How can organizational communication scholars contribute to the debate about globalization?

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The 21 st century has been named “the age of networks” (Van Dijk, 2012, p. 2). Globalization, connected communication infrastructures, and the existence of global networks wired with a capitalist logic are pillars of our networked society (Castells, 2004, 2007). Indeed, networks have existed throughout human history but our awareness of networks and their importance is especially piqued with recent advance in communication technologies. Today, communication processes are less dominated by traditional media systems, instead they are shaped by porous informational networks among social and legacy media, and publics (Bennett, Segerberg, & Yang, 2018). For organizations of all sizes, a large portion of their communication now occurs in complex networks, and the communication outcomes, to a varying degree, also depend upon networks (Doerfel & Taylor, 2017; Doerfel, 2018; Monge & Contractor, 2003). The same is true among individuals. For individual publics and stakeholders, their communication with each other and with organizations occurs through networks (Rowley, 1997; Sommerfeldt & Yang, 2017). Scholars across strategic communication subfields have increasingly recognized the interconnectedness of organizations, messages, stakeholders, and publics (Himelboim, Golan, Moon, & Suto, 2014; O’Connor & Shumate, 2018). Relationship building and effective communication in a network society require practitioners to comprehend, monitor, and respond to large and complex networks. In the last decade, public relations scholars have made valuable efforts to embrace the network paradigm. A number of studies have made important theoretical and methodological advances applying social network analysis to topics ranging from organization-public relations (Kent, Sommerfeldt, & Saffer, 2016; Yang & Taylor, 2015), crisis communication (Podnar, Tuškej, & Golob, 2012; Schultz, Kleinnijenhuis, Oegema, Utz, & Van Atteveldt, 2012), public diplomacy (Himelboim et al., 2014; Wu, 2016; Yang, Klyueva, & Taylor, 2012), public relations ethics (Yang & Taylor, 2014; Yang, Taylor, & Saffer, 2016), corporate social responsibility (Golob, Turkel, Kronegger, & Uzunoglu, 2018), stakeholder relationships (Dong & Rim, 2019; Gilpin, 2010; Saffer, Yang, & Taylor, 2018), and activism public relations research (Saffer, Taylor, & Yang, 2013; Uysal & Yang, 2013). Still, there is more that the network perspective can offer public relations. To open up new possibilities, it is necessary for public relations researchers to understand network research and have outlets to advance studies that embrace the network perspective. We have organized this special section titled “Embracing the network paradigm: New directions in public relations research”, as well as the International Communication Association Preconference with the same title in 2018, as spaces for public relations scholars to learn more about network research and to make their own contributions to furthering the paradigm. With this backdrop, this introduction to the special section provides a context for the following papers and develops an organizing framework for future network research in public relations. We first provide a brief introduction of the social network perspective. We then identify key areas in which a network perspective can expand and potentially revolutionize public relations theory and research. We further call for public relations scholars to embrace the network paradigm. Finally, we briefly introduce the papers included in this special section.