Toward a Cultural Phenomenon of Blogging--The Impacts of Individualism-Collectivism and Self-efficacy

Blogging is a form of social communication that facilitates human interaction. The cultural orientations of individualism and collectivism, which relate to basic beliefs about human relationships and interactions, should be determinants of blogging. This study explores the impacts of individualism-collectivism orientation on perceived self-efficacy in blogging, along with blogging and attitudes toward blogging. The results from an online survey of bloggers show that peoples\u27 cultural orientation of individualism-collectivism affects blogging through the mediation of perceived self-efficacy. Additionally, while self-reliance and the supremacy of individual goals increase blogging, competitiveness, solitary work preference, and the supremacy of individual interests decreases it. These results may suggest that a new cultural value is emerging among bloggers who wish to reap the benefits of the cyberworld

Microbloggers’ motivations in participatory journalism: A cross-cultural study of America and China

This phenomenological study focuses on the motivations of participatory journalists contributing on microblogs such as Twitter and Weibo. Although online user behavior and motivations have been studied before, few studies have examined motivations of participatory journalists from their own perspective. Moreover, this study is one of the few to explore participatory journalists across different cultures (U.S. and China). The author conducted a total of 13 in-depth interviews with participatory journalists on microblogs from both countries and used a qualitative analysis method to identify the themes and patterns that emerged. Motivations such as earning respect, technology early adoption, self-expression, relationship building, self-enhancement, branding and image building, and financial gain were discussed. De-motivational factors such as time constraints and self-censorship were presented. Motivational differences between the two groups of participants, including what the microblog account represents and the role of participatory journalists, were explained by cultural differences collectivism versus individualism and power distance. Limitations and future research were also discussed

Considering Cultural Differences with the Use of Twitter on a Mobile Communication Device under a Dispersed Group Collaboration Context

The impact of technology on society is clear and profound, but the influence of society on technology is more subtle. This is an empirical study about Twitter on a mobile communication device (TMCD) used in group collaboration, undertaken to ascertain and gauge the user group’s subtler exhibitions and behaviors from two opposite cultures: western and eastern. To outline TMCD impact on group communication, a baseline of online message board (OMB), a common form of computer-mediated communication (CMC), is used in a comparative analysis. A total of 167 MBA and undergraduate students from the United States and South Korea representing western and eastern cultures participated this experiment. This study revealed a mixed result in the cultural difference. In the TMCD category, the Korean groups exhibited 1) a significantly higher number of initiatory tweets and 2) a significantly higher number of tweets promoting group harmony by virtue of their agreement with each other. But the Korean groups failed to exhibit 1) a significantly higher number of friendly tweets, and 2) a significantly high level of pro-activeness by tweeting more to each other to accomplish the given task than the U.S. groups. The data analysis result and discussion are provided

Exploring An Individual’s Intention to Use Blogs: The Roles of Social, Motivational and Individual Factors

Blogs are a new type of media for social interaction; they have become very popular, and have shown their influence throughout our society. However, little is known about what motivates an individual to participate in blogging activities. This study aims to explore how an individual\u27s intention is influenced by social, motivational and individual factors. A survey, involving 283 subjects, was conducted to examine the proposed model. The results revealed that personal innovativeness in the domain of information technology (PIIT), perceived usefulness and perceived enjoyment have direct impacts on a persons\u27 intent to use blogs. On the other hand, factors such as subjective norms and blog self-efficacy influence an individual\u27s motivational factors; these factors, in turn, influence an individual\u27s behavioral intention in regard to blog usage. The findings of this study not only contribute to a theoretical building of those factors that effect blog usage, but also provide implications to practitioners for understanding and promoting blog usage

A Study on the Factors Influencing the Intention of Blog Usage: A Case of UUM Postgraduate Students

Nowadays, there has been a dramatic proliferation in the number of blogs and several social networks; however, little is published about what factor (s) motivates universities students to participate in blog activities. The remarkable growth and use of a social networking website such as "Facebook", "Hi5", and "Friendster" among UUM international postgraduate students is more challenging for a researcher to investigate the extent to which a new media channel affects people’s lives, relationships, and wellbeing, how and why it is used, and who is using it. Based on the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), a model was developed relating technology acceptance (TAM) and social influences. a combination of convenience and purposive sampling was used to collect the data from UUM Postgraduate students that used different blogs and Facebook regularly. A survey of 112 of UUM postgraduate students found strong support for the model. One of the major finding of this research illustrated that perceived usefulness, ease of use and social norms were positively related to attitude toward blogging and accounted for a higher variance. On the other hand, perceived enjoyment and attitude toward blogging did not significantly influence UUM postgraduate students’ intention to continue to use Facebook as their favorite blogging site

Cultural impacts on web: An empirical comparison of interactivity in websites of South Korea and the United Kingdom

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel UniversityThis thesis explores cultural differences on interactive design features used in websites of South Korea and the United Kingdom from the perspective of both: professional website designers and end-users. It also investigates how the use of interactive design features from different cultures change over time. Four interaction types on websites; User to Interface (U2I), User to Content (U2C), User to Provider (U2P), and User to User (U2U) interactivity, and three interaction types on blogs; Blogger to Interface (B2I), Blogger to Content (B2C) and Blogger to Blogger (B2B) interactivity have been identified. Four cultural dimensions were used for the theoretical base of this study based on which four hypotheses were proposed in relation to the interaction types identified above; (a) High versus Low Context cultures for U2I, (b) High versus Low Uncertainty Avoidance for U2C, (c) High versus Low Power Distance for U2P and (d) Individualism versus Collectivism for U2U interactivity, in order to discover the effects of national cultures on interactivity in websites. We derived our own interactivity dimensions and mapped them to the four interaction types for websites and three for blogs. Interactive design features were derived from interactivity dimensions and examined in our studies. The findings revealed that there have been some changes towards homogeneity in the use of interactive design features on charity websites between South Korea and United Kingdom although there is still evidence of some cultural differences. With regard to end-users’ perspective, the result show that the use of interactive design features of blogs may be influenced by culture but this is only within a certain context. The findings also provide a valuable indication that users interacting within the same blog service can be considered as being shared concerns rather than shared national location, thus create a particular type of community in which bloggers are affected by social influence so they adopt a shared set of value, preferences and style that would indicate almost a common social culture. As a result, the cultural differences derived from their country of origin do not have that much impact

Culture and Social Media

博士(文学)神戸市外国語大

Peace, Love and (Soul)cialism: Functions of Teacher-Student Love in Collectivist Societal Education and its Relationship to the Elimination of African American Educational Underachievement

Top researchers in the field of intimacy education signify that definitions of intimate connection— referring to a deep relationship with oneself, immediate circle, or humankind, more broadly—are identity dependent. Different countries and racial demographics, thus, conceptualize notions of solidarity, interdependence, and self-awareness distinctly. Without investigation, these discrepancies provoke division; attention, alternatively, has the power to induce the mitigation of educational achievement gaps in Latin America and domestically. Cuban notions of ‘legitimate’ relationships are contextualized by the political philosopher Jose Martí who delineated an ideological framework encouraging collectivism. This idea undergirds his contribution to the revolutionary Cuban literacy campaign: dialogical education. Despite Westernized exclusionary notions of what constitutes ‘legitimate’ political philosophy and reliable data, modern cultural theorists affirm that both African American and Afro Cuban understandings of intimacy are correlated, impacted by Ptahhotep: a political philosopher from KMT (“ancient Egypt”). His conceptualization of ‘proper’ teacher-student dynamics esteems intergenerational interdependence in the pursuit of societal harmony and cultural sustainability. The following analysis, through theoretical explorations of intimacy, attempts to articulate how teacher-student love can liberate the brain from fear which allows for student creativity, induces mutual joy, and encourages the introspection critical to the eradication of American racial crises. Key Words: Jose Martí, intimacy, political theory, education, African American/Afro Cuba