Communication and the Evolution of SNS

Cultural Convergence Perspective

Bibliographic Data

ID6154096
AuthorsG A Barnett (0000-0002-7511-1886, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume10
Issue1
Pages43-54
Publication date2011-04-30
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Contemporary Eastern Asia (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 2383-9449 • E-ISSN: 2383-9449
PublisherWorld Association for Triple helix and Future strategy studies (PUBLISHER • KR)
DOI10.17477/jcea.2011.10.1.043
OpenAlexW2279929181
LanguageEN
Citations received5
References cited13

Recently, East Asians have become fascinated by social networking and have paid a great deal of attention to social networking websites such as Facebook, Cyworld and Twitter in East Asia.In the academic domain there have been a number of research projects focusing on how people use the social media to enhance social connections, their impact on political processes, how they can be used to obtain employment, enhance trust and market new products.From Korea to Singapore, SNS seem to be changing the fabric of Asian society for better or worse.Their impact seems to be ubiquitous.However, media come and go.In the jargon of Communication Science, they are adopted and then disadopted.That is, their use is discontinued.The classic case is the decline or discontinuance in cinema attendance, listening to the radio, and the loss of readership of general-interest magazines in the United States in the 1950s that coincided with the adoption of television.Within the area of communication and information technology the adoption/disadoption process is known as media substitution.The introduction of a new medium encourages a restructuring of the way people perceive existing media.Media substitution occurs in two ways, through displacement and supplementation.Media displacement occurs due to superior content, technical benefit, and cost efficiency (Lin, 2001).Television displaced radio because of television's visual capability.Audiences abandon old technologies and replace them with new ones when the latter is considered more functionally desirable.Thus, new media will displace functionally similar traditional media if people perceive that it is superior in function or content, less costly, or more convenient.Bum Soo Chon, Han Woo Park, Devan Rosen and I (2001) have suggested that the Internet is replacing traditional telephone because of its functional advantages, which include data transmission, asynchrony, and cost.While Kayany and Yelsma (2000) found displacement effects of online media on the use of television, newspapers, and family conversation, many studies, however, did not provided support for time displacement due to the functional equivalence of other media.Internet users do not appear to experience displacement.Studies have shown media supplementation in which the adoption of new media increases the time spent with older technologies.This depends, of course, on whether the new information technology is "functionally similar" to those already in use.Media technologies rarely become extinct; they typically endure by improving or updating their content offerings or delivery system, such as the case with high definition digital radio and television.As a media technology, Internet-based social media provides an additional, more convenient and affordable channel of communication to supplement the telephone, face-toface contact, and traditional mass media.Among its initial adopters, traditional media use was not significantly related to Internet use.Further, Internet users more frequently use other media and engage in social activities than nonusers.They read more literature

Convergence (economics · Cultural Communication · Economic growth · Economics · Economy · Honor · Internet privacy · Media studies · Perspective (graphical · Service (business · Social communication · Social science · Sociocultural evolution · Sociology · Anthropology · Complex Network Analysis Techniques · Computer Science · Digital Marketing and Social Media · Knowledge Management and Sharing

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