Browsing by Subject "Social network sites"
Now showing 1 - 6 of 6
Results Per Page
Sort Options
Item Assimilation, social network sites and Asian stereotype : understanding Chinese-American teenagers in Austin(2014-08) Huang, Gejun; Straubhaar, Joseph D.Given the increasing number of younger immigrants from China, we have noticed diversified performances of Chinese-American teenagers based on the age they come to the U.S. This thesis thus examines three specific aspects—assimilation, social network site (SNS) use, and reaction to Asian stereotype—of Chinese-American teenagers living in Austin, regarding intraethnic differences between and among different clusters of this cohort as the second generation immigrant. By employing semi-structured interviews conducted with teenagers who have respective immigrant history and family background, a wide array of patterns about assimilation, SNS use, and reaction to Asian stereotype are traced and analyzed alongside demonstrating outlines and traits in terms of different generation clusters (1.25ers, 1.5ers, 1.75ers and 2.0ers). A total of ten Chinese-American teenagers, aged from 15 to 18, are recruited and interviewed through snowball approach, allowing for the surface of intraethnic variations on the aforementioned aspects. Preliminary discussions are made to tease out how these three aspects are intertwined.Item Benefits of Internet use in supporting rural life : managing social networks and exchanging social support in a rural area(2010-05) Park, Namsu; Strover, Sharon; Straubhaar, Joseph; Stein, Laura; Tyner, Kathleen; Lasorsa, DominicThe purpose of this study was (1) to examine rural residents’ perceived social support from Internet use for communication and (2) to understand the meanings associated with rural Internet users’ social media use, particularly with respect to mediating diverse social ties and exchanging different types of social support. To assess how Internet use affects rural residents’ sense of social support, this study investigated dynamic relationships between online communication and perceived social support by looking at interaction effects relative to extroversion, size of social networks, broadband use, and length of time using the Internet. To explore how social media are situated in a rural area, the present study investigated how rural residents use social network sites (SNSs) to maintain social contacts and exchange social support with members of their networks.Item Changes in use and perception of privacy : exploring differences between heavy and light users of Facebook(2012-08) Oz, Mustafa, M.A. in Journalism; Johnson, Thomas J., 1960-; Alves, Rosental C.Information privacy is a paradoxical issue. Especially after Facebook, information privacy has become more important than before. College student Facebook users share a great deal of information on Facebook, and Facebook collects users’personal information. Users’ personal information on Facebook is linked to their identity; therefore negative consequences (privacy problems) have become possible on Facebook. This study focused on college students’ privacy concerns and awareness of privacy issues and settings. Moreover, heavy and light users’ privacy concerns were compared in this study. According to the survey results, privacy is still important to Facebook users and different privacy concerns exist among heavy and light users. Results also show that privacy on Facebook is not a simple thing. It is related to identity construction, users’ experience, and awareness of privacy implications.Item A dynamic model of usage behavior and network effects in social network sites(2009-05) Ahn, Dae-Yong; Mahajan, VijayThis paper structurally estimates a dynamic model of usage behavior and network effects in a social network site using data from MySpace.com. We view a social network as a stock of capital that yields a flow of utilities over time by creating social interactions between the owner and her friends. When one decides to use a social network site, it may have two distinct network effects: (1) one can manage an existing base of friends through social networking and thus prevent depreciation of capital stock (maintenance effect), and (2) one may acquire new friends through social networking, which results in creation of new capital stock (investment effect). Thus, we model social networking as a dynamic process, in which one's current action to use a social network site can influence the evolution of her social network. We found that realtime chat and messaging, features of MySpace.com, positively affect one's usage decision and hence achieve the intended goal of generating site traffic. However, different demographic groups may have idiosyncratic preferences for these features. Based on parameter estimates, we performed counterfactual simulations with the goal of providing managers with ways to enhance firm performance.Item Evaluating the effectiveness of Facebook and Twitter as new publishing platforms for newspapers(2010-05) Ju, Alice; Chyi, Hsiang Iris, 1971-; Sylvie, GeorgeWith the growing popularity of social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter, newspapers have started to use these sites as alternative platforms for news delivery. Analyzing the use of Facebook and Twitter by the top 74 U.S. newspapers, this study examines the effectiveness of social network sites as news platforms. The results showed that most of the major newspapers have adopted social network sites but reached a very limited number of subscribers. After controlling for print circulation, there is no significant correlation between the number of social network subscribers and the number of website visitors. Overall, the effectiveness of Facebook and Twitter as news platforms remained questionable.Item Exploring psychological difference between adopters and non-adopters of user generated audience segmenting functions(2015-05) Dong, Zhifei; Eastin, Matthew S.; Treem, Jeffrey W.This exploratory study attempts to seek differences in levels of narcissism, Machiavellianism, self-monitoring, Internet self-efficacy (ISE), and privacy concerns and controls between adopters and non-adopters of audience segmenting on SNS, e.g. Friend List on Facebook. The uses and gratification framework was applied to build hypotheses. A survey (N =100) was conducted to test the hypotheses. Although the difference is not significant at a level that would demonstrate support for the proposed hypotheses, adopters in the sample did exhibit higher levels of narcissism, self-monitoring, ISE, and privacy concerns and control. To yield more convincing results, recommendations are provided for future improvement.