Discovery Communications
Transcript of Discovery Communications
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Literature background
In order to answer these questions, several theories will be incorporated into the
discussion of the findings. Media richness theory, developed by Daft and Lengel, is the extent to
which media are able to reduce uncertainty and equivocality (Daft and Lengel 557). This is based
on a particular medium's capacity to provide immediate feedback, communicate multiple cues,
present individually tailored messages, as well as use natural language and convey personal
subtleties (Daft and Lengel 560). A medium's information richness is defined as its ability to
convey information in order to change understanding within a set time interval (Daft and Lengel
560). According to Daft and Lengel, communication mediums that can overcome different
frames of reference or clarify equivocal issues in a timely manner are considered to be rich
(560).
The dual capacity model will also be incorporated in order to understand how particular
communication technologies are chosen by employees. This model was developed by Sitkin,
Sutcliffe, and Barrios-Choplin, and considers both the capacity of media to convey data and the
capacity of media to communicate and manifest meaning (563). In addition to taking both of
these topics into account, this theory also considers that media use is influenced by
characteristics of the task, message, and individual, as well as organizational and normative
factors (Sitkin et al. 563). This model considers task characteristics, such as analyzability,
uncertainty and urgency. Analyzability indicates that ambiguous tasks require richer media, while
urgency implies that data is needed quickly and therefore, the most readily accessible medium
will be chosen (Sitkin et al. 578). The dual-capacity model also considers the message, including
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characteristics such as complexity, clarity, volume and relevance (Sitkin et al. 578). Complexity
has often been thought to be an important factor when determining media use (Sitkin et al. 578).
It is evident this also plays a role in the choices of Discovery employees. In addition, this model
is essential in that it considers the recipient. Making an effective media choice depends on
various factors that affect recipient response, such as interaction history with the communicator,
media familiarity, and knowledge of the communication context (Sitkin et al. 581).
The constitutive flows of communication, developed by McPhee and Zaug are evident
within Discovery Communications. Membership negotiation is the essential process of
communication that first establishes and then maintains a relationship with each member
(McPhee and Zaug 34). As McPhee and Zaug explain, it is vital for an organization to have
members and then develop a steady communication with these members because maintaining
this strong relationship allows the organization to exist and grow (34). Organizational self-
structuring is also present within Discovery Communications. This flow focuses on the internal
relations, norms, and social entities that shape the organization's community and work processes
(McPhee and Zaug 36).
Within the flow of activity coordination, members and subgroups of the organization
work toward the organizations' manifest purpose (McPhee and Zaug 39). Employees form
attitudes about the organization, as well as realize they are working within a common social unit
(McPhee and Zaug 39). The flow of institutional positioning involves the communication within
the organization to other outside organizations that exist at the "macro level", such as
collaborators, customers, competitors and other institutions within the community (McPhee and
Zaug 39). It is important that organizations develop relationships with other entities because
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Methods
In order to answer the proposed questions about Discovery Communications, I interviewed four
employees over email. These employees included Jane, a cataloging specialist, Brice, a music
coordinator, Philip, an associate producer for the program Continuing Medical Education, and
Jeanna, a footage operations manager. For several interviews, I followed up with additional
questions in order to get a more in-depth response on certain topics. Each interview was then
coded to find themes present throughout the answers. Several units of analysis were employed in
order to address the different aspects of the organization that were examined for this paper. When
analyzing Discovery's internal communications, the unit of analysis used was “reasons for choice
of communication medium”. When examining internal communication resources, the unit was
“use and feelings on portal and newsletters”, and finally when addressing Discovery's online
efforts, the unit of analysis was “reasons for participation or non-participation in social media
promotion”. Many themes were present throughout the interviews for choice in communication
medium, including media richness, presence, consideration of message and consideration of
receiver. Several themes were also present in the employees' and organization's use of the portal
and newsletters, including employees connecting to each other and to the organization, as well as
the organization connecting to employees and the community. The reasons for participating or
not participating in social media promotion varied, including themes such as they do not want to
feel forced, they would rather participate in their own way, and that social media is reserved for
spare time.
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Internal Communications – Choice of Communication Medium
Because of Discovery's size and international reach, internal communication technologies
within the organization are essential. The organization has thousands of employees, as well as
several locations and multiple departments. Therefore, it is important to understand how
employees choose to communicate with one another and which technologies employees find to
be the most effective
Email was used the most frequently out of all the communication mediums; however, the
reasons for this choice varied among each employee. For example, when considering what form
of communication to choose, Brice's bases his choice on the thought of interruption. Out of all
the options, including instant messaging, telephone, and face-to-face, he finds email to be the
least intrusive. According to Brice:
I use email first because it will not interrupt a person while they are working. If I want tomeet face to face, I do not want to go directly to a person's desk and bother them if theyare busy. Instant messages also interrupt me when I am working. They pop up out of nowhere while I am in the middle of a research project. Emails can be answered by
recipients when they have finished what ever work they may be handling at that time.
Therefore, Brice chooses email because it is not as rich or personal as other mediums, such as
face-to-face. Through email, he has the option of not being overly present to the recipient. The
other three employees interviewed, Philip, Jane and Jeanna, also use email the most frequently.
Each of them mentioned that email is chosen when they are not familiar with who they are
communicating with. In Philip's interview, he said, “If I feel comfortable enough with someone
then I will communicate with them personally, but if not, I usually 'hide' through email and
interact with them that way.”
Once again, email is ultimately chosen because of its place on the richness scale. It is not
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considered as rich as telephone and face to face, because of it's limited ability to convey personal
cues and subtleties; however, it acceptably serves its purpose of conveying a message and its
ability to reduce ambiguity on certain issues (Schmitz and Fulk 488). Due to it's leaner qualities,
email can serve as a “mask” from people that employees are not comfortable with.
According to Schmitz and Fulk (1991), the richest medium is face-to-face. This is
followed by telephone, electronic mail, personal written text, formal written text, and formal
numeric data (488). However, it appears that in this day in age, some people now choose email
over telephone for complex issues, while others still find phone and face-to-face to be the best
forms to explain in-depth problems, as well as reduce equivocality. For example, Jane finds
email to be the best way to explain complex issues, saying:
“I definitely use email the most, because it's a catch all type of communication. For example, I can email when there are attachments to forward, or I want a hardcopy torefer to in the future...If there are web links involved or I'm sending over a lot of information, whether for social or for a work context, I will send an email.”
While coding the interviews, it was evident that various aspects of the dual capacity model were
present in the media choices of each employee, including consideration of the receiver, message
content, and purpose. Once again referring to Jane's interview:
“...my communication choices will tend to reflect the purpose of the message beingconveyed and the content of the actual message. If it’s a quick question with a quick answer and I am familiar with the person I am contacting, I will tend to shoot them aninstant message.”
In addition to familiarity with the receiver, employees also consider their past interactive
history with who they are trying to reach. For example, Philip Riley explained that his choice is
often dependant upon which means he finds to be the most effective when contacting a
colleague, providing this example, “I have coworkers that are best connected through IM and so
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I reach for my IM when contacting them.” Due to past communication history with his
coworkers, Philip is aware who is best reached through instant messaging and therefore, when it
is most beneficial to use this medium. From the interviews conducted, it is clear that IM is a
popular form of communication throughout the organization since most employees mentioned
that they use it on a daily basis; therefore, coworker use may persuade an employee to use IM in
certain situations, even though they would prefer another medium.
Also referring to the dual capacity model, message and task characteristics were
considered by employees when choosing the most effective form of communication, such as
importance and urgency. For example, Jeanna pointed out, “I tend to use IM if I am working with
the colleague cross-departmentally and am trying to get a brief answer, like a status update.” She
also tends to use IM for messages that are not work related, such as lunch plans. Face-to-face, the
richest medium, was the rarest for employees and reserved for complex and involved messages
for every employee except for one. For example, Jeanna only chooses face-to-face in serious
situations, saying, “I will have a face-to-face meeting with someone in a different department
when initiatives need be implemented or workflows need to be reassessed.” The only employee
that prefers face-to-face is Philip explaining, “I prefer the opportunity to get up and away from
my desk as well as the social interaction that comes from talking to someone in person.” Even in
this situation, he ultimately bases his choice on the receiver since he explained that face-to-face
interaction is reserved for coworkers he is familar with.
Brice also considers the message importance and complexity when choosing
communication medium; he will even choose two forms of communication technology if the
message is particularly involved. He said, “If I have an in depth project I will make a phone call,
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and possibly follow up with an email to share any additional info.”
Internal Communications – Discovery Portal & Newsletters
The constitutive flows are present throughout Discovery Communications. The
organization uses multiple platforms in order to communicate with employees, help employees
initiate and establish relationships with each other, as well as form a connection with the
company itself (McPhee and Zang 34). A prime example of this form of membership negotiation
is the Discovery portal – an internal space that employees use on a daily basis. In addition to
housing tools and software that employees need to perform their job, the portal also has several
other sections such as community news, the classifieds, rewards, and educational opportunities.
Within the classifieds section, employees are able to post questions on any number of
topics, ranging from questions about restaurants in the area, to sports tickets, to places to live.
This area of the portal allows employees to reach out to each other and to potentially form
relationships. An example of this was present in Jane's interview when she replied, “I usually
peruse the classifieds at least once a week. I have replied to a couple ads before- in fact, I tutored
another employees daughter twice a week for about four months by responding to an ad on
there.”
A major component of this research was to determine whether the portal accomplishes
establishing a pathway of communication between employees themselves, and between
employees and the organization. For example, the majority of employees, including the four I
interviewed, visit the portal on a daily basis in order to access tools and software they need to
perform their job duties. Discounting these essential sections, the extent to which each employee
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used the portal varied. For example, Brice does not consider the portal a useful platform to
connect with other employees; however, he was unaware or unsure of many of the portal's
interactive sections. When asked if the portal was an effective resource for interacting with other
coworkers, he replied:
I think it is a good place to read about other departments and see what it going on. I canread updates on corporate projects and strategies, but I do not find it to be a placewhere I can make connections with co workers. There are resources to connect withother employees, but I do not keep up with them. The links are not obvious enough and Ihave to search for the link. I am often too busy to check it out, but I think there is a"craigs list" type network on the portal. Again, I am not sure exactly how to get to it..Iwould have to look around for the link.
The other employees interviewed were aware of the interactive sections; however, they
admitted that overall they do not use the portal to its full advantage. For example, even though
Jane generally browses the classifieds once a week, she says she has not connected to other
employees as much as she could, explaining, “I've seen postings for people to join sports
leagues, or for recommendations for good places to eat in the area and the like, but I have never
personally taken advantage of those opportunities.” Similarly, Jeanna used the classifieds section
a great deal when she first started at Discovery; however, she currently uses it much less. Philip
Riley provided several interesting insights into the effectiveness of the Discovery portal. He is
aware of that the portal is a terrific resource, using it mostly to check his benefits and rewards, as
well as to occasionally browse courses and other educational opportunities. Initially, when
describing his portal use, he said “I usually glance at it daily but do little more than that.” Philip
also pointed out that he has not really made any connections with employees through the space.
When asked if the portal should be improved to provide a better space for employees to interact,
Philip provided this response:
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After thinking about this more thoroughly, I have connected with employees onoccasion. Generally it is because of a news flash about an event or person and that hasled to email correspondence. In this respect I think the Portal accomplishes what it setsout to do - to inform the Discovery community about recent events and personalaccomplishments as well as connecting each employee to the many facets of the
corporation itself. Additionally, I was looking at "connecting" to employees as a two-waycommunication but that isn't always the case. After some thought - connection can take place even one-sided. The Portal has connected me to the rest of the company even if they haven't been connected to me in turn.
Even further, the portal also provides opportunities for employees to learn about each
other. For example, employee accomplishments will often be highlighted, usually accompanied
by an interview with that employee allowing others to learn more about them. As Philip pointed
out, this occasionally leads to email correspondence between employees. The portal section “On
The Move” lets employees know when someone has been promoted, switched to a different
department, or has moved to a new Discovery location.
Based off of these responses, it appears that the organization is effectively providing
spaces and opportunities for employees to connect to one another, as well as to the organization
itself, even if employees do not take full advantage of these opportunities. The Discovery portal
is a prime example of fulfilling membership negotiation; however self-structuring is also present.
All of these separate sections essentially work together to help employees learn about each other,
but also to feel a connection to the organization by knowing that they always have an internal
resource where they can learn what is happening within the company. The simple sharing of
information, such as one employee who has changed departments, lets employees know that the
organization cares about making this information available. Therefore, through these
communication platforms and resources, Discovery employees become aware of the values of
the company and what the organization considers to be important. Ultimately, this is essential for
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an organization of this size - it keep employees feeling connected and informed, as well as helps
them to learn about the internal relations and norms that shape the overall company (McPhee and
Zang 36).
The constitutive flows are also present in Discovery's frequent use of newsletters.
Newsletters range from daily news, to event invitations, community events, and show
promotions. Whether they are read or not, the sending of newsletters throughout the day allows
Discovery to establish a steady flow of communication with all of its employees on a number of
topics. It serves as a reminder that Discovery is always present and trying to establish a
connection with its employees. Through the interviews, it was discovered that feelings on the
newsletters varied. Jeanna finds the newsletters to be informative and engaging, saying she reads
every one. Jane's favorite form of newsletter is the event invitation, saying “I don't always read
the newsblasts, but I will definitely read through any of the invitations. I've been to several of the
events over the past year or so – it’s a fun opportunity to get out of the office for a workish
reason and to just hang out with co-workers.” Therefore, newsletters that discuss employee
events provide opportunities for employees to connect to each other, perhaps establishing an
initial relationship with employees from other departments that can be maintained after that
event.
Newsletters are often sent out that discuss community events and encourage employees
to participate. This is an example of Discovery's institutional positioning, making themselves
present in the community on a macro-level. For example, in my interview with Jane, she
mentioned a newsletter that encouraged employees to help in the Haiti relief efforts after the
earthquake. When inquiring about Discovery's involvement in the community, Jane replied:
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They definitely like to get out there and get involved. They get involved by offering some
sort of assistance, basically, I think they get involved by offering monetary assistance to
give you the extra nudge to do something you already wanted to do. For example, with
Haiti, they matched employee donations. For Christmas they gave each employee $25 to
donate to a charity of their choosing. For my event, they "sponsored" me by covering
my participation fee and making a donation.
Through this interview, it was evident that Discovery places a great deal of emphasis on their
role within society, both on a local and national level. Jane mentioned that Discovery has a
yearly event called Discover Your Impact Day, where every employee worldwide is asked to
participate in planned volunteer events regardless of their role in the organization. According to
Jane:
It's heavily advertised - there are those sort of opaque cling on stickers on every bathroom mirror and on doors and windows in the building. They feature LAND,WATER, or PEOPLE, the three "genres" of volunteer work we will be doing. There arealso these little signs propped up on tables in the common areas. It's on the homepage for Discovery, and finally, we've gotten a ton of emails. It's a really important initiative andyou can tell every single manager has been heavily encouraged to encourage the peoplehe/she supervises, because each level of management has sent out emails about it.
Clearly, Discovery takes their positioning in the community very seriously, and resorts to
a variety of measures in order to get employees from around the world involved. While Discover
Your Impact Day is on an international scale, Discovery also tries to maintain a presence in the
local community by encouraging and sponsoring employees to participate in local fundraising
and awareness activities. As Jane mentioned, Discovery sponsored her event which involved
participating in a local dodgeball tournament in order to raise money for diabetes research.
While newsletters such as assisting with Haiti relief efforts are considered important, not
everyone takes the time to read each and every one. For example, both Brice and Philip typically
read the title of the newsletter, then delete them immediately. Philip implied this was a result of
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the company being overly present, saying “I do think they send out too many. Once a week
would be enough in my opinion, however since it is a constantly moving company, news doesn't
come nicely packaged for Monday mornings...In my opinion, fewer update emails would spark
more of an interest to me.” Proving that sometimes less is more, Philip brought up the example
of his department newsletter:
Our footage source department sends out a newsletter about once a quarter. Surprisingmyself, I read that one - for two reasons. It comes rarely, so I feel that it isn't a largeexpense of my time to look through it. Also, the newsletter is visually appealing andnicely formatted. It is more like looking at a well constructed webpage than a newspaper.If there is one thing that I have learned in television, it is that things need to pop in order
to catch someone's attention. I have found that this is a good point in almost all areas -including a newsletter. Even with little interest or time, information that pops (bothvisually and linguistically -if that's a word) has a much better chance of getting amessage across than information that is little more than typeface.
Through the newsletters, once again employees become aware of the company's values. Philip
further explained, “I do have a lot of respect for the PR department because they include all of
the newsletter topics in the subject line. They realize that people are very busy and that people
receive enough work related emails that may be more of a priority to the recipient than the
Discovery updates.”
While various employees have differing opinions on the newsletters, it is evident that
Discovery is putting a great amount of effort into communicating and forming a relationship with
its employees. Overall activity coordination is a flow that occurs as the result of these combined
efforts. Jane has said that Discovery has successfully found a way to promote a positive
employee culture. Therefore, the constant information flow about fellow coworkers and the
organization itself helps employees to feel that they are working within one large social unit
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think it should be an organic process where the employees promote the programming because they want to. If an email blast came out that said to update my facebook about anew show, and the topic of the show is something I don't enjoy I won't want to post it.
Jane expressed a similar point of view; indicating that she does not promote shows when
a newsletter asks her to. Instead, she prefers to promote programs on her own terms. For
example, last year Dave Salmoni brought a lion to Discovery Headquarters in order to spread the
word about his new show. Jane took pictures of this event and posted them on her Facebook
page, mentioning the name of the show in the photo's caption. She also enjoys promoting shows
through ways that do not involve social media, such as by bringing friends to events and
screenings.
Jeanna and Philip are on the opposite side of the spectrum when it comes to social media.
Jeanna did not have strong feelings about social media overall, she said that she simply does not
promote Discovery programming. Philip had specific reasoning for his non-participation. When
asked why he does not join in social media efforts, he explained:
The reason is because I don't want to. I don't like to jump on fad bandwagons which iswhy my experience with Twitter is close to nil. If something prompts me to do anythingon Twitter I'm going to ignore it. Additionally, I see Facebook as a social network that Iam part of in my spare time. I prefer not to clog it with notices and groups that I don'twhole-heartedly support. I would prefer it to be a place that I go to connect with myfriends and see what they are up to in their lives. Show or business pages on Facebook are the electronic equivalent of trinkets, in my book.
With a company that has such strong online presence, as well as employees that overall
feel connected to the organization, it is interesting that they do not feel motivated to promote
programming. This could potentially be a result of the varying attitudes toward social media
present within the organization. It is clear that social networking is a desire of the company since
it is often requested through employee newsletters; therefore, the organization should examine
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what options they have to motivate employees to participate in Discovery's social media efforts.
An example that Discovery can look to is the Sprint Ninjas. This is a training program
recently created by Sprint in order to get employees interested in using social media to connect to
current and potential customers. The training program motivates employees to get involved, as
well as teaching them how to optimally use social media networks. Going through such a
training program creates a sense of camaraderie among employees. Proof that the program is
succeeding and motivating other employees is in the numbers - it is rapidly growing and
expanding, even without being paid to participate. Therefore, Discovery should consider
employing something similar if they want employees to become involved with using their own
social media networks to promote programming. Without strong opinion leaders or fellow
“cheerleaders”, employees do not get the sense that other employees are participating and
therefore, are not inclined to participate themselves.
This program is evidence of the strength of social influence. Because of the creation of
the Sprint Ninjas program, employees now had fellow co-workers adapting to and using social
media networks. Employees at Sprint may also be motivated to participate because they have
strong opinion leaders, such as Leigh Horner, the company's Communications Director
promoting and believing in the program. The presence of social influence is evident, as Horner
explained, the size of the program has been consistently growing since its inception. Therefore, it
would appear that employees are highly attracted to the organization, and ultimately feel the need
to conform since both co-workers and opinion leaders are encouraging the program (Fulk 941).
If social media efforts by employees is essential to Discovery, the organization should
consider encouraging supervisors to adapt social media and to use it for promoting purposes.
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Through setting a positive behavioral example, employee attitudes on social network promotion
may change (Schmitz and Fulk 514). By starting with opinion leaders, an increasing amount of
employees may become involved, encouraging other coworkers to participate. Due to this
encouragement by influential leaders, and eventually fellow coworkers, the organization could
potentially see improvement in this area.
Conclusion
As evidenced by the conducted interviews, employees have found effective ways to
communicate across departments, as well as with employees in other locations. Several themes
were present in these choices, including consideration of the medium's richness, as well as
consideration of the message, task, and receiver. The four flows are present within the Discovery
portal, as well as the newsletters the organization sends out on a daily basis. Through the portal,
the company has created an internal space for employees to interact with one another, as well as
with the company itself. With the newsletters, Discovery has found a way to keep employees
informed about organizational news, as well as encourage involvement within the community, on
a local and national scale. Discovery Communications is extremely present in the social media
world, and is currently working on encouraging employees to become involved; however, it
appears they are currently struggling to do so. By taking the social influence model into
consideration, Discovery could potentially motivate employees to become involved in promotion
through social networking. Overall, Discovery has an extremely complex internal and external
communications structure. The organization exemplifies a large company that has successfully
found multiple ways to connect, including establishing a relationship with its employees,
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connecting employees to one another, forming a presence within the community, as well as
continually improving its interaction with the viewing audience.
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Works Cited
Daft, R. and R. Lengel (1986).“Organizational information requirements, media richness, andstructural design.” Management Science 32(5): 554-571.
Fulk, J. (1993).“Social construction of communication technology.” Academy of Management Journal 36: 921-950.
McPhee, Robert and Zaug, Pamela (2009). The communicative constitution of organizations: Aframework for explanation. In Putnam, L. and Nicotera, A. Building Theories of
Organization: The Consitutive Role of Communication. (pp. 21-48).
Schmitz, J. & Fulk, J. (1991).Organizational colleagues, media richness, and electronic mail: Atest of the social influence model. Communication Research, 18, pp. 487-523.
Sitkin, S., K. Sutcliffe, et al. (1992).“A dual-capacity model of communication media choice inorganizations.” Human Communication Research 18(4): 563-598.
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Appendix A
Internal Communications/
Choice of Communication
Medium
Media richness “If I have an in depth project I willmake a phone call, and possiblyfollow up with an email to share anyadditional info.” - Brice Dean
Presence “As mentioned earlier, if I feelcomfortable enough with someonethen I will communicate with them personally, but if not, I usually "hide"through email and interact with themthat way” - Philip Riley
Consideration of receiver “I use email if I don't know the
person.” - Jeanna Finamore
Consideration of message “If there are web links involved or
I'm sending over a lot of information,
whether for social or for a work
context, I will send an email.” - Jane
Jetabut
Internal Communications/
Portal & Newsletters Use
and Effectiveness
Employees connecting to
eachother
“I've been to several of the eventsover the past year or so [due to thenewsletters]– it’s a fun opportunity toget out of the office for a workishreason and to just hang out with co-workers.” - Jane Jetabut
Employees connecting to
organization
“...I think the Portal accomplisheswhat it sets out to do - to inform theDiscovery community about recentevents and personalaccomplishments as well asconnecting each employee to themany facets of the corporationitself.” - Philip Riley
Organization connecting to
employees
“Our footage source departmentsends out a newsletter about once aquarter. Surprising myself, I read thatone - for two reasons. It comesrarely, so I feel that it isn't a largeexpense of my time to look through
it. Also, the newsletter is visuallyappealing and nicely formatted.” -Philip Riley
Organization connecting tocommunity
“...probably the best example though,is DISCOVER YOUR IMPACT day.every single employee worldwide isasked to participate in planned
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volunteer events on friday june 11th,regardless of your role in theorganization.” - Jane Jetabut
Reasons for Participation or
Non-participation in Social
Media Promotion
Do not want to be forced “As much as I love our programs,and do tell my friends about them, Iwould not like to feel obligated to do
so. I have promoted certain showsthat I am proud of, or think myfriends would enjoy.”- Brice Dean
For spare time “Additionally, I see Facebook as asocial network that I am part of inmy spare time. I prefer not to clog itwith notices and groups that I don'twhole-heartedly support. I would prefer it to be a place that I go toconnect with my friends and seewhat they are up to in their lives.” -Philip Riley
Own methods “I definitely don't…but I sometimes promote in other ways. For example,
when Dave Salmoni brought a lion to
work, I posted pictures and
mentioned his new show in the
caption. Also, I've brought friends to
a variety of events when I'm allowed
to bring a plus one for movie
screenings and the like.” - Jane
Jetabut
22