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Applying Uses and Gratifications Theory to Investigate Social Media User’s Motivations for Mastodon

Wang, Mian
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1623167544405036

Abstract Details

2021, MS, University of Cincinnati, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: Information Technology.
Despite the increased research on Social Network Services (SNSs) with Use and Gratification (U&G) Theory, most studies have focused on mainstream media. This paper presented a small-scale exploratory investigation of Alternative Social Media (ASM) such as Mastodon arose and provided a new way to think about the interactions on this new SNS form. Moreover, to better understand the differences between them, we compared two gratification groups. The present study employed SurveyMonkey as the online survey tool and to apply questionnaires to the Mastodon-users only on fifteen different Mastodon-instances. Data were collected through this online questionnaire in 2021, using a representative sample (N=150). The survey results suggest that Mastodon users expect and obtain gratifications of "Convenience", "Privacy", "Information Seeking", and "Social Escapism and Support". Moreover, of 7 Paired t-Tests for Gratifications Sought and Gratifications Obtained, three pairs (e.g., Information Seeking; Convenience; Privacy;) show that the most satisfying reasons for users joining and using Mastodon were the platform being informative, easy to use, and the privacy setting will shelter users' information from data mining. This study's main contribution to social-science research is to discover why ASM such as Mastodon arose and provide a new way to think about this new SNS form's interactions.
Kijung Lee, Ph.D. (Committee Chair)
Bilal Gonen, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
34 p.
Information Technology
Social Network Services; Use and Gratification Theory; Alternative Social Media; Mastodon; Questionnaire Survey method

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Wang, M. (2021). Applying Uses and Gratifications Theory to Investigate Social Media User’s Motivations for Mastodon [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1623167544405036

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Wang, Mian. Applying Uses and Gratifications Theory to Investigate Social Media User’s Motivations for Mastodon. 2021. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1623167544405036.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Wang, Mian. "Applying Uses and Gratifications Theory to Investigate Social Media User’s Motivations for Mastodon." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2021. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1623167544405036

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1623167544405036
253
© 2021, some rights reserved.Creative Commons License Applying Uses and Gratifications Theory to Investigate Social Media User’s Motivations for Mastodon by Mian Wang is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Based on a work at etd.ohiolink.edu.
This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.