Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in
SpringerLink
Log in

New Agency of Personal Communities

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
The Social Lives of Networked Students

  • 142 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter discusses media use and its repercussions for international students’ relationships and support networks and whether a changing media landscape is leading to social transformation. This chapter focuses on social processes in the context of technological mediation in support exchanges. Face-to-face contact is considered to be only one of many media channels for social support exchange. International students have different support structures and prefer different media when communicating with each. Although the categories of media are broadly classified, the frequency and type of channel add more substance to the networks. The chapter concludes with the introduction of three profiles of media use: classic media, neoteric media, and established media.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 79.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 99.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Source: Internet Live Stats (www.InternetLiveStats.com) April 1, 2018 Estimate. According to the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), an internet user is an individual (regardless of age) who can access the internet at home via any device type and connection.

  2. 2.

    Maslow’s (1943) hierarchy of needs is a psychological theory illustrating the phases of growth such as physiological needs, safety, belongingness and love, esteem, self-actualisation, and self-transcendence in human beings.

  3. 3.

    Principal components analysis was employed because the main objective was to recognise and compute composite scores for the factors underlying the media dimensions.

  4. 4.

    Face-to-face contact , letters , text/SMS, phone calls, email , IM , social networking sites, and other platforms on a frequency scale, ranging from 0 = Never, 1 = Less than five times a year, 2 = Five times a year, 3 = Several times a month, 4 = Once a month, 5 = Several times a month, 6 = Once a week, 7 = Several times a week, 8 = Daily.

References

  • Ball-Rokeach, S. J., & DeFleur, M. L. (1976). A dependency model of mass-media effects. Communication Research, 3(1), 3–21.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Baym, N. K. (1998). The emergence of on-line community. cybersociety, 2(0), 35–68.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bessiere, K., Kiesler, S., Kraut, R., & Boneva, B. S. (2008). Effects of Internet use and social resources on changes in depression. Information, Community & Society, 11(1), 47–70.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boase, J. (2008). Personal networks and the personal communication system: Using multiple media to connect. Information, Communication & Society, 11(4), 490–508.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Castells, M. (2000). Toward a sociology of the network society. Contemporary Sociology, 29(5), 693–699.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen, W. (2010). Internet-usage patterns of immigrants in the process of intercultural adaptation. Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking, 13(4), 387–399.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Costa, R. D. (2006). On a new concept of community: Social networks, personal communities and collective intelligence. Interface-Comunicação, SaĂşde, Educação, 2(SE), 0–0.

    Google Scholar 

  • Daft, R. L., & Lengel, R. H. (1986). Organizational information requirements, media richness and structural design. Management Science, 32(5), 554–571.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Flanagin, A. J., & Metzger, M. J. (2001). Internet use in the contemporary media environment. Human Communication Research, 27(1), 153–181.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fong, E., Wellman, B., Kew, M., & Wilkes, R. (2001). Correlates of the digital divide: Individual, household and spatial variation. Ottawa, Canada: Office of Learning Technologies, Human Resources Development.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giddens, A. (1990). Structuration theory and sociological analysis. In J. Clark, C. Mogdil, & F. Mogdil (Eds.), Anthony Giddens: Consensus and controversy (pp. 297–315). Brighton: Falmer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gruzd, A., & Haythornthwaite, C. (2013). Enabling community through social media. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 15(10).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haythornthwaite, C. (2000). Online personal networks: Size, composition and media use among distance learners. New Media & Society, 2(2), 195–226.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Haythornthwaite, C. (2005). Social networks and Internet connectivity effects. Information, Community & Society, 8(2), 125–147.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hiller, H. H., & Franz, T. M. (2004). New ties, old ties and lost ties: The use of the internet in diaspora. New Media & Society, 6(6), 731–752.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hogan, B. (2003). Media multiplexity: An examination of differential communication usage. Annual meeting of the Association of Internet Researchers, Toronto, Canada.

    Google Scholar 

  • Hogan, B. J. (2009). Networking in everyday life. Toronto, ON, Canada: University of Toronto.

    Google Scholar 

  • Jamieson, L. (2013). Personal relationships, intimacy and the self in a mediated and global digital age. In K. Orton-Johnson & N. Prior (Eds.), Digital sociology (pp. 13–33). London: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Jenkins, H. (2006). Convergence culture: Where old and new media collide. New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Katz, E. (1959). Mass communications research and the study of popular culture: An editorial note on a possible future for this journal. Departmental Papers (ASC), 165.

    Google Scholar 

  • Koku, E., Nazer, N., & Wellman, B. (2001). Netting scholars: Online and offline. American Behavioral Scientist, 44(10), 1752–1774.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Madianou, M., & Miller, D. (2013). Migration and new media: Transnational families and polymedia. Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Markus, M. L. (1994). Finding a happy medium: Explaining the negative effects of electronic communication on social life at work. ACM Transactions on Information Systems (TOIS), 12(2), 119–149.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370–396.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McLuhan, M., & Fiore, Q. (1967). The medium is the message. New York, 123, 126–128.

    Google Scholar 

  • Michelson, W. (2005). Time use: Expanding explanation in the social sciences. Boulder: Paradigm Publishers.

    Google Scholar 

  • Mok, D., & Wellman, B. (2007). Did distance matter before the Internet?: Interpersonal contact and support in the 1970s. Social Networks, 29(3), 430–461.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Monge, P. R., & Contractor, N. S. (2001). Emergence of communication networks. In F. M. Jablin & L. L. Putnam (Eds.), The new handbook of organizational communication: Advances in theory, research, and methods (pp. 440–502). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Quan-Haase, A., & Young, A. L. (2010). Uses and gratifications of social media: A comparison of Facebook and instant messaging. Bulletin of Science, Technology & Society, 30(5), 350–361.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Quan-Haase, A., Wellman, B., Witte, J. C., & Hampton, K. N. (2002). Capitalizing on the net: Social contact, civic engagement, and sense of community. In B. Wellman & C. Haythornthwaite (Eds.), The Internet in everyday life (pp. 291–324). Oxford: Blackwell.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rainie, L. (2006). Digital natives invade the workplace. In Pew Internet & American life project: Washington, DC (pp. 290–315).

    Google Scholar 

  • Rainie, L., & Wellman, B. (2012). Networked: The new social operating system. MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Reid, E. M. (1994). Cultural formations in text-based virtual realities. University of Melbourne.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rheingold, H. (1985). Tools for thought: The history and future of mind-expanding technology. MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rheingold, H. (2000). The virtual community: Homesteading on the electronic frontier. MIT Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Rogers, E. M., & Kincaid, D. L. (1981). Communication networks: Toward a new paradigm for research. New York: Free Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Short, J., Williams, E., & Christie, B. (1976). The social psychology of telecommunications. Wiley.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tu, C. H. (2002). The measurement of social presence in an online learning environment. International Journal on E-Learning, 1(2), 34–45.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tu, C. H., & McIsaac, M. (2002). The relationship of social presence and interaction in online classes. The American Journal of Distance Education, 16(3), 131–150.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Turkle, S. (2011). Alone together: Why we expect more from technology and less from ourselves. New York: Basic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Veenhof, B., Wellman, B., Quell, C., & Hogan, B. (2008). How Canadians’ use of the Internet affects social life and civic participation. Ottawa: Statistics Canada.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wellman, B. (2001). Little boxes, glocalization, and networked individualism. In Kyoto Workshop on Digital Cities (pp. 10–25). Berlin, Heidelberg: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wellman, B., & Haythornthwaite, C. (Eds.). (2008). The Internet in everyday life. John Wiley & Sons.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wellman, B., Hogan, B., Berg, K., Boase, J., Carrasco, J.-A., CĂ´tĂ©, R., Kayahara, J., Kennedy, T. L., & Tran, P. (2006). Connected lives: The project. In P. Purcell (Ed.), Networked neighbourhoods (pp. 161–216). Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Wellman, B., Quan-Haase, A., Boase, J., & Chen, W. (2002). Examining the Internet in everyday life. In Keynote address to the Euricom Conference on e-Democracy, Nijmegen, Netherlands (October).

    Google Scholar 

  • Wellman, B., & Wortley, S. (1990). Different strokes from different folks: Community ties and social support. American Journal of Sociology, 96(3), 558–588.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zerubavel, E. (1982). The standardization of time: A sociohistorical perspective. American Journal of Sociology, 88(1), 1–23.

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Social Sciences, Singapore Management University, Singapore, Singapore

    Rajee Kanagavel

Authors
  1. Rajee Kanagavel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Kanagavel, R. (2019). New Agency of Personal Communities. In: The Social Lives of Networked Students. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96199-6_3

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96199-6_3

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-96198-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-96199-6

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation