University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Communication

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Communication

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of Communication

The purpose of this study was (1) to capture the digital divide in adolescent specific computer and online activities, and (2) to understand each online activity's meanings in adolescent social development or social capital. To assess the issue of the digital divide, the present study examined the sociodemographic, neighborhood, family, and child characteristic factors which influence each type of computer and online activity. To identify how online and computer activities can influence social capital, the present study examined diverse outcomes related to social capital which could be obtained from each online activity, and tested models explaining the relationships among sociability, Internet use, and social outcomes. The data used in the present study came from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics Child Development Supplement. The sample was 1,312 adolescents ages 12 to 18. This nationally representative dataset includes measures of computer and Internet use, diverse indicators of adolescent social behaviors and social relations, and time diaries that provide records of how and with whom they spent their time. The data were analyzed by regression and structural equation modeling. According to the findings, social economic status including family income to needs ratio, parental education, and neighborhood quality was a significant factor explaining frequent use of the Internet and a computer. However, among users, these factors were not significant in predicting the amount of time spent using a computer. Race, maternal employment, gender, and age explained adolescent different type of computer and Internet use. Analysis of the social impacts of Internet and computer use suggests that Internet and computer use have different impacts depending on the purpose individuals use them for and social outcomes examined. For instance, while adolescent Internet use for educational purposes was related to cohesive relationships with parents, their use of online communication was associated with cohesive friendship and school connectedness. Furthermore, it supports the rich get richer model, indicating that those who have strong social ties will have an increased ability to enhance their social capital by using the Internet and a computer as tools for social interaction than those who have weak social ties.

The Internet has been lauded as an open and free platform from which one is able to engage with, and share large amounts of information (Stallman, 1997). As one witnesses the shift from analogue media to digitalism, so too is it possible to note a change in cultural practices of media consumers. Users of the media can now be viewed as “prosumers”, producing as well as consuming media products (Marshall, 2004). Digital media users have been given the ability to engineer their own unique media experiences, especially within the realms of the Internet. However, this process has seemingly led to mass copyright infringement as Internet users appropriate various movies, music, television programmes, photographs and animations in order to create such an experience. The art of digital mashing in particular, has been deemed an explicit exploitation of intellectual property rights as it re-cuts, re-mixes and re-broadcasts popular media in a number of alternative ways. YouTube especially has been at the forefront of the copyright furore surrounding digital mash-ups because it allows online users the facility to post and share these video clips freely with other online users. While YouTube claims that they do not promote the illegal use of copyrighted material, they simultaneously acknowledge that they do not actively patrol that which is posted on their website. As such, copyright infringement appears seemingly rife as users share their own versions of popular media through the art of digital mashing. This dissertation however, explores the concept that the creation of mash-ups is not undermining intellectual property rights, but instead produces a new avenue from which culture can emerge. It highlights how Internet users are utilising the culture which surrounds them in an attempt to navigate the new social structures of the online, subsequently arguing that mash-ups are an important element of defining a new postmodern culture, and that the traditional copyright laws of analogue need to be modified in order to secure the development of new and emerging societal structures. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2010.

Social networking sites and virtual spaces have flourished in the past few years. The author explores the impact of such social networking services on the local community at a small liberal arts college. The author investigates modern trends in community theory. Defining community has become more difficult in modern society, where community is no longer easily distinguished by geographical boundaries. From the background of modern community theory the author explores the designation of virtual spaces as “virtual communities.” Literature and research about virtual spaces indicates that they can provide many of the values thought be to inherent to community membership. The strong localized community on campus makes students hesitant in calling Facebook a “virtual community,” despite its strong integration with the face-to-face community itself. Facebook is seen as simply a tool. This thesis incorporates research on one specific case study: through mathematical and ethnographic research of Facebook.com, the author evaluates the opinions of students in considering virtual spaces as communities.

An HIV-positive diagnosis can be an overwhelming and traumatic experience. This study explores the experiences of receiving an HIV-positive diagnosis. Employing an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), a sample of the initial posts from threads on an online forum, was collected and explored, in order to determine the dominant themes from the experiences expressed in the posts, as well as the support sought from the forum. The online forum was accessed as an unobtrusive observer, and posts from January to December 2015 were explored. The online forum provides a platform for disclosure following an HIV-positive diagnosis, when anxiety and fear of stigma can impact on an individual’s ability to disclose to their social support network of family and friends. The experiences expressed on the online forum reflect the emotional, mental and physical impact of an HIV-positive diagnosis on an individual. The findings in this study reflected themes of shock, guilt and hopelessness, and concerns and fears regarding disclosure and stigma associated with HIV, as well as the importance of social support for the coping mechanisms of individuals after receiving an HIV-positive diagnosis. This research demonstrates the importance of Internet accessibility for information and support for chronic illnesses, such as HIV, and the role of the online forum platform for providing a safe environment for individuals recently diagnosed HIVpositive.

This study describes how information spread on the internet by examining diffusion, framing and source use surrounding coverage of the 2010 best-selling book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. The book presented a rare opportunity to view how a story about science, discovery and race became a best-seller within weeks after its publication. Through a mixed-methods and case study approach, the author examines patterns of coverage using Google Alerts that traced the book's online coverage in the first six months of its release. The author found that online information clustered around several themes with the most prominent describing aspects of science and scientific discovery, followed by the book's characterization as a "best seller" or "good read." Another recurring theme centered on issues surrounding exploitation in human research. In addition, the study reveals that sources who "set the frame" for coverage were most likely to be media figures, including Oprah Winfrey, Alan Ball and HBO films, in addition to newspapers and individual journalists and science writers. By examining the relationship of online frames with sources, the author found that a diversity of frames is paired with key sources: that is, multiple themes co-occur with source mentions, although the themes may not have been generated by the sources themselves. Rather, sources are linked to narrative frames by others who generate online coverage. The author concludes that, while key sources initially set a message's frame, once diffused, the message may take on other qualities.

The purpose of the study was to determine how the Fourth Amendment is treated in the age of the internet. To determine the degree of the significance of this relationship a comparative approach is used. Court opinions from cases involving other technological innovations and the Fourth Amendment were examined and their reasoning was compared to that of cases involving the internet and the Fourth Amendment. The results indicated that contrary to some fears that the internet would require a different approach with respect to the law it actually did not present many novel barriers to its application. The principle conclusion was that the reasoning used in cases involving older technologies, namely the test outlined in Katz v. United States, was consistently applied even in the age of the internet.

Guided by Uses and Gratifications Theory, this study investigated the relationship between Chinese college students' use of social media and their social activism. Data collected from a goup-administered survey of 309 undergraduate students at a large university in eastern China was used to answer four research questions. The results indicated that Chinese college students who used social media for information seeking were likely to participate in individual social activism. Besides, students who used social media for self-status seeking and information seeking were likely to participate in collective social activism. No significant correlation between entertainment motivation and social activism were found. Neither can socializing motivation predict Chinese college students' social activism. In addition, gender had an impact on individual social activism and frequency of social media use could affect both individual and collective social activism.