This study explored why individuals write personal blogs and the influences of blogging on their lives. Four structural equation models that specified the social and psychological process of blogging were tested in this study. The models included four major components: personal characteristics, blogging motives, blogging behaviors and blogging social outcomes. A total of 412 bloggers recruited online completed the survey questionnaire. A factor analysis revealed nine salient motives for writing personal blogs: self-documentation, information sharing, entertainment, emotion regulation, communication with existing friends, formation of new friendships, identity exploration, pass time and self-presentation. Significant associations between these motives and demographics, including gender, age and education, were also identified. The results of the structural equation modeling suggested that public self-consciousness was positively related to the self-presentation motive, which was in turn positively related to self-presentation in blogs. In the same vein, social anxiety was positively related to the motive to form new friendships, which in turn was positively related to the number of new friends made via blogs and the quality of new friendships. Social anxiety was found to be negatively associated with the number of new friends made, the number of existing friends communicated with, and the quality of existing friendships maintained through blogs, but positively related to the quality of new friendships established via blogs. Self-disclosure was positively related to the number of new friends made, the quality of new friendships and the quality of existing friendships. The mediation effects of blogging motivations and self-disclosure on the relationships between social anxiety and blogging social interaction outcomes were also tested. The content analysis of the responses to an open-ended question indicated that the majority of the respondents believed that blogging had positively influenced their lives. The major benefits of blogging reported by the respondents included keeping in touch with family and friends, making new friends, improved social interaction, writing and thinking ability, expanded vision, emotional relief and social support, identity exploration, and documentation of daily life. Interpretations of the findings, and implications for understanding the social use of the Internet, were discussed.

The purpose of this thesis was to study some women's participation in two different kinds of computerised further education organised as distance edu­cation. Both groups used the FirstClass conference system as a tool for bridging distances. One was a university program for teachers in special education and the other was a computerised Network for professional special education teachers, run by the members. The dissertation was grounded in feminist theory and in a socio-cultural perspective on learning. The empirical material consists of questionnaires, interviews and analysis of the communi­cation in both computer conferences. The result showed that the women appreciated the opportunity to study at a distance. They enjoyed the flexibil­ity in time and space and the opportunity to be a part of a fellowship. There were great differences in the pattern of communication and the contents in the two settings. In the Special Education Programme the communication was regular and the inputs were usually related to the literature and examina­tion issues. In the Network the communication was more sporadic. The in­puts were usually short and consisted mostly of information. The contribu­tions in both settings were generally univocal and usually they did not show that the individual participants developed new pedagogical perspectives or views related to the actual question. This investigation showed that it was difficult to establish discussions and co-operation via the computer, espe­cially in the Network. However the women were satisfied with the continu­ing education and felt that the written communication via the computer con­ferences developed their knowledge in special pedagogy and helped them to reflect upon their work as special education teachers. Distance education could however become a gender-trap as it was found to allow the women to combine unpaid work in the family with both paid work and studies. / digitalisering@umu

Research studies demonstrate that L2 learners participate more equally when using synchronous computer mediated communication (CMC). However, most of these studies have involved adult students only, in college or university settings. Few have explored the use of synchronous CMC with elementary school learners. Thus, this case study explored the participation of Grade 8 native speakers and English language learners as they interacted in the online environment. It examined the number of turns taken by each participant, the discourse functions used, as well as participants’ perceptions of communicating online. This was accomplished through collection of chat transcripts, questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. It was found that native speakers tended to take more turns in online discussions. Also, responses and questions were the discourse functions that were used most by participants in this research. Finally, the students viewed this mode of communication favourably, and believed that it aided their communication with one another.

This study is a research of the frequency of acronyms in an online forum and the meaning of the most frequent ones in their context. In the study, definitions are given for language forms used online so that one is able to compare a set of similarities and differences between these online varieties and the Standard English. The method consists of identifying and searching for a set of CMD-typical acronyms. These acronyms are taken from prior studies as well as from Crystal’s (2006:91f) list of known CMD-acronyms. The material is retrieved from an online forum of asynchronous communication, and the results show the frequency of the acronyms as well as discuss their meanings in context. The results indicate that acronyms are highly infrequent in asynchronous environments, and their use decreases from 2010 to 2013. The conclusion of this study is that the infrequency of acronyms in asynchronous environments may be due to the nature of asynchronous online communication, in which users have time to write their replies. When comparing this study’s corpora with studies on frequencies in synchronous environments, the acronym frequency in this study was lower than the frequency shown in the synchronous studies.

This study examines the impact of political information conveyed through computer-mediated social networks. Using a popular social networking website, Facebook, a randomized field experiment involving Georgia State University undergraduates explores the extent to which computer-mediated peer-to-peer communication can increase political knowledge. For this experiment two Facebook profiles were created, one to administer information about the 2009 Atlanta mayoral election and the other to administer timely entertainment information. Students were randomly assigned one of these profiles to “friend.” Students choosing not to “friend” their assigned profile were aggregated to create an additional control condition. Treatments were administered to those who “friended” their assigned profile for the seven days preceding the mayoral election. To assess the transfer of knowledge between the profiles and the students a subsequent in-person survey was conducted (N=374). Results reveal that being exposed to political information by a peer through a social networking website increases the probability of recalling at least some of that information by 18.2 percent. Notably, the same method of exposure to entertainment information produces no significant effects on the recall of that information.

Primary and secondary school students (Setzer, Lewis, and Greene, 2005), college students (I. E. Allen and Seaman, 2003, 2004), and corporate employees (Galvin, 2002) are all engaging more and more in some form of online or blended online/face-to-face education. Given the large number of pedagogical and design choices that we must make, however, where do we begin when designing new environments? I argue that its important for us to consider how technological design choices interact with pedagogical choices and cognitive states to affect learning behaviors. To illustrate this, I examine the impact of synchronous chat media on educational discussions. Specifically, I ask two questions: (1) Since research has often reported that chat environments promote conversational equity (e.g., Warschauer, 1997), which features of synchronous text-based chat seem to help create conversational equity? and (2) how does this change impact the content of small group discussions? Using ethnographic-style observations and quasi-experimental studies, I show how changing conversational media influences (or doesnt) the resulting discussion among students. I present three results: * Certain properties of the chat medium seem to discourage conversational dominance by any one individual through (a) denying that individual mechanisms to control the conversational floor and (b) reducing the inhibition felt by shy or otherwise disempowered students. * The choice of medium does not seem to affect the quality of discussion content nearly as much as other variables. * Efficiency is diminished in chatrooms; achieving quality discussions online requires significantly more time because (a) typing is slower than speaking and (b) students are able to do other, parallel activities while engaging in a chat discussion. In the conclusion, I examine the broader implications of these findings for the design of conversational environments, whether for educational or business use.

Many studies report information overload (IO) as one of the main problems students encounter in computer-mediated communication (CMC). To date, researchers have paid little attention to the problem of IO—more specifically, to its impact on students’ quality interaction—in educational CMC. In an attempt to fill that gap, the purposes of this study were as follows: (a) to understand the difficulties students encounter that contribute to their perceptions of IO in CMC, (b) to observe the impact of those difficulties on students’ learning in online discussions, and (c) to identify students’ strategies for avoiding or managing those difficulties in order to engage in quality learning. Interviews with students and computer conferencing transcripts were analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively. Interviews with 10 graduate students near the beginning of the semester revealed that although students were exposed to the same amount of information in the same learning environments, different individuals experienced different degrees of IO. Varied learner characteristics caused some students to be more susceptible to IO than others. The difficulties students encountered that contributed to their perceptions of IO included connection problems, navigation difficulties, discomfort with online communication, numerous ongoing discussion messages and endless resources, difficulty in organizing learning, and problems understanding the assigned readings. Those difficulties tended not to affect students’ deep processing as observed in their discussion messages, but might influence students’ online interaction with others. Students engaging in quality learning in online discussions were interviewed near the end of the semester to investigate their learning strategies. The results indicated that students used a variety of strategies to deal with those difficulties. Those strategies were related to online class preparation, identifying relevant information, processing online information and printed materials, keeping learning on track, organizing learning, and avoiding internal and external distractions. The results of this study have implications for course design.

It can be observed that the anti-normative behaviors occur more frequently in Computer-Mediated-Communication than in face-to-face communication. Internet often let people feel less restraint to use rude or threatening language, leashing harsh criticisms, venting anger or hatred. Thus, the issues surrounding ¡§Toxic Disinhibition¡¨ have attracted more and more concern from society and academia. Our empirical study tries to get the whole picture and proposed a more comprehensive model integrating diverse factors and involving the synthesis of different viewpoints. Accordingly, this paper proceeds to examine and integrate the two important aspects, (1) Internet attributes in which reduced social cue, social presence, controllability, and the fluidity of the identity and (2) psychological state, especially theories of deindividuation.Moreover, different from most prior researches, we consider deindividuation as an important mediating role, not just an antecedent of toxic disinhibition. An empirical survey methodology is applied to test the research model and six hypotheses are developed in this study, and then we use PLS to analyze it. Our empirical results showed that the essential mediating role of deindividuation, also confirming the highly significant with toxic disinhibition. Moreover, we identify major factors that may affect deindividuation. We find that except for reduced social cue, reduced social presence, controllability and fluidity of identity also has significant impact on deindividuation, and then cause toxic disinhibition. In sum, unlike much prior research that has focused on only a limited aspect of toxic disinhibition, we take integrated view and proposed a more comprehensive model therefore be useful to a better understanding of the nature of toxic disinhibition. And this study provides some suggestions for the online disinhibition research.

Nowadays experience marketing is the most common strategy to promote. Cultural- based activities in Kaohsiung is one of the examples to use such strategy. Culture is far more powerful than economy and politics. The influence by art and culture activities is direct, indirect and derivative on regional economy. Promoting art and culture activities as well as tourism industries significantly enhances conglomerate economy strength in the city. In terms of criticizing culture, the study concerns what aesthetic type created by urban experiential marketing strategy as well as what internet communications influence on cultural marketing. The study theory is based on B. Joseph Pine¢º& James H. Gilmore¡¦s experiential marketing aesthetics in 1998 and Schmitt¡¦s experience marketing theory in 1999, and thus explores three dimensions as experiential marketing strategy, aesthetics culture index and communication results. The survey research was performed by a questionnaire through convenient sampling method. A total of 280 questionnaires were administered, and 263 questionnaires were retrieved. AMOS Statistical Software was used to apply data analysis of the correlation among variables by using Structure Equation Modeling (SEM). The research results showed that: (1) experiential marketing strategy has positive effect on enhancing aesthetics culture; (2) there is no mediating effect about computer-mediated communication (CMC) between experiential marketing strategy and enhancing aesthetics culture of urban culture; (3) the cultural activities of experiential marketing strategy are prone to the entertainment. In addition to the entertainment, the long-term strategy of the government shall emphasize both on artistic and educative function when promoting the experiential marketing on urban culture. On the aspect of information context, both richness and interactivity of computer-mediated communication media content shall be enhanced. From the perspective of esthetical form of experiential marketing, we expect the findings of this study are helpful to consider the cultural information into the field of communication research in future planning for the urban cultural marketing to advance a city's global competitiveness.

<p>The language used in Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (or MMORPGs) is a form of computer-mediate communication. It consists of elements from both written and spoken language, but it is a highly abbreviated and innovative form of written language. This study focuses on the English language used in a MMORPG called Warhammer Online. The aim of this study is to identify abbreviations, interpret their meanings and to analyze the word formation processes and semantic changes that are involved in new words. The method used in this study is a qualitative case study of the English language in a MMORPG from a synchronic point of view. The secondary sources used in this study include previous works on morphology and semantics. The material used is based on logs acquired from the game Warhammer Online as a subscribed player. The results presented in this study show new and unique words created by players in Warhammer Online, along with other semantic changes that have taken place. It is concluded that the English written language has not seen such a major change in its entirety before, within one community.</p>