Medium Dependence Research Articles

Loneliness and sleep disturbance among first‐year college students: The sequential mediating effect of attachment anxiety and mobile social media dependence

AbstractSleep issues impair students' health and success. This study constructed a sequential mediating model to examine whether attachment anxiety and mobile social media dependence mediated the relationship between loneliness and sleep disturbance. A total of 487 university freshmen (42.09% females, 57.91% males; mean age = 18.19 years) were enrolled in this study and completed self‐report measures of loneliness, sleep disturbance, attachment anxiety, and mobile social media dependence. (1) There were significant positive correlations between loneliness and sleep disturbance. (2) College students' sleep disturbance was affected by loneliness partly through three different pathways: the mediating effect of attachment anxiety, the mediating effect of mobile social media dependence, and the sequential mediating effect of attachment anxiety and mobile social media dependence. Loneliness could positively predict sleep disturbance and attachment anxiety and mobile social media dependence played important mediating roles in this relationship. These findings contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the factors for sleep disturbance.

Impulsiveness as potential moderators of the relation between social media dependence and eating disorders risk

BackgroundSocial media dependence (SMD) and eating disorders (ED) risk are often thought to be inextricably linked. Because social media dependence often precedes an ED, predicts poor outcome, and persists even after recovery from an ED, it is important to examine whether certain factors have the ability to potentially attenuate or intensify SMD’s effect on eating disorders.MethodsIn the current study, we examined one possible moderating factor: impulsiveness. 767 undergraduates (mean age = 18.78 years, SD = 1.20) in Shaanxi province of China, completed anonymous questionnaires regarding social media dependence, eating disorders, impulsiveness.ResultsRevealed that non-planned impulsiveness (NPI) moderated the relation between SMD and ED risk. Individuals who were low in SMD and who reported low levels of NPI reported much lower levels of ED risk than those with low SMD and high NPI. However, Individuals who were high in SMD and who reported low levels of NPI reported much higher levels of ED risk than those with high SMD and high NPI. Contrary to our hypotheses, Motor impulsiveness and cognitive impulsiveness did not emerge as moderators of the relation between SMD and ED risk. ConclusionsResults provide growing support that factors that interact with SMD can lessen or aggravate SMD’s effect on ED risk. These findings can be beneficial to our understanding of how and when social media dependence impacts undergraduates’ eating disorders risk.

Self-esteem and Social Media Dependency: a Structural Equation Modelling Approach to Comparing Primary Welsh and Non-Welsh Speakers

The current study examined the impact of using social media in English on associations between social media dependency and self-esteem, depression, social anxiety, and loneliness for Welsh speakers. A total of 836 pupils (317 Welsh speakers; 519 non-Welsh speakers), with a mean age of 13.44 (± .943), attending state-maintained Welsh/bilingual-medium secondary schools throughout Wales, completed scales on social media dependency, self-esteem, depression, social anxiety, and loneliness. A structural equation model approach found that whenever social media dependency was the predictor, its hypothesized associations with depression, loneliness, social anxiety, and self-esteem were stronger for Welsh speakers relative to non-Welsh speakers. The results suggest that a perceived or actual marginalization of a minority language within the social media domain might negatively impact minority language speakers’ self-esteem levels, which potentially impacts related psychological constructs.

GENDER DISPARITIES IN USAGE OF E-PORTAL WITH DIGITAL MEDIA IN PAKISTAN: ACCEPTABILITY AND IMPACTS ON UNIVERSITY STUDENTS DURING COVID-19

Several societal issues were resulting from the epidemic across the world. In such a situation there is a dire need to switch traditional methods of teaching and learning to Learning management systems in the educational sector. A casual learning process was aided by the approval, adaptation, and utilization of the LMS, E-Portal in this scenario. A Media System Dependency Theory approach is used to analyze the effects of e-portal LMS Acceptance and its impact on educational performance and results as well. In Islamabad, Pakistan, n= 300 students from Allama Iqbal Open University participated in the study. During the Covid-19, quantitative analysis revealed that there were some differences between the genders in the approval of the Aaghi LMS Portal as an e learning platform. Similar results were found between female students and traditional learning, as well as male students and their acceptance of Aaghi LMS Portal as an e-learning platform. As a result of the inferential statistics, students' academic achievement throughout Covid-19 was positively affected by Aaghi LMS Portal as an e-learning Platform. Researchers found that gender disparities moderately hinder the Aaghi LMS Portal as an e-learning platform during the Covid-19 pandemic. It has been proved that E-learning improves academic accomplishment, but decision-makers must rethink existing strategies to guarantee that the Aaghi LMS Portal as an e-learning medium is equally appropriate for all students, regardless of their background. Keyword’s: Gender Disparities, E-Portal, Covid-19, E-Learning, Aaghi, LMS, Acceptance, Students, Academic, Achievements, University Students, AIOU.

Film and Audience: A Threat to National Security

The early history of the film industry is said to have begun in the United States. Nelayan and Laila Majnun were the first Malay films produced in Malaya, in 1932, produced by Motilal Chemical Company. This thought stems from the effect of the scenes depicted in the film. This study's objective is to explore if film has the power of being a threat to national security, and secondly, to identify the impact of audience dependence on film by applying the Media Dependency Theory. This study used an entirely qualitative method which consists of in-depth interviews with 19 informants consisting of policymakers, enforcement, legal practitioners, media industry players, and the audience. Analysis of documents related to legislation was also carried out. The study found that films can threaten national security if certain scenes were not censored. The effect of the audience's dependence on the film can influence and change their social life. This study is expected to contribute to the media industry to produce films that aim to maintain racial harmony and national peace. Keywords: Film, the power of films, media dependency theory, films censorship, Malaysia.

Social Media Dependency and Work-Related Attitudes with Religiosity Mediation

The paper explores the social media dependency and work-related attitudes about religiosity as a mediator among employees in public and private organizations. Not many studies explore the above variables especially in the context of Malaysian employees. Self-administered questionnaires were distributed among employees in the public and private organizations in the selected major cities in the country. Data analyses are conducted using SPSS, namely reliability analysis, correlation analysis, regression analysis, and mediation analysis. Interestingly, the paper only discovers religiosity has a positive impact on work-related attitudes among employees in public and private organizations. Unfortunately, the other hypotheses are not supported and no mediation of religiosity on social media dependency and work-related attitudes was discovered. Further analysis is conducted on religiosity as moderator; the result also shows no moderation of religiosity on social media dependency and work-related attitudes. Discussions on the results are elaborated accordingly.

Common Predictive Factors of Social Media Addiction and Eating Disorder Symptoms in Female College Students: State Anxiety and the Mediating Role of Cognitive Flexibility/Sustained Attention.

This study aimed to investigate the common predictive factors between social media addiction (SMA) and eating disorder symptoms (EDS), in a group of Chinese female college students. A total of 216 students completed the behavioral assessments of cognitive flexibility and sustained attention, as well as the questionnaires on anxiety, social media dependence, and eating disorders. The results indicate that SMA is significantly correlated with EDS. Structural equation modeling was used to test the model in which state anxiety, cognitive flexibility, and sustained attention predicted social gain and EDS. Additionally, the results confirmed the mediating role of cognitive flexibility and sustained attention between state anxiety and SMA/EDS in the participants. The findings revealed that in the sample group, state anxiety was related to SMA and EDS through cognitive flexibility and sustained attention. These proposals reflect the significance of improving cognitive flexibility/sustained attention and reducing state anxiety to prevent EDS and SMA in female college students.

Understanding the antecedents of mobile social media acceptance during the public health crisis maintenance stage

Mobile social media experienced explosive growth during the COVID-19 pandemic. To understand the underlying causes of users' acceptance towards mobile social media, this study draws upon the uses and gratifications theory, media dependency theory, and related literature of individuals' perceived appraisal (perceived trust, perceived benefits, and perceived risk) to explore the determinants that influenced mobile social media acceptance during the public health crisis maintenance stage. Data were obtained from 724 mobile social media users in China through an online paid questionnaire survey platform. The results revealed that perceived trust and perceived benefits positively affected information seeking and information sharing, which jointly influenced an individual's intention to use mobile social media during the public health crisis maintenance stage. Social media dependency also positively affected mobile social media users' usage intentions. However, perceived risk negatively influenced information seeking and information sharing. The results of this study offer valuable theoretical and practical implications for crisis communication researchers, emergency management practitioners, and mobile social media platforms.

The Role of Media Use and Misinformation Perceptions in Optimistic Bias and Third-person Perceptions in Times of High Media Dependency: Evidence from Four Countries in the First Stage of the COVID-19 Pandemic

ABSTRACT When societies are struck by large-scale disruptions, biases in citizens’ personal risk assessment and the spread of misinformation are often reason for concern. As a contribution, this study aims to link individuals’ biased perceptions of self-other asymmetry—i.e., optimistic bias in risk assessment and third-person perception regarding undesired media influence—to different patterns of news consumption and misinformation perceptions. To study these phenomena, we distributed an online survey in the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic among citizens from the US, the UK, the Netherlands, and Germany (N = 1,912). The findings offer consistent support for bias beliefs: Compared to others, citizens from all four countries perceived themselves as less vulnerable to health and financial risk—i.e., optimistic bias—as well as the influence of misinformation—i.e., third-person perception. In a next step, we provide novel insights into how general news use can be associated with lower optimistic bias regarding perceived personal risk, while intentional exposure to issue-specific information and misinformation perceptions can relate to higher optimistic bias and third-person perceptions. These relationships were found to differ across individual countries. Overall, this study provides novel insights into how media use and perceptions relate to perceived invulnerability to potential harm, which, in turn, might impede pro-social intentions during crises surrounded by the omnipresence of misinformation.

An analysis of the factors affecting children and adolescent lifestyle in South Korea: A cross-sectional study with KCYPS 2018.

ObjectiveThe purpose of this study is to identify lifestyle factors that affect the subjective health conditions of adolescents in South Korea by utilizing data from the Korean Children’s and Youth Panel Survey 2018 conducted in Korea.MethodsThis cross-sectional study used data from 4,490 students (2,399 students in the fourth grade of elementary school and 2,541 students in the first grade of middle school). The data obtained were evaluated using living time (sleep time, study time, leisure time), emotions (happiness, self-esteem, emotional problems), capabilities (cooperative attitude, grit), health (life satisfaction, exercise time, number of breakfasts, quality of sleep), media (smartphone use and dependence), school (school life satisfaction, relationship with friends and teachers), and home (time spent with parents, parenting attitude).ResultsWe confirmed that regardless of grade, living time (leisure time), emotion (happiness, self-esteem, emotional problems), capabilities (grit), health (life satisfaction, exercise time, quality of sleep), media (smartphone dependence), and school (school life satisfaction, friendly, and teacher relations) are related to subjective health conditions. These results confirmed that evaluation parameters are related to subjective health conditions regardless of grade.ConclusionThis investigation revealed that the higher the quality of sleep enhanced positive emotions while increased exercise

Radio Listenership in Kathmandu

Radio plays a significant role in the Kathmandu society and that cannot be overlooked. The theories discussed for this study are uses and gratifications and media dependency theory. The data have been presented using frequency tables and charts. From this research work, it was discovered that the maximum number of respondents have gradually declined their interest and reliability on the radio today. The prevalence of web-based mediums has outdone the usage of radio and it has been reflected in this report as well. The goals are to investigate the current situation of radio listenership in Kathmandu, comprehend the evolution of listenership through time, and apprehend the prospects for radio listenership in the future.
 This study's findings revealed that the majority of respondents had seen a progressive fall in their interest in and dependability upon radio nowadays. Respondents' expectations for the future of radio in Kathmandu are apparently not very high. The predominance of web-based media has surpassed the use of radio, and this research confirms that. Finally, by the report's conclusion, we can also see how all the data were analyzed and presented, as well as some recommendations that could be used to raise the status of the radio.

COVID-19, Genetics, and Risk: Content Analysis of Facebook Posts Early in the Coronavirus Pandemic

ABSTRACT The COVID-19 pandemic represented a unique information seeking and sharing context for billions of Internet users across the globe. Although previous research has established that people often seek health information on the Internet, including through social media platforms, there was a political element to pandemic responses that is not typical of health issues such as seasonal influenza or heart conditions. This unique context, in conjunction with the public posting of the novel coronavirus DNA by Chinese scientists in January 2020, begs for analysis of how people used social media in the early phase of the pandemic to make sense of the role of genetics in COVID-19. This study represents such an analysis as a qualitative content analysis of Facebook posts concerning genetics and COVID-19. Data were collected from March through August of 2020 to identify how genetics issues were being shared on Facebook and the types of accounts that were sharing that information. Through analysis, four themes emerged representing Facebook posts about genetics and COVID-19: disease risk, testing, vaccines, and virus characteristics. These posts appeared on eight types of accounts, with five of those representing 88% of the data: education, health, lifestyle, news, and political. Results are interpreted with constructs from media dependency theory and implications for future research are presented.

PSYCHOLOGICAL FEATURES OF “MEDIA ADDICTION” AS A DESTRUCTIVE FACTOR IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF MENTAL HEALTH OF YOUNG PEOPLE

The purpose of the article is to theoretically analyze and substantiate the concept of “media dependence”; identified psychological prerequisites for the development of media addiction in youth. Research methodology. The theoretical and methodological basis of the study were: the main provisions of age psychology on the laws of personality formation, the structure of personality and its relationship with activity (G. Kostyuk, S. Maksimenko, S. Rubinstein). Conceptual provisions on the essence of the phenomenon of dependence (Ts. Korolenko, S. Kulikov, E. Melnyk), socio-psychological features of activity and communication in the virtual environment of the Internet are taken into account (O. Arestova, Yu. Babayeva, L. Babanin, O. Voiskunsky, A. Goldberg, A. Zhichkina, L. Yurieva, K. Young). Scientific novelty. The scientific novelty of the work is to determine the psychological content of media addiction. The content of the concept of media dependence has been clarified and analyzed; methodological approaches and directions for understanding media-dependent behavior of young people are systematized. Conclusions. In the broadest sense, media addiction can be seen as an integrative concept that combines a large number of problems of behavior, control over trains and characterizes the low level of media culture of the individual. The most common and actively studied forms of media addiction are telemania, addiction to computer games, Internet addiction. The influence of the media on people, their moral values, ethical and behavioral norms, can destroy the structure of social values, replace higher values with values of lower orders, leading to moral discord of youth and society as a whole and can certainly cause negative trends in society.

Pathways Linking Media Use to Wellbeing during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Mediated Moderation Study

During prolonged social isolation, media exposure is often intensified increases as individuals turn to the Internet, social media, television, and newspapers for information, communication, entertainment, and more. This exploratory study explores the correlations among media use, anxiety, and wellbeing in China during the COVID-19 pandemic. A survey questionnaire was designed to measure the following five constructs: media dependency, media attention, anxiety, wellbeing, and collectivism. A total of 722 respondents in China participated in the survey from November 2020 to December 2020. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to analyze the data. Our findings indicate that respondents who report collectivist norms tend to experience higher levels of wellbeing (and lower levels of anxiety), regardless of their scores for media use, media attention, or media dependency. Conversely, those respondents who record low collectivism tend to have higher levels of anxiety (and lower wellbeing), even if they report lower media use, attention and dependency during the pandemic. Study results also found that anxiety mediates the relationship between media use and wellbeing. Our introduction of collectivism as a possible moderating variable represents a significant contribution to current academic debates and suggests the inclusion of cultural factors for future studies on media use and anxiety/wellbeing during public health crises.

The Dissemination, Influence, and Efficiency of Jameson's Cultural Theory Combined with Chinese Mass Culture and Mass Sports Culture in the Sustainable Development of China.

Fredric Jameson's cultural theory forms a crucial part of the Western Marxist theory. Jameson's postmodern cultural theory includes cultural expansion, cultural history, cultural hyperspace, cultural ideology, and so on. The cultural expansion includes the outline of popular sports culture. (1) Content: In order to further understand the acceptance of Jameson's cultural theory in China, this paper explores the communication of Jameson's cultural theory in different cultural groups, different regions, and different communication channels in China based on the questionnaire survey in a larger span of social groups. Meanwhile, based on Jameson's theory, it also reveals that sports is an effective way to achieve national stability and rejuvenation. Mainstream culture not only leads fashion, educates the people, serves society, and promotes development but also has the common characteristics of mass culture, commerce, entertainment, popularity, and media dependence. Sports is both mainstream culture and mass culture, which is the positive energy shared by both. (2) Methods: In order to understand the special meaning of Jameson's cultural theory and its influence on Chinese mass culture and sports, this paper systematically explains Jameson's cultural theory and gives a critical explanation to Jameson's cultural theory, different regions, and different communication channels in China based on the questionnaire survey in a large span of mass culture and sports groups. (3) Results: the majority of readers who buy and read Jameson's cultural works are mainly 25–35 years old with high educational background. The top three regions for the number of consumers who buy his papers and books are Zhejiang, Hubei, and Guangzhou; the top three regions in the number of understanding Jameson's cultural theory are Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen; 41.62% of the respondents only know Jameson's name but have not been exposed to his work; and 34.59% of the respondents have learned about his work through news feeds. (4) Conclusion: the influence of Jameson's cultural theory on Chinese mass culture and sports community is on the rise. Systematic sorting and interpretation of Jameson's cultural knowledge can provide support for Chinese mass culture and mass sports culture to carry forward socialist cultural thoughts.

Does Generational Gap Exist in Online Shopping Attitudes? Comparing Young, Middle-Aged, and Elder Chinese Consumers from Media System Dependency Perspective

Does Generational Gap Exist in Online Shopping Attitudes? Comparing Young, Middle-Aged, and Elder Chinese Consumers from Media System Dependency Perspective

The Addictive Media Use of Audiences From Social Short Video Platforms

The innovation of network technology has led to the flourishing of various diversified short-video social platforms, led by Tik Tok and Quick hand . These platforms have rapidly updated the social habits of audiences by virtue of their living, real-time, social and interactive characteristics, which have greatly changed the current media ecological environment and caused significant social communication effects one after another. However, the high fragmentation characteristics of social short video platforms have gradually formed a prominent entertainment culture atmosphere, giving rise to high intensity of media dependence, and the phenomenon of addiction is particularly common. This paper takes social short video platforms as an example to study the addictive audience media use, and proposes relevant strategies to advocate the construction of a benign, rational and diversified media communication ecology.

Individual Media Dependency, Social Media and Online Parenting Groups in Malaysia

This research paper examines new mothers’ dependency on parenting social networking sites particularly Facebook in Malaysia by adopting the Individual Media Dependency theory. Due to the ambiguity of the phenomena of transitioning into parenting for new mothers, it is apparent that new mothers rely on parenting social networking sites for support and information. This research is based on parenting social networking sites in Malaysia namely The Breastfeeding Advocates Network and The Parenting Network. Findings from this research suggests that social environment, media systems activity and interpersonal network activity are fundamental intervening conditions in today’s new media environment to fulfil an audience’s goal-oriented needs of orientation, understanding and play.

Influence of rapid COVID-19 vaccine development on vaccine hesitancy

IntroductionIn the race to deploy vaccines to prevent COVID-19, there is a need to understand factors influencing vaccine hesitancy. Secondary risk theory is a useful framework to explain this, accounting for concerns about vaccine efficacy and safety. MethodsDuring the first week of July, 2020, participants (N = 216) evaluated one of three different hypothetical vaccine scenarios describing an FDA-approved vaccine becoming available “next week,” “in one year,” or “in two years.” Dependent variables were perceived vaccine efficacy, self-efficacy, perceived vaccine risk, and vaccination willingness. Covariates included vaccine conspiracy beliefs, science pessimism, media dependency, and perceived COVID-19 risk. Data analysis employed multiple analysis of covariance (MANCOVA). ResultsPerceived vaccine efficacy was lowest for the next-week vaccine (η2p = .045). Self-efficacy was higher for the two-year vaccine than the next-week vaccine (η2p = .029). Perceived vaccine risk was higher for the next-week vaccine than for the one-year vaccine (η2p = .032). Vaccination willingness did not differ among experimental treatments. In addition, vaccine conspiracy beliefs were negatively related to perceived vaccine efficacy (η2p = .142), self-efficacy (η2p = .031), and vaccination willingness (η2p = .143) and positively related to perceived vaccine risk (η2p = .216). ConclusionsThe rapid development of the COVID-19 vaccine may have heightened public concerns over efficacy, availability, and safety. However, the current findings showed a general willingness to take even the most rapidly developed vaccine. Nonetheless, there remains a need to communicate publicly and transparently about vaccine efficacy and safety and work to reduce vaccine conspiracy beliefs.

Troll: Issues Discussed Using Meme in Mid-2018

Text is polesemic, where a text is able to convey various meanings. Therefore, each individual will have different interpretations and opinions on something he or she experienced. Since a text can have a variety of meanings, therefore people may have different perceptions on the issues portrayed in memes. This study focuses on the Troll: Issues discusses using Meme in Mid 2018. Memes sharing on social media will lead to meaning construction for the reader. The objective of this study is to identify the issues discusses using meme in Mid-2018. A total of 30 types of memes were analysed using content analysis method. All meme samples were taken from the Facebook account of Si Rashid and Gags Malaysia during a period of three months from 1 May 2018 to 30 July 2018. The theory used as the analytical concept is the Media Dependency Theory by Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur. The results of the study found that the issues discussed using meme in 2018 focusing on the 14th General Election (GE-14), World Cup 2018 Hari Raya Aidilfitri Celebration. Some people will depend on media when a current issue arises for example during times of turmoil, crisis or natural disaster. An individual will rely on media to obtain the latest information on something that is happening. This situation can be attributed to the production of memes that widely shared through social media when an issue occurs inside or outside of the country.