Actor- Network theory

As explained by Callon (1987), ANT is “reducible neither to an actor alone nor to a network…An actor-network is simultaneously an actor whose activity is networking heterogeneous elements and a network that is able to redefine and transform what it is made of” (p.93).

Furthermore, according to Mol (2010), “actors associate with other actors, thus forming a network in which they are all made into “actors” as the associations allow each of them to act. Actors are enacted, enabled, and adapted by their associates while in their turn enacting, enabling and adapting these” (p. 260).

When researching about the Taiwanese lifestyle, social media offers a large variety of platforms to look for this kind of information. But one social media with incredible growth and that has different ways to show information and everyday life events is Instagram.

Further explained by the concept of homophily, which refers to the tendency of individuals with shared characteristics to associate with one another in this intertwined online society (Bakshy et. al, 2012).

From 2017 on, Facebook has been consistently seeing its users flee. Millennials and Generation Z seem to no longer engage in the platform. Solely in 2017, their 12-17 demographic (Generation Z) dropped by 1.4 million users. When referring to Millennials, the numbers are not very different. During the same time frame, Facebook lost 2.2 million Millennial users (Koprowski, 2018).

That is why, it is correct to state the most representative interface for both generations is Instagram nowadays. According to the information extracted by the Pew Research Center in 2018, 60% of Instagram users are between the ages of 18 to 29 in the USA, which are exactly the demographics wanted to be attracted.

Moreover, in the top 10 countries with the higher use of Instagram, 70% correspond to non-Asian countries, demonstrating that is also a highly popular app for the population of interest (Statista, 2019) and can be observed on figure 1 on page 20.

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It is relevant to state, that international students might find attractive following accounts of people currently studying abroad in the destination country on Instagram, that way they would be able to access all kinds of content in the form of: pictures in the timeline, videos and snaps on Instagram Stories, even live events streaming or extended videos on the IGTV platform, with the extra perk of IG direct messaging.

When it comes to the researcher’s experience whose student life in Taiwan has been highly documented over Instagram, allowing friends and family to become part of the journey and learn about a country that seems very exotic for her counterparts.

As an example of the way one actor can affect and modify the perceptions of others, it can be mentioned that during the researcher’s stay, the posts about Taiwan on her personal Instagram account have gathered more than twenty three thousand (23k) likes. Thirty (30) of her closest friends have enquired about top places to visit in Taiwan and eight (8) of them have successfully traveled to Taiwan. Four (4) of her closest friends have inquired specifically about the scholarship and two (2) of them are participating in this year’s process.

And had one post about safety in Taiwan that gathered enough attention to be published by an NGO media channels.

The example above is a very impressive achievement for a normal student with an average Instagram following. This personal experience resonates with recent studies showing that traditional marketing is obsolete for the current generation. The research conducted by Auer and Bergström (2017) revealed that “users seldom interact with commercial posts, which pinpoints the need for a different content strategy” (p. 1).

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Figure 1. Leading countries based on number of Instagram users as of April 2019 (Statista, 2019).

There is no doubt that in the networking world social media is the most relevant interface (Paus & Macchia, 2014). However, advertising in social media doesn't work the same way as traditional marketing because it depends exclusively on the participation of the user. For those who consume entertainment, news, and information online, recommendations from friends are important sources for such information.

As an observer of this phenomena, I decided to contact "Study in Taiwan" to start an interviewing project with them. Their Instagram account had only one hundred and twenty three (123) followers since all their efforts were going to Facebook, where they hold an impressive one hundred thousand and ninety five (195k) followers, but is it the right demographic the one being targeted there?

The proposal was to interview international students on different campuses all over Taiwan, so they could share the most positive aspects of living in Taiwan. The interview would be translated into a short caption along with a picture depicting their life in Taiwan.

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This experience has also allowed the researcher to get acquaintance with international students with all kinds of different backgrounds, and most important of all, the need to contact them and research these phenomena on a deeper level.

Therefore, the Instagram accounts of the selected subjects were analyzed in order to see how their opinions and perceptions of Taiwan had suffered changes throughout their stay and how these so-called experiences can serve as a back up to their testimonies during the in-depth interviews process.

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CHAPTER FOUR. Methodology

This qualitative research will be conducted among non-Asian international students and aims to understand the international students' motivations when choosing to enroll in a program in Taiwan, as well as the repercussions of said decision in the construction of their very own image of the nation brand Taiwan.

Moreover, this study aims to understand how the study in Taiwan experience, shape the perceptions on the country in each student’s immediate circle through social network information diffusion, ultimately transforming them in cultural intermediaries/advocates, by highlighting their everyday lives in the context of the nation brand Taiwan.