Graded Assignment 2 - CMC

Peace be upon you

PART 1 - Development of SNS; Facebook

PART 2 - CMC

Cite one research done using Facebook.

Title of article  :  The Influence of Computer-Mediated Communication Apprehension on Motives 
                            for Facebook Use

Author       
Daniel Hunt, David Atkin & Archana Krishnan

Journal 
Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media Volume 56, Issue 2, 2012

URL                             
 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08838151.2012.678717

The purpose of study   
1) To examine the influence of computer-mediated communication apprehension on motives for 
    using the interactive features on Facebook.
2) To investigate how Facebook motives predict the use of its interactive  features; Interpersonal 
    communication, self-expression, and entertainment  motives all significantly predicted the use of 
    interactive features on Facebook.

Statement Problem      
Communication apprehension in a computer-mediated context was found to be inversely related to 
interpersonal, self-expression, entertainment, and passing time motives for using Facebook.

Research Question       
1)  Which motives for using Facebook predict the use of its interactive features?
2)  How does gender influence motives for using Facebook?

Methodology               
- Quantitative design.
- The survey was administered online through a third party online survey company, QuestionPro.The 
questionnaire consisted of measures of apprehension related to CMC activities and Facebook use.

Sampling                      
-  Convenient and purposive sampling.
-  Consist of 417 undergraduate students.

Result                          
-  CMCA was not associated with facts-related search on Facebook.
-  CMCA reduces one’s encouragement in interpersonal communication on Facebook.
-  CMCA also reduces one’s encouragement to use Facebook as an entertainment medium.
-  CMCA is used as a medium to pass by time faster or in other words to waste time.
-  The interpersonal intention gives encouragement in using the interactive features in Facebook.
-  Interactive features are not prominently for wasting time or facts-related search. 
-  Interpersonal communication exists because of the entertainment factor on Facebook.
-  Entertainment factor and the usage of interactive features involves with gender of a person.
-  Facebook is a medium for people to use the interactive features which are for entertainment and
   expresses of oneself.

PART 3 - Analyzing selected corpus.

Discussion

Framework: Grammatical Analysis (Experiential Metafunction)

No.	Process Type	Number of Occurrence	Percentage (%)
1.	Material	105	51.7
2.	Behavioural	2	1.0
3.	Mental	48	23.6
4.	Existential	9	4.4
5.	Verbal	14	6.9
6.	Relational	25	12.3

The topic chosen on Facebook is on GST.

- From our research, we found that Material process appeared the most with 105 times out of 203.

- Material has something to do with action; what one does and how one does it. It is the most used by the commentators because the article itself talks about the service customers in restaurants have to pay, not of the opinion of Malaysian citizens on the implementation GST. So, the words used by the commentators are mostly action-related because GST causes the people to do some action.

- Commentators used so many material processes because they wanted to voice out their stand on GST and persuade the readers. That is why words like ‘I think’ are not used a lot because it makes their stand weaker and not persuasive enough. As the main focus of the article is about service charges, the commentators use words that are related to money and services. For instance, common words appeared in the articles are ‘pay’/’paid’, ‘get’, ‘charge’, ‘take’ and ‘share’.

- The commentators are debating on the reasons why they have to pay the service charge. Hence, the common used of the word ‘pay’. For instance, in the comment section, one of them said “At least, we now know that we don’t have to pay the 10% extra without a notice.”

- Although Material appears the most, Mental is not far left behind with 23.6%. Mental process describes what goes on in the mind and it involves feeling. The commentators express their perceptions and opinions based on the article they read. They are getting emotional over the implementation of GST that burdens them. Thus, they use words like ‘want’, ‘feel’ and ‘know’ in the comment section. However, Mental process’ words are not used as frequent as Material’s because the commenters are more curious to rationally know the reasons they have to pay the service charge instead of getting all fed up over GST.

- Mental and Behavioral processes are interrelated as both require physiological and psychological behavior. After the mental process, then comes the Behavioral process because of the suggestions from the reader on the feedback of the article. However, there is not a lot of Behavioural process used in the comment section. It has the least percentage with 1.0%.

- Relational process is needed to describe and explain the commentators’ comments clearly to the reader to understand the message. Without words like ‘are’, ‘is’ and ‘has’, the readers would have trouble understanding the message. 12.3% of the percentage is Relational process.

- In conclusion, Material process has the biggest percentage because it involves actions from the commentators while Behavioral process has the least percentage.