstruct existing research and then offer suggestions for future social media scholarship. The article argues that social media scholars have privileged dominant rational models of social engagement. Dissensus and disorder, according to Lyotard, may be as legitimate and more liberatory states of discourse for marginalized publics. Postmodern theories of language games and differential consciousness are also positioned as ways in which social media theory and practice may be advanced. The article thus complicates how relationships are theorized in contemporary scholarship and challenges both scholars and practitioners to rethink approaches to social media practice through a postmodern lens.

Crises ranging from organizational wrongdoings to natural disasters cause destruction and even deaths. Communication is crucial for reducing harm and protecting public interest. This work forms foundations for ethical public interest communications (PIC) based organizational communications throughout the crisis lifecycle and across contexts. The Applied Model of Care Considerations (AMCC) is proposed and developed. The AMCC presents cross-cutting care considerations (i.e., relationships, interdependence, vulnerability, reciprocity) and four landscapes of care (i.e., physical, cultural, political/economic, human). Model constructs are applied to: (1) Nestlé’s decades-long global baby-formula-promotion controversy, and (2) #DeleteUber consumer outrage surrounding the ride-sharing app’s perceived profiting from travel-ban protests. Rooted in feminist normative philosophies, this research addresses literature’s lack of: (1) general crisis ethics theory, (2) applied crisis communications ethics, and (3) feminist-theory-oriented crisis communication.

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