Why football fans follow football players on Twitter? This study base on Hyperpersonal( Walther , 1996 ) and Use and Gratifications theory to find out that why football fans want to follow football players on Twitter, how they follower football players on Twitter, include how often and which Twitter function they used. Also the research want to know that after following, how much gratifications do football fans get. In this paper, the survey has been completed online by 492 football fans. 275 of them have followed football players on Twitter. The research find out that football fans follow football player¡¦s Twitter may experience greater levels of intimacy, which higher than follow football players¡¦ new from news media. Besides, follow football players on Twitter could get more gratifications like instrumentalgratifications and entertaining gratifications those compare with follow football players¡¦ news from news media. And all of the gratifications have strong connection with information and topicalitymotive.

abstract: This study described the multimodal communication patterns of college students and their parents, and examined how face-to-face and mediated communication frequencies relate to parental idealization and relational quality. Undergraduate students (N = 678) completed an online survey that assessed indicators of idealization (idealistic distortion and positive affect thinking), relational quality (relational/communication satisfaction, and relational closeness), and the frequency of face-to-face and mediated parental communication. Results indicated that average college students communicate with their primary parent 23 times per week, mostly via phone calls, text messaging, and face-to-face interaction. The frequency of mediated communication was positively related to both indicators of idealization and both indicators of relational quality. Moreover, idealization partially mediated the relationship between mediated communication frequency and relational quality. The frequency of face-to-face communication was inversely related to positive affect thinking. Indirect effects were also detected, such that face-to-face communication was negatively related to both indicators of relational quality as a function of positive affect thinking. Finally, this study examined whether students experience different levels of parental idealization and relational quality depending on whether their parent is geographically close or geographically distant, and whether they reside with their parent. Results indicated that students who live geographically distant from their parent experienced greater levels of idealization and relational quality than did student who live geographically close to yet separate from their parent, who reported greater levels of idealization and relational quality than students who live with their parent. These results were interpreted using concepts from interpersonal, family, and computer-mediated communication. Limitations and directions for future research were discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Communication 2012

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Att “sexta” innebär att med textbaserade digitala medier kommunicera med sexuella partners, vilket är en praktik som kan upplevas väldigt intim trots mediets begränsningar av de karaktäristiska dragen av en fysisk interaktion. Denna studie har som syfte att ge en övergripande bild över hur denna typ av interaktion konstrueras och tar sig uttryck, vilket görs i en tredelad undersökning som fokuserar på kommunikationsmönsterna och hur dessa reflekteras över. Det empiriska materialet utgörs av 18 bidrag insamlade via en nätbaserad deltagande observation, 2 kvalitativa intervjuer och 56 svarande på en nätbaserad enkät. Genom ett självselektivt urval avgränsades den studerade gruppen till i huvudsak informanter med en medianålder på 27 år med erfarenheter av heterosexuella relationer. Det studien visar är att den distansering och begränsning denna kommunikation innebär oftast möjliggör förmågan hos informanterna att uttrycka sig friare än i en interaktion ansikte mot ansikte. Samtidigt värderas ändå den fysiska interaktionen högre då denna är mer “på riktigt”. Med begreppet digital sexuell kommunikation (DSK) har vi också ämnat klargöra och definiera det forskningsområde som denna studie genomförts inom, vilket kombinerar medie- och kommunikationsvetenskap med det sexualpsykologiska fältet. / “Sexting” is the communication between sexual partners through textbased digital media, which is a practice that can be experienced as very intimate despite the mediums limitations of the characteristics of a physical interaction. The purpose of this study is to offer a comprehensive overview of how this type of interaction is constructed and expressed, which has been conducted through a three-parted examination of the specifics of these communication patterns and how they are reflected upon. The empirical data consists of 18 contributions collected through a netbased participatory observation, 2 qualitative interviews and 56 respondents of a netbased survey. Through a method of selfselection the informant group was generated and constricted to mainly informants of an average age of 27 with experiences of heterosexual relations. What the study concludes is that the distance and limitation of this type of communication often contributes to a sense of a more liberated way of expression than what is possible in a face-to-face interaction. Yet the informants value the physical type of interaction higher as this is seen as more “real”. With the term digital sexual communication (DSC) we also aim to clarify and define the research area in which we conduct this study, which combines the science of media & communication with the field of sexual psychology.

Online dating is a popular phenomenon in the world. Since the main motivation for individuals to use online dating services is finding a partner, the communication strategies for the users to develop a relationship via online dating services and the different communication practices between online and offline dating are thought-provoking. This research aims to answer two research questions: what the communication strategies for online daters of Soul are and what the differences between online and offline dating for users of Soul, including communication practices are. These two research questions aim to increase the possibility of having a successful online dating and provide a deep insight into online dating. Based on the theoretical frameworks of uncertainty reduction theory, social information processing theory, and the hyperpersonal communication, this research interviewed 11 Chinese online daters in the application, Soul and observed their online activities. As a result, this research finds that when encounter with the potential partners, individuals will actively seek information to reduce their uncertainty. The most effective way is interrogation while the most common way is observing personal account. During the information-seeking process, the similarities including interests and hobbies are important. Self-presentation strategies contain the planning strategy, editing strategy, and the strategy of adaptation to the characteristics of the partner. Besides information seeking strategies and self-presentation strategies, individuals also use the long-term arrangement strategy. The differences between online and offline dating contain three aspects: communication practices of information processing (including information processing, communication patterns as well as communication attitudes), the imagined others through online dating communication and different social norms.

Yiguan is a new-emerging mobile application which is popular in China. Different from the traditional social media, Yiguan enables users to have interaction and communications anonymously online. Compared to other anonymous social media, Yiguan is nether proximity-based nor tie-based. The identity of Yiguan users can be completely anonymous. Users will not have a personal profile and home pages on Yiguan. Anonymity makes it possible that users wear masks when they present themselves and interact with others. It is possible for them to get rid of the constraint, escaping from repetitive everyday life. This thesis based on the empirical qualitative research, conduct an audience analysis on Yiguan’s users. I’d like to explore what users do on Yiguan and how they utilize the space of Yiguan. This thesis wishes to identify the activities of users on Yiguan, and explore the characteristics of user’s activities. Combing the critical theories from Mead, Goffman, and Walther, this thesis will provide a vivid sketch of users on Yiguan.

This qualitative study focuses on a peer support system created and facilitated by a high school student. The peer support group was multifaceted, including one component on Facebook™. A review of literature on bullying, cyberbullying, Communities of Practice and hyperpersonal communications was compiled, studied and analyzed. The case study was comprised of a four one-on-one interviews with the creator of the support system, in which she discussed her experiences throughout its facilitation. The study discusses all the components that made up the support system and the benefits for the creator and students involved at her high school. The study focuses on the use of Facebook™ as a medium for support, in particular, the anonymity it allowed for the members of the support system to share. I utilized this study to identify the benefits of support systems for students that are facilitated and governed through peers.

<p>The hyperpersonal model predicts computer-mediated communication can allow for relationships formed in that medium to become more intimate than their offline counterparts. Specifically, it combines ideas first presented in social information processing (i.e., that the volume of information exchanged over time within computer-mediated relationship is more important than how long it takes to exchange that volume) with the technological affordances given to the sender, receiver, message, and channel in order to create a feedback loop of assumed good intentions within the CMC medium that allows for online relationships to surpass face-to-face relationships in terms of their emotional intimacy. Existing research has shown that a variety of factors influence how people feel about an online friend, including the richness of the medium, personality, and the amount of emotional self-disclosure that had been exchanged within the relationship. However, studies to date have inconsistently measured self-disclosure and largely rely on survey or experimental methods rather than the examination of existing text-based datasets. This study proposes and tests a model that the relationship between an initial person’s emotional self-disclosure and the reciprocal self-disclosure the friend responds with in a CMC medium is mediated by the degree to which their language converges, or the degree to which they empathize with each other, and is moderated by the volume of text exchanged by the pairs during their relationship. The study uses a corpus of the text messages exchanged between 2,174 pairs of people. The results indicate that there is an indirect relationship between initial self-disclosure and reciprocal self-disclosure which is mediated by is empathetic convergence. Furthermore, the volume of information exchanged may also play a role in some of these interactions. This study offers implications and suggestions for refining the hyperpersonal model to be applicable in the current digital zeitgeist.</p>