Brian Smith

Promoted to Associate Professor
Brian Lamb School of Communication
bgsmithphd@purdue.edu

Brian Smith received a Ph.D. in communication from the University of Maryland and completed a master’s degree in international relations and a bachelor’s in humanities/English from Brigham Young University. Smith researches how digital media technology – particularly social media – has transformed the relationship between organizations and the public and how that transformation has changed the roles and concept of public relations.

Smith examines how public relations and engagement seek to analyze stakeholder involvement with organizations via digital social media, measuring the influence of organization-stakeholder interaction on public relations and the marketplace. He also studies the development and implications of public relations measurement in the structure of integrated communication (iComm), for which he was awarded the Institute for Public Relations Ketchum Excellence in PR Award in 2008.

His research has been published in numerous public relations and communications journals, and he also contributed chapters to the Sage Encyclopedia of Public Relations (second edition), Digital Public Relations Guidebook, 2.0 (third edition), and the Encyclopedia of Sports Management and Marketing.

A Purdue faculty member since 2012, Smith teaches courses in public relations, integrated communication, crisis communication, global communication, and digital and online communication management. He has developed coursework for the Brian Lamb School of Communication’s Online Strategic Communication Master’s Program and also leads the “Boiler Up Barcelona!” summer study abroad program on global strategic communication in Spain.