Gainesville, Fla. – Dr. Marcia Watson DiStaso, an associate professor in the College of Communications at the Pennsylvania State University, will become the new Director of Social Science of Social Media Research Center at the Institute for Public Relations.
Dr. DiStaso serves as an editorial board member of the Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Journal and Communication Research Reports. She is a senior research fellow for the Arthur W. Page Center at Penn State and a member of the Arthur W. Page Society. Her research focuses on exploring and informing the practice of social media, financial communication and investor relations.
“I look forward to continue strengthening the center and growing its focus on social media research of importance to the field,” said DiStaso. “As digital topics such as big data, augmented reality, Internet of things, mobile, and social media continue to grow, we hope to be a valuable resource for the profession and academia.”
The online research center, available free to visitors, contains summaries and abstracts of more than 165 social media research articles from public relations research literature. Each article includes an abstract, a summary of the research methodology, key findings, and what it means for the practice. The site also provides a comment section for interaction amongst practitioners and academics. The research center also holds an annual case study competition, and is working on a gold standard study on social media engagement.
“We are thrilled Dr. DiStaso is going to serve as Director of the Social Science of Social Media Research Center,” said IPR President & CEO Dr. Tina McCorkindale. “As one of the top researchers in social media, she has made tremendous contributions to the field with her benchmarking studies and research on Wikipedia, and we look forward to her continued work with IPR.”
The Institute for Public Relations is an independent foundation dedicated to the science beneath the art of public relations ™ and focuses on research that is applicable in communications practice. Its research is available for free at instituteforpr.org.
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For more information:
Sarah Jackson
PR Associate
associate@instituteforpr.org
352-392-0280
