Influence of social networks on communication and culture

Má bakalářská práce je zaměřena na problematiku sociálních sítí a jejich vliv na dnešní společnost. Zabývá se jejich historií od prvotních pokusů až po nejnovější globální sociání sítě. Poté práce vysvětluje základní myšlenku vedoucí k vytvoření sociálních sítí i jejich charakteristické znaky. Dále nastiňuje problémy související se snadnou dostupností a nadměrným využíváním sociálních sítí, které následně ovlivňuje lidskou společnost. Práce se věnuje vlivu sociálních sítí na jazyk, mezilidskou komunikaci a kulturní adaptaci.My bachelor thesis is focused on issues with social networking services and their influence on modern society. It addresses their history from the very first attempts to create a social networking service to the modern global ones. Later the thesis provides an explanation of the creation of a social networking service and its characteristic traits. Furthermore it outlines problems connected with the availability and overuse of social networking services that are subsequently influencing the human society. The thesis also analyzes the influence of social networks on language, interpersonal communication and cultural adaptation.

Facebook and WeChat: Chinese International Students\u27 Social Media Usage and How It Influences Their Intercultural Adaptation

This study examines how Chinese international students’ Facebook and WeChat usage patterns influence their process of intercultural adaptation. It shows that Facebook (the host social media) and WeChat (the ethnic social media) usage both have positive impacts on Chinese international students’ successful adaptation (especially their psychological adaptation) to the United States. This study also takes additional variables of interest: host language proficiency, ethnic identity, and the intention to stay in the United States (the host country) into consideration. Consistent with previous studies, host language proficiency has positive influences on Chinese international students’ sociocultural adaptation, and ethnic identity is a critical component for these students\u27 psychological well-being. The results also expand previous research\u27s findings. Besides a positive relationship with sociocultural adaptation, host language proficiency also has positive impacts on Chinese international students’ psychological well-being. Chinese international students who have higher levels of host language proficiency (English proficiency) are more psychologically adaptive to American society. Likewise, this study’s results reveal that ethnic identity not only can facilitate Chinese international students’ psychological adaptation, but it can also help these students deal with behavioral and cognitive difficulties during the process of sociocultural adaptation. Chinese international students’ age has a negative relationship with their social adaptation and has a positive relationship with their physical adaptation. Their length of residence in the United States also has a negative relationship with their physical adaptation.This study\u27s findings could help universities and colleges facilitate international students’ successful adaptation to their new country of residence, which in turn, could enhance the possibilities of success in recruitment and retention of international students for these universities and colleges and improve the diversity of their student population

Intercultural New Media Studies: The Next Frontier in intercultural Communication

New media (ICT\u27s) are transforming communication across cultures. Despite this revolution in cross cultural contact, communication researchers have largely ignored the impact of new media on intercultural communication. This groundbreaking article defines the parameters of a new field of inquiry called Intercultural New Media Studies (INMS), which explores the intersection between ICT\u27s and intercultural communication. Composed of two research areas—(1) new media and intercultural communication theory and (2) culture and new media—INMS investigates new digital theories of intercultural contact as well as refines and expands twentieth-century intercultural communication theories, examining their salience in a digital world. INMS promises to increase our understanding of intercultural communication in a new media age and is the next frontier in intercultural communication

The Influence of New Communication Technologies on the Acculturation of Bhutanese Refugees in an American Community

This study examines the Bhutanese refugees, who are the newest group of refugees to arrive in the United States. It provides a detailed account of this community in the Cleveland-Akron area in Ohio. Research on this refugee population has only just begun, and they have been surveyed at an early time in the acculturation process. In 2007, their resettlement in the United States from camps in Nepal began, and by 2012, a total of 60,000 are expected to arrive in the United States. The research questions examine to what extent new communication technologies and media (ethnic and host) help the Bhutanese refugees in their acculturation in the United States and to what extent this helps them keep in touch with their native culture. A questionnaire with 106 items was given to 116 Bhutanese refugees who began arriving in Ohio in 2008, after living for about 17 years in refugee camps in Nepal. The study primarily refers to Young Yun Kim\u27s theory of communication and cross-cultural adaptation and examines the influence of various new and old communication technologies since their arrival in the United States. The results indicate that the Bhutanese refugees are anxious to settle and make new American friends while remaining in close contact with other Bhutanese, whether across the street, the country, or around the world. As hypothesized, age was negatively associated with using technology to maintain ties with the home country and other Bhutanese. The use of American media was positively related to adjustment to the host culture. Also, the use of American media to learn about American culture was positively related to adjustment, as was frequent interpersonal communication with non-Bhutanese. Results of this study can impact how future waves of Bhutanese refugees from Nepal and also other immigrants and refugees can use communication technologies to adjust and cope in a new environment. Any person interested in this refugee population will obtain information from this study about their background, habits, culture, medi

The Influence of New Communication Technologies on the Acculturation of Bhutanese Refugees in an American Community

This study examines the Bhutanese refugees, who are the newest group of refugees to arrive in the United States. It provides a detailed account of this community in the Cleveland-Akron area in Ohio. Research on this refugee population has only just begun, and they have been surveyed at an early time in the acculturation process. In 2007, their resettlement in the United States from camps in Nepal began, and by 2012, a total of 60,000 are expected to arrive in the United States. The research questions examine to what extent new communication technologies and media (ethnic and host) help the Bhutanese refugees in their acculturation in the United States and to what extent this helps them keep in touch with their native culture. A questionnaire with 106 items was given to 116 Bhutanese refugees who began arriving in Ohio in 2008, after living for about 17 years in refugee camps in Nepal. The study primarily refers to Young Yun Kim\u27s theory of communication and cross-cultural adaptation and examines the influence of various new and old communication technologies since their arrival in the United States. The results indicate that the Bhutanese refugees are anxious to settle and make new American friends while remaining in close contact with other Bhutanese, whether across the street, the country, or around the world. As hypothesized, age was negatively associated with using technology to maintain ties with the home country and other Bhutanese. The use of American media was positively related to adjustment to the host culture. Also, the use of American media to learn about American culture was positively related to adjustment, as was frequent interpersonal communication with non-Bhutanese. Results of this study can impact how future waves of Bhutanese refugees from Nepal and also other immigrants and refugees can use communication technologies to adjust and cope in a new environment. Any person interested in this refugee population will obtain information from this study about their background, habits, culture, medi

American Sueño: Hispanic Immigrants\u27 Cultural Adaptation in American Small Cities

This study investigated certain aspects of the cross-cultural adaptation process of Spanish-speaking Hispanic immigrants residing in small cities in the United States. Using Young Yun Kim\u27s cross-cultural adaptation theory as a theoretical framework, the researcher investigated the journey those sojourners undergo and how their cultural identities are shaped throughout the process. The two questions that guided the research were: (1) What are the difficulties that Hispanics that migrate to small cities in the United States encounter? (2) What are the mechanisms (media usage, language acquisition, habits, life style etc.) utilized by them in order to adapt to the new environment? A mixed-methods approach was employed in order to utilize different types of data, a technique that is able to gather in-depth information of complex phenomena such as that under investigation in this study. In total, 62 individuals volunteered to be a part of this study, which was conducted at a Mid-Atlantic city in the state of Virginia. All of them filled out questionnaires with both Likert scale statements and short-answer responses, and 10 participants volunteered to take part in an interview. Results revealed that language is one of the major challenges sojourners have to deal with, and they attribute to their lack of fluency their difficulties in communicating with people in a host environment. Also, results showed that immigrants perceived as their responsibility to integrate themselves in the host community. Consequently, they seemed to use the media and interpersonal relationships as their windows into the new culture

The Impact of New Media on Intercultural Communication in Global Context

The rapid development of new media has been the main force accelerating the trend of globalization in human society in recent decades. New media has brought human interaction and society to a highly interconnected and complex level, but at the same time challenges the very existence of intercultural communication in its traditional sense. It is under this circumstance that we see more and more scholars becoming involved in the investigation of the relationship between new media and intercultural communication. Emerging topical areas in this line of research mainly include three categories: (1) the impact of national/ethnic culture on the development of new media, (2) the impact of new media on cultural/social identity, and (3) the impact of new media (especially social media) on different aspects of intercultural communication (e.g., intercultural relationships, intercultural adaptation, and intercultural conflict). This paper discusses this trend of research on the relationship between new media and intercultural communication. [China Media Research. 2012; 8(2): 1-10

The effects of psychological factors on media usage: an examination of immigrants\u27 media use patterns, motives and acculturation in the United States

Earlier studies have provided evidence for the importance of mass media in the acculturation process of immigrants. The current study intends to further investigate acculturation by exploring the influential factors in immigrants’ mass communication activities. A survey has been conducted among 208 participants from diverse ethnic backgrounds in the Baton Rouge area. Having examined the mass media and Internet consumption of the respondents, this study finds that psychological factors, not demographic backgrounds, are the primary influential variables in predicting immigrants’ media use patterns. According to this study, respondents’ stronger adaptive personality and acculturation motivation would lead to more consumption of host mass media and English Internet and, thus, promote immigrants’ acculturation. On the whole, this study casts light on the importance of psychological factors in immigrants’ acculturation process from the aspect of mass communication

Analysing acculturation to sustainable food consumption behaviour in the social media through the lens of information diffusion

Drawing on theories of acculturation and information diffusion, this paper examines whether social media usage, intergroup contacts and information dissemination influence the cultural adaptation of three ethnic groups, and its implications on sustainable consumption behaviour. Twenty-four semi-structured interviews containing multiple dimensions of social media uses, acculturation, food consumption behaviour, and information diffusion were administered to a sample of Indians (living in the home country), British Indians (living in the host country for more than 10 years) and White British (natives of Britain) users of social media. Our findings suggest that there is a clear link between the integrated strategy of acculturation and information diffusion on social media, which influences acculturation to sustainable food consumption behaviour among social media users. Managerial implications of this research finding are that intervention in information diffusion aids acculturation through the social media, which serves to infuse social media and sustainability strategist with knowledge to best influence the consumers in developing sustainable food consumption behaviour. This research also identifies opportunities to expand this academic research and contribute further to the theories of remote acculturation on which limited research has been done