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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
A 7 page paper assessing online interpersonal relationships according to Uses and Gratifications Theory. The paper presents the story of three individuals who knew each other through an online game chat room and then came together face-to-face after having known of each other for five years. The face-to-face relationships were disastrous, but the three can return to the online chat room at any time without any apparent ill effects of the face-to-face relationships. Bibliography lists 8 sources.
Page Count:
7 pages (~225 words per page)
File: CC6_KScomTheoStud.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
and Problem Statement The issue of effective interpersonal communication has been a point of interest for several decades, but in recent years it
has gained a great deal of attention as researchers and theorists - and much of the general population - seek to define and categorize types of communication that occur between
individuals. There are several theories of interpersonal communication, and except for those requiring notation of physical attributes (proximity, gestures, eye contact and others),
nearly all are being tested by the evolution of Internet-mediated relationships. These are relationships that begin online, develop online and may or may not spill over into the "real
world" where the physical attributes of communication can be assessed. The question to be pursued here is: how "real" are the relationships that develop and generally remain online? Theoretical
Framework West and Turner (2003) state that one of the motivations behind development of the Uses and Gratifications Theory was to fill
a void between mass communications theories that existed at the time, specifically how mass communications theorists could "hold to notions of limited effects when there is so much evidence of
media influence all around" (401)? How this applies to interpersonal relationship-building in the electronic environment is not immediately clear, but West and Turner (2003) explain that other theorists have
demonstrated the applicability of Uses and Gratifications Theory. Specifically, "Papacharissi and Rubin found that people had five primary motives for Internet use, and
the most important was information seeking" (West and Turner 405). This remained the most important function among those with a healthy self-esteem. Among those who felt less valued
...