The current investigation explores how acculturation motives are reflected in Internet use among Chinese and Korean international students. The purposes of this study are two- fold. The primary goal is to help understand the way Internet activities are associated with acculturation motives. The secondary purpose is to explore how acculturation motives are fulfilled in two different type of Internet usage: English-language and native-language Internet. Acculturation motives are examined in terms of acquisition of new traits and maintenance of the heritage culture. This research employs acculturation theories and the uses and theoretical gratification perspectives to studying Internet use and acculturation motives. Following the nature of the study, in-depth interviews and observations were employed to examine the Internet use of thirteen Chinese and Korean international students in the United States. The study demonstrates that participants used the Internet the most for communication within the local communities and the home countries. Internet communication plays an important role in fulfilling acculturation motives in complementing limited interpersonal communications and in acquisition of social support. Socially active international students were more involved in the social utility of Internet activities, such as Facebook or instant messengers. Another important finding of this work revealed that there was no distinguishing difference in using English-language or native-language Internet, when it comes to acquisition of new traits and maintenance of the heritage culture. Unlike other traditional mass media, the linguistic and cultural nature of each Internet type was not closely related to fulfilling acculturation motives. / A Thesis submitted to the School of Communication in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2010. / March 30, 2010. / Information Seeking Internet Activities, Acculturation Motives, Social Utility Internet Activities, In-depth Interviews / Includes bibliographical references. / Stephen D. McDowell, Professor Directing Thesis; Ulla Bunz, Committee Member; Felecia F. Jordan-Jackson, Committee Member.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:fsu.edu/oai:fsu.digital.flvc.org:fsu_181271 |
| Contributors | Kim, Min Jeong (authoraut), McDowell, Stephen D. (professor directing thesis), Bunz, Ulla (committee member), Jordan-Jackson, Felecia F. (committee member), School of Library and Information Studies (degree granting department), Florida State University (degree granting institution) |
| Publisher | Florida State University, Florida State University |
| Source Sets | Florida State University |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, text |
| Format | 1 online resource, computer, application/pdf |
| Rights | This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. For other uses you need to obtain permission from the rights-holder(s). The copyright in theses and dissertations completed at Florida State University is held by the students who author them. |
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