Chinese international students' social network sites usages and their process of intercultural adaptation in Barcelona
In recent decades, the development of digital technology has reshaped the way of social interaction as well as social relationships for international students. With the advent of the internet in recent decades, social network sites (SNSs) have become important platforms for international students to...
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| Tipo de recurso: | tesis doctoral |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2022 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | CBUC, CESCA |
| Repositorio: | TDR. Tesis Doctorales en Red |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:www.tdx.cat:10803/687590 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10803/687590 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Social network sites Social media Intercultural adaptation Social capital International students China 316 |
| Sumario: | In recent decades, the development of digital technology has reshaped the way of social interaction as well as social relationships for international students. With the advent of the internet in recent decades, social network sites (SNSs) have become important platforms for international students to establish networks and seek information. Through interaction and searching behaviors on SNSs, international students are likely to acquire academic and social skills and even obtain a sense of belongingness to the new environment. Since the adoption of multiple SNSs can be linked to cultural differences, the behaviors among international students may vary from those local students. Based on the data from both quantitative and qualitative studies, the present study intends to explore Chinese international students’ SNSs use habit and its relations with the formation of social capital and cross-cultural adaptation during their stay in Catalan universities. In order to accomplish the objective, 146 Chinese international students in Barcelona answered an online questionnaire surveying their use intensity of six chosen SNSs (in specific, WeChat, Facebook, WhatsApp, Weibo, Twitter and Instagram) in question and self-evaluation of the perceived social capitals. In the next step, 17 in-depth interviews were followed to identify specific motivations and behaviors for using multiple SNSs in relation to interviewees’ adaptation experiences. The results highlight that chosen SNSs in the present study facilitate Chinese international students’ different types of social capital formation. More specifically, the study confirms that intensively using the host-based SNSs (namely, Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook) play an important role in establishing heterogeneous networks and obtaining novel information, while ethnic SNS (namely, WeChat) has an impact on establishing strong ties and providing emotional and material support. Moreover, principal factors that affect participants’ SNSs behaviors and social capital formation were identified in the present study. Among them, active behaviors, the consciousness of platform affordances, and demanded attitudes are considered key attributes for a major and heterogeneous social capital formation. Lastly, the thesis also demonstrates diverse examples of participants’ adaptative strategies related to their online behaviors on different chosen SNSs. From the perspective of cross-cultural communication and social capital, this dissertation summarizes a model for participants to enhance their cross-cultural competence and achieve better intercultural communication through social media use. The findings provide recommendations for individuals' cross-cultural adaptation and media operation decisions by educational and policy-making institutions. |
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