Alice Shanthi Kasawi @ Krisnan (2017) Interactivity and online Guanxi in web forums in Malaysia. Doctoral thesis, Universiti Malaysia Sabah.
![[img]](https://eprints.ums.edu.my/style/images/fileicons/text.png) |
Text
24 PAGES.pdf Download (800kB) |
|
Text
FULLTEXT.pdf Restricted to Registered users only Download (4MB) |
Abstract
The present study contributed to the knowledge on understanding the interactive language strategies that highlighted interactivity and how this is sustained by the presence of online Guanxi in web-forums. Web-forum was selected for this study because it was the closest form of online interaction tool used in an academic setting. It was the lack of student interest to share information on academic discussion boards that prompted the researcher to find some answers from the public web-forums that could be incorporated in the classroom. The focus of the study was to find out how information was shared through the exchange of messages in web-forums. In this study the web-forum discussions were typically those that evolve around specific topics that were of common interest to Malaysians so that the findings of the study would reflect interactive language behaviours among Malaysians. Web-forums were selected for this study because they have the ability to seek, share and exchange information in a collaborative manner. To date, little is known about Malaysians’ online communicative behaviour that encourages them to stay connected and share ideas with one another in web-forums. By using the analytical framework of Herring’s Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis (CMDA), the study carried out a qualitative analysis of the naturally occurring data that was gathered from several web-forums in Malaysia that were actively discussing on Malaysian issues. The study found that though there was a lot of disapproving language functions used in the interaction, there was almost an equal number of language functions that were categorized as being polite. This goes to show that even though the web-forum members seem to disapprove of each other’s views, they normally do it without damaging the “face”. Next, the study looked into the language strategies that emerged from the data that seem to encourage interactivity in the web-forum. Interactivity was highlighted because it was observed that this variable was important to keep the web-forum interaction on-going by encouraging the members to post. This study found that interactivity does not simply occur, but must be intentionally built, or worked upon in web-forums. Therefore, in order to increase interactivity in web-forums, it does not need to have the entire web-forum members actively posting in order to have discussion on-going, but rather a small group of members. These members were normally the thread starters and the leaders who emerged in the process of interaction because they had the knowledge or experience in the topic of discussion. Finally, the study found that online Guanxi was a necessary element to increase interactivity in web-forums. Online Guanxi was formed when forum members felt the presence of others, and they had trust that the forum members would be able to share information that would be helpful and the whole process of seeking, sharing and exchanging information was done by respecting one another’s “face”.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Doctoral) |
|---|---|
| Keyword: | Interactive language, Online Guanxi, Web-forum |
| Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HM Sociology (General) > HM(1)-1281 Sociology > HM711-806 Groups and organizations |
| Department: | FACULTY > Faculty of Psychology and Education |
| Depositing User: | DG MASNIAH AHMAD - |
| Date Deposited: | 28 Jun 2024 15:02 |
| Last Modified: | 28 Jun 2024 15:02 |
| URI: | https://eprints.ums.edu.my/id/eprint/38989 |
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |