AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF MOHAMMAD ALOTAIBI, for the Master of Arts degree in Media Theory & Research, presented on March 31, 2015 at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: PUBLIC DISCOURSE IN KUWAIT: EXAMINING THE USE OF TWITTER AND DIWANIYA AMONG YOUNGER GENERATION IN THE DECEMBER 2012 KUWAIT PARLIAMENTARY ELECTION MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Uche Onyebadi This thesis assessed public discourse among the younger generation in Kuwait during the country's Parliamentary elections in December, 2012. The research question examined the extent to which Twitter, as a new form of social medium, became an alternative to the more traditional diwaniya, as a forum for discussing salient public issues among the younger generation. The methodological approach in this study was a combination of the online survey instrument and semi-structure interviews. Uses and Gratifications served as the theoretical framework for the study. The major finding in the study shows that Twitter was indeed an alternative to diwaniya as a forum for public discussion and information seeking among the younger generation in Kuwait during the election. Also important is the finding that there was no statistically significant difference in the use of Twitter and diwaniya among younger generation women in that electioneering period. Finally, it was found that the level of education was a significant factor among the younger generation in their use of Twitter and their attendance of diwaniya for information gathering and discussion, as a political activities unfolded in Kuwait during the election.

Dans cette étude, nous avons cherché à comprendre pourquoi les lecteurs de romans, et plus particulièrement de romans pour jeunes adultes (tels que Twilight, Hunger Games, Divergent, etc.), décident de se joindre à des communautés virtuelles et d'y participer activement. Pour ce faire, nous nous sommes appuyés sur la théorie des usages et gratifications ainsi que sur les fan studies, c'est-à-dire le courant d'études réalisées sur des fans. Afin de répondre à notre question de recherche, nous avons effectué des entrevues qualitatives semi-dirigées. Les résultats de notre recherche indiquent que nos participantes ont joint les communautés virtuelles de fans pour répondre à des besoins non-comblés dans leur vie quotidienne, et y sont toujours actives car leurs interactions en ligne continuent de répondre à ce besoin ainsi qu'à d'autres encore.

In China, an increasing number of individuals and companies are adopting microblogging, a popular form of social media, in order to connect and interact with other people, and recent online events indicate the power of microblogging in Chinese society. Holding the belief that microblogging brings out the interactive nature of new media as well as the audiences, many companies are exploring microblogging in order to better communicate with their audiences. However, very little is known about how those brands use microblogging to promote themselves and what the audiences’ preferences are on this platform. Employing uses and gratifications and feminism theories, this study examined how fashion brands use Weibo.com, one of the main microblogging platforms in China, to promote themselves and what the Chinese women, the main audience of both Weibo.com and fashion brands, ask for from fashion brands’ tweets. The quantitative content analysis of the tweets of three major fashion brands, namely Burberry, Louis Vuitton, and Bvlgari, shows the general pattern of how microblogging are being deployed. A further investigation was conducted through ethnographic content analysis in order to examine the implicit values conveyed by fashion brand’s tweets and the audiences’ preferences towards these values. Results from the analyses revealed that the prevailing topics covered in the fashion brands’ tweets included their products, related celebrities, and the brands’ events or projects, and fashion brands usually combined several topics in one tweet in order to provide more information to the audiences. Taken a deeper look at the latent message of the tweets, fashion appears to play a positive role in emancipating contemporary Chinese women.

La présente recherche porte sur l’usage des médias sociaux en relations publiques et sur leur place dans l’organisation. Nos résultats, obtenus suite à la conduite de six entretiens semi-directifs et dont l’interprétation repose sur les axiomes des théories des usages et gratifications (Blumler et Katz, 1974) et du nouveau modèle de l’excellence (Grunig, L. A., Grunig J. E. et Dozier, 2002), révèlent les fonctions principales des médias sociaux : (1) s’informer des événements dans son environnement immédiat, dans la société et dans le monde, (2) informer et promouvoir, (3) évaluer sa performance, (4) défendre la marque et (5) asseoir son positionnement, se rapprocher des autres et (6) cultiver le sentiment d’appartenance, (7) développer des intérêts pour favoriser la conversation et l’interaction sociale et (8) développer des liens virtuels en complément de ses relations réelles. Nos résultats suggèrent également que l’usage des médias sociaux profite à l’organisation dans la mesure où ils permettent, vue leur caractère dialogique, d’influencer le comportement des publics.

Online social networking sites continue to grow as a medium of consumption, acting as a changing force for interpersonal communication and media interaction. It is important to understand how and why each demographic segment is using these sites. Facebook is the most popular social networking site in the U.S., with older adults representing a substantial portion of the site’s growth. Previous studies have investigated the use of Facebook among college students and young adults; however, older age demographics are a fairly new segment to the online social networking landscape that has not yet been investigated. Through a large-scale online survey, this study represents the first empirical investigation of Facebook members age 35 and older. Findings provide a baseline of knowledge for understanding time spent, frequent activities and gratifications obtained by this audience on Facebook. Results indicate adults 35 and older allocate a substantial amount of time to the site and use it most often for communication with people in their network. While many activities on the site were found to be similar between older and younger audiences, adults 35 and older in this study reported more passive activities of surveillance rather than participation. Factor analysis yielded five gratification factors for Facebook of which three were salient against the 35 and older audience: interpersonal habitual entertainment, passing time and self-expression. Exploratory open-ended questions also revealed some additional unique possible motives to be considered in future research among this audience.

Social media is the undisputed leader regarding video streaming consumption at an international level, to the detriment of SVOD services. We arrived at this observation trying to understand consumer behaviors regarding this phenomenon. Surprised by this, we sought to understand what motivates consumers to watch streaming video. In the literature, scholars seeking to study the motivations and satisfactions (called gratification factors) of consumers in media use are working with the Uses and Gratification Theory. However, while this theory explains the use of a medium, it does not explain the preference of one medium over another. We therefore wanted to use the Uses and Gratifications framework to make this comparison between social media and SVOD, and thus find an explanation for our observation: the superiority of social media. We drew on previous work to construct gratification factors applicable to SVOD, social media and video streaming. To confirm the reliability and validity of these constructs, we conducted a factorial analysis in a quantitative study, using a questionnaire distributed to the French population. Moreover, we used the data from this survey to build explanatory models for the use of social media and SVOD. Therefore, our study shows that the Uses and Gratifications Theory can be used to explain consumers’ preference for social media over SVOD services, by highlighting that the gratification factors which are the most decisive are content, process and social. Moreover, the formation of our constructs (content, social, process and technology gratifications) is the result of our reorganization of the gratifications already considered in the existing literature so that they correspond most accurately to the current behaviors of streaming video consumers. We thus provide a new basic model of analysis, which could be used by other studies on video streaming. From a practical point of view, our study also allows us to suggest to video streaming companies the points on which they can work to meet consumers’ expectations: that is to say on the possibility for users to adapt their consumption to their available time and on the possibility for interactivity directly on the platforms.

Denna studie ämnar undersöka vilken funktion ICA:s reklamfilmer fyller när det gäller människors förhållningssätt till reklam. Är det bara en reklamfilm bland andra, eller kan den fylla andra funktioner som lockar till tittande? ICA:s reklamfilmer kan betraktas som rena reklaminslag eller annonser, men reklamfilmerna kan också betraktas som ett mediefenomen. Utifrån tidigare studier om uses- and gratifications teorin har kvalitativa intervjuer genomförts och för att analysera resultatet gjordes en tematisk analys. Resultatet visar en stor positivitet kring reklamfilmerna. Andra reklamfilmer ses ofta som intetsägande och tråkiga, medan ICA:s reklamkoncept blir som en serie som följs vecka efter vecka. Resultatet visar att synsättet på reklamfilmen nästan aldrig var ett rent inslag av reklam och annonsering, detta eftersom exponeringen av varor ofta hamnade i bakgrunden av reklamfilmens handling. Det finns en igenkänningsfaktor i karaktärerna där ICA upplevs ha jobbat aktivt med att bli mer inkluderande utifrån de samhälleliga förändringar som skett. Den yngre målgruppen såg ICA-reklamen som ett framgångsrikt koncept som stack ut i mängden från annan typ av reklam, medan den äldre målgruppen hade en mer kritisk röst till reklamfilmen

The way people choose to communicate can affect current and future relationships between sender and receiver. Business professionals communicate internally and externally using a variety of communication channels, such as e-mail, letters, phone, or face-to-face and must choose the best channel for the message they are trying to convey. The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine how business professionals choose between the available channels, the premise being that users choose communication channels due to the gratification obtained (GO). Guided by gratifications theory, which proposes that choice of a communication channel depends upon the GO, this study assessed 15 communication channels to gauge how well frequency, duration, and function predict GO. A cross-sectional survey was used to collect the research data from a random sample of currently employed alumni from an international hospitality school in Switzerland. Multiple linear regression was conducted to assess statistically significant relationships between the independent variables of frequency of use (how often), duration (how long), and functions (specific tasks) and the dependent variable: GO. The results confirmed that the regression model of frequency of use, duration, and function predict GO with a 52% variance. This study concluded with implications for positive social change for employees in higher education and the workplace and recommendations for further research on other channels or variables to improve the model for predicting GO.

This thesis explores the contemporary world of video games and analyzes why people engage with single player and multiplayer video game experiences. Based on the uses and gratifications framework, this study examines how college students are engaging with video games and if they prefer single player or online multiplayer video games. Focus groups were conducted with college students to explore the video game culture. The results demonstrated that participants preferred single player video games due to less interruption from social interactions with online multiplayer games, but also to avoid harassment and negative criticisms that continue to plague online multiplayer experiences. Results also suggest that participants seek solitude while engaging with video games in order to become immersed within the game for a more relaxed and fun experience. Gratification dimensions were included from previous research including: arousal, challenge, competition, diversion, fantasy, and social interaction. Several new dimensions not matching previous research were discovered in the data that provided new perspectives on why players engage with single player video games. The participants discussed that single player video games could be played at their own pace, stopped at any time, and then continue their experience at their leisure. Participants were also researching and anticipating new game projects from their favorite developers. Additionally, participants suggest that if the developers made video games they enjoy playing, then the participants would continue to support and follow their future game projects.

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