Project Description
This project aims to explore the role of social media in the acculturation process of immigrants residing in South Korea. In particular, the project will investigate the immigrant users' information needs, experiences with a new culture, and behaviors in seeking, using, and sharing information as part of their acculturation process. The project focuses on Web 2.0 technology-based interactive social platforms, such as YouTube, as prominent channels for information acquisition and exchange and cultural interaction. The research will employ two methods. First, we will conduct a qualitative content analysis of YouTube videos in which immigrants express their experiences with a new culture, including challenges and issues encountered and information needed to overcome those challenges and issues. Second, we will conduct a quantitative regression analysis on the relationships among meaning variables identified from the qualitative content analysis (e.g., topics of videos, types of information needs, demographic backgrounds of immigrants, etc.) alongside the video-level attributes (e.g., length, views, number of comments, etc.)
Tasks and Responsibilites
An undergraduate data science major will be serving as a RA on my project. His responsibilities will encompass two main areas: (a) cleaning and conducting content analysis on the transcripts of YouTube data that pertains to immigrants' settlements in South Korea, and (b) performing statistical analyses on the variables of interest that will be derived from the qualitative analysis of the YouTube data.