Blog 4

Literature review:

After researching and reading the references, I got some relevance and useful information.

According to Smock, Ellison, Lampe and Wohn (2011) and Whiting and Williams (2013), I found and summarize the reasons and the gratifications of using social media to become 6 main factors, which are social interaction, information seeking, pass time, entertainment, expressive information sharing, and escapism.

First, the motive of social interaction, it is to use social media to interact and communicate with others.

For information seeking, this uses and gratifications theme is defined as using social media to find out information.

For the motivation of pass time, it define people use the social media to occupy time and relieve boredom.

For the reason of entertainment, it means people use social media to get entertainment and feel enjoy.

For expressive information sharing, it means social media is a tool for people to share and present themselves to others.

For escapism, it express users use social media to relieve day-to-day stress.

In my research, I would focus on these six elements to get the reasons and understand the uses and gratifications.

In addition, referencing to Smock, Ellison, Lampe, and Wohn (2011), I got some useful questions that are useful for me to design the questionnaire and questions in the interview.

Research progress:

Finished the design of questionnaire and interview schedule.

Will distribute the questionnaire and finish the interview within next week.

Questionnaire Sample

Hi, I am Uni Chong, a student from the HKU SPACE Centre for Degree Programme. I am now conducting a survey about users’ opinion towards gratifications of social media. All of the data collected will be confidential and it will only be used for an assignment of the course. All questionnaires will be destroyed after 3 months.

Please put a tick in the appropriate box. They will only take you a few minutes.

1.      Have you use the social media?

□Yes
□No(This is the end of the questionnaire, Thank You!)

2.      How long will you spend for the social media per day?

□< 1 hour
□1-2 hour
□3-4 hours
□5-6 hours
□7 hours or above

3.      Which of the following social media that you use? (Can choose more than one)
□Facebook                              □Instagram                            □Twitter                
□Snapchat                              □LinkedIn                              □Tumbir
□Google+                                □Pinterest                     □Vine
□Others: (Please Specify)__________________

4.      Where do you know about social media? (Can choose more than one)
□Blogs                                     □Relatives                            □Friends
□Celebrities                           □Newspapers                       □Magazines
□Online Forums                    □Others: (Please Specify)__________________

5.      Which function(s) on social media in the following that attract(s) you to use the social media? (Can choose more than one)
□Update status                      □Post photo or video          □Private messages
□Meet friend                           □Provide information                 □Comments
□“Likes”                                  □Others: (Please Specify)__________________

6.      To what extent do you agree the following statement: (1 = Strongly Disagree, 2 = Disagree, 3 = Neutral, 4 = Agree, 5 = Strongly Agree)

	1	2	3	4	5
a)     I listen to music on social media often.
b)     I watch videos on social media often.
c)     I use social media for humor often.
d)     I use social media when I feel boring often.
e)     I use social media to pass the time away often.
f)      I update my status on social media often.
g)     I leave comment to share my opinions on social media often.
h)     I share myself to others on social media often.
i)       I use social media chat with my friends often.
j)       I use social media chat with my family often.
k)     I meet new friends on social media often.
l)       I can forget about school, work, or other things through social media often.
m)   I can get away from reality through social media often.
n)     I can escape the stress through social media often.
o)     I use social media to search information often.
p)     I get the information I need on social media often.

7.      Considering your using of social media, how would you describe the experience you had?

□Excellent
□Good
□Average
□Fair
□Poor

8.      What is your gender?
□Male
□Female

9.      Age

□<18
□18-25
□26-30
□31-36
□<36

10. Occupation

□Student                                 □Management                      □Clerical

□Self-employed             □Professional                       □Unemployed
□Others, please specify: _________________

This is the end of the questionnaire, Thank You!

Interview Schedule Sample

Research Question

What factors of social media cause people to use and how they get gratifications from using social media?

Introduction (2-3 minutes)

1.      Self- Introduction

-Name/Programme

2.      Reason to do the research

-To do an report for the course

3.      Explanation of the Research Topic

-To explain what is the research topic

4.      Guarantee of Confidentiality and Anonymous (if needed)

-Recordings and information collected will be confidential

-For academic purposes only

-They will be destroyed after 3 months

Part A. Opening Questions (2 minutes)

1.      Thinking of your using of social media, how long did you use the social media per day?

2.      Which social media do you use?

Part B. In-Depth Questions (8-10 minutes)

1.      What are the main reason(s) that you use social media?

2.      What kind(s) of function attract(s) you to use social media?

3.      What kind(s) of thing that you would do through social media?

4.      How do you think the social media can bring you gratification?

Part C. Background Information (1-2 minutes)

What is your age range/occupation?

Conclusion (2 minutes)

I think I had everything I need. Do you have any more comments or anything to share? If not, let’s end here and I appreciate the time you spent with us. Thank you.

References:
Smock, A. D., Ellison, N. B., Lampe, C., Wohn, D. Y. (2011). Facebook as a toolkit: A uses and gratification approach to unbundling feature use. Computers in Human Behavior, 27(6), 2322–2329

Whiting, A. and Williams, D. (2013). Why people use social media: a uses and gratifications approach. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 16(4), 362-369