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Motives for Posting and Liking on Social Media: Comparing Differences between Chinese and European Users

Gao, L. (2016) Motives for Posting and Liking on Social Media: Comparing Differences between Chinese and European Users.

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Abstract:Social media have become a prominent way of communicating in the Web 2.0 age. Posting and liking are now parts of many people’s daily life. Young people, as the main force of social media users, develop their own habits and ways of using social media. In this research, 40 participants from China and European countries were interviewed to investigate their motives for posting and liking. According to their answers, there is a wide variety of both posting and liking motives. Using the four-sides communication model by Schulz von Thun as a starting point, all the motives were classified into main categories including referential, expressive, relational, appealing, information storage, psychological and other. The results show that Chinese and European behave differently in both posting and liking. Chinese have more expressive and appealing motives in posting, and more referential motives in liking. When comparing own motives with others’, there are differences in appealing and information storage motives of posting, but no significant differences were found in the motives of liking. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:05 communication studies
Programme:Communication Studies MSc (60713)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/69110
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