Department of Radio & Television & Graduate Program College of Communication
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
To answer RQ1, ten factors with eigenvalues above 1.0 accounting for 67.39%
of total variance were extracted from the original set of Internet gratifications. The first gratification, Information-Seeking (α = 0.89)included learning about local community events, getting useful information, finding bargains, and getting up to date with new technology (see Table 1), which all relates to real world, categorized as content gratification. Factor two, Media Drenching (α = 0.88), indicates users increase
usages of online photo albums categorized as a process gratification. Factor three, Diversion (α = 0.85),directly parallelin previousstudiesasaprocessgratification.
The fourth and fifth gratifications, Performance and Narcissism, are unprecedented in priorresearch.Thefactor,Performance(α = 0.83),refersthatusers’mediadrenching
facilitates discussion to particular persons or things. Users then perform their identity
of fans/followers and also show their attachment and knowledge. It could be referred to processgratification.Narcissism (α = 0.82)pointsthat users desire for increased
visibility/knowledge as basis for performance and show their special identities, not only on the Internet but also outside the Internet. Thus, it is a content gratification.
The sixth and seventh gratifications are Relationship Maintenance (α = 0.90)and Aesthetic Experience (α = 0.88). Unlike Virtual Community, Relationship
Maintenance focuses on existing acquaintances, not new friends on the Internet, as a
content gratification. However, Song and his colleagues took it as a
“social-integrative”,morelikeaprocessgratification.Thisfactorisambiguous.Asfor
Aesthetic Experience, it fits theneedsofaestheticpleasure,asan “affective-related gratification, and consequently was considered a process gratification3”.Theeighth gratification is Virtual Community (α = 0.82)similarto thefinding ofSong etal. as a process gratification. Users try to establish a new social life online. On the other hand, it could also improve on real life as a content gratification. The ninth and tenth
gratifications are Function (α = 0.60)and Reference(α = 0.82)which are unprecedented. Saving files and finding albums that are easy to navigate are
goal-oriented,morelikeacontentgratification.Userstakealbum owners’released information as reference and plan to do the same thing. They are not pursuing
pleasurable experiences only, but put into practice in the real world, more like a content gratification.
Correlation matrix shown in Table 2 supports both Hypotheses 1 and 2 that the ten factors were all positively related to Internet addiction and the dichotomous distinction may not be a suitable one in the Internet settings. First, Narcissism is an arguable factor. Though it is classified as content gratification, Narcissism (r = 0.26, p<0.001) is more related to Internet addiction than the process gratification, Aesthetic
Experience (r = 0.24, p<0.001). Second, Information Seeking, as a content gratification, was better related with process gratifications, Diversion (r = 0.65,
p<0.001), Aesthetic Experiences (r = 0.56, p<0.001) and Virtual Community (r = 0.55,
p<0.001) than with content gratifications. It fits to online photo album context. Users
seek information and have diversion at the same time through this behavior. It also happened on Aesthetic Experiences and Virtual Community. Users seek information to fulfill these two gratifications.
Additionally, total six items, developing a romantic relationship, getting people to think I’m cool,improving my standing in theworld,and feeling likeIbelong to a
group were categorized to Narcissism along with getting noted and finding ways to make money, which is parallel to the distinctive phenomena in Taiwan. In Person correlation, Narcissism and Virtual Community are well related with each other ( r = 0.68, p<0.001). It implies forming a new cool identity might be also a way to find companionship, meet new friends and find some interesting people. Narcissism also supports the skill continuum of audience1, the basic audience is only a consumer but
those who have more knowledge can be petty producers to make money.
UnlikeSong’sfindings3(adjusted R2= 0.28), the combination of ten
gratifications (28 questions are overlapping) only explains 15.4% ( F=13.485.
p<0.001) variance of Internet addiction (see Table 3). Four of the gratifications, Media
Drenching, Performance, Narcissism and Reference, are increased by this study and associated with the diffused audience argument. It implies that the traditional gratifications might not be suitable for online photo album context and it might be inadequate to research the Internet as a whole, a board concept. Besides, Virtual Community is used to be a strong factor in previous research but is only close to be significant (t =1.759, p =.079). It also verifies that anonymity, one of the Internet characteristics, is not as important for users on photo album web site. In regression analysis, Media Drenching (β=.480. p<0.001), Diversion (β=.336. p=.046) and Performance (β=.350. p=.008) were all process gratifications and significantly related to Internet addiction. It implies that enjoying pleasurable experiences is still highly related with Internet addiction while using media.
To sum up, research findings support the two main arguments. First, testing with a priori theoretical framework, the SPP, shows that the current Internet gratifications are not sufficient to account for album users’behaviors. It is necessary to research different forms per se on the Internet. Second, the line between content and process gratifications is blurring. Ten factors, no matter content or process ones, are all well related to Internet addiction. As for research limit, this study choseYoung’sDQ due to the length limit. The oversimplicity of DQ is main criticism10. The use of a volunteer sample also limits generalization to the population. As for suggestion, it is necessary
to adopt a priori theoretical framework, such as the SPP, to research net users’
behaviors within different functions of technology forms on the Internet, such as blogs? By doing this, we will better understand their behaviors and how their gratifications relate to addiction respectively, not just judging the possible impacts with the dichotomous distinction, content-process gratification.
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APPENDIX