Active Audience and Automatic Usage : A Test of Rival Hypotheses on Automaticity of Internet Use
Research output: Conference Papers (RGC: 31A, 31B, 32, 33) › 32_Refereed conference paper (no ISBN/ISSN) › peer-review
Author(s)
Related Research Unit(s)
Detail(s)
Original language | English |
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Publication status | Published - 21 May 2009 |
Conference
Title | 59th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA) |
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Place | United States |
City | Chicago |
Period | 21 - 25 May 2009 |
Link(s)
Permanent Link | https://scholars.cityu.edu.hk/en/publications/publication(6759f953-ccd0-4089-adb4-fdf119b11b77).html |
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Abstract
Active audience is a prevailing view in media research, which implies rational (i.e., non-automatic) use of media. However, the relationship between active audience and automatic usage has been rarely examined in communication research. The study makes the first attempt to unravel the mechanism behind habitual/automatic Internet use and to answer a research question that is generalizable to the use of other media: will automatic use reduce or improve audience activeness? The research question is operationalized as a comparison of two competing sets of hypotheses on automaticity: replacement perspective and coexistence perspective. A test based on three annual surveys of Internet use in Hong Kong shows that the degree of activeness by Internet users does not go down as their Internet use becomes increasingly automatic, which supports the coexistence hypothesis. The findings can be interpreted by instance theory of automaticity (Logan, 1988).
Citation Format(s)
Active Audience and Automatic Usage : A Test of Rival Hypotheses on Automaticity of Internet Use. / PENG, Taiquan; ZHU, Jonathan.
2009. Paper presented at 59th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association (ICA), Chicago, United States.Research output: Conference Papers (RGC: 31A, 31B, 32, 33) › 32_Refereed conference paper (no ISBN/ISSN) › peer-review