Abstract
Guided by communication infrastructure theory (CIT), empowerment theory, and social support theory, this dissertation project explores how storytelling networks empower vulnerable communities, particularly migrant domestic workers (MDWs), who are prone to receive mental and physical abuse in their everyday lives and during a public health crisis, specifically the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, this investigation scrutinizes the empowerment process and outcomes from MDWs’ connections to various storytelling agents (i.e., interpersonal relationships, community organizations, and media outlets). This study also explores various social resources that MDWs obtain from storytelling networks that empower them. Lastly, this investigation examines the role of social networking sites (SNSs) in the relationships among storytelling networks, social support, and empowerment.Concerned with Indonesian MDWs in Hong Kong, this dissertation project held in-depth interviews with 32 participants to explore how the storytelling networks assist the empowerment process. The findings suggest that the MDWs were connected to a rich, complex storytelling network comprising interpersonal relationships, community organizations, and various media outlets, including local press, ethnic media, and homeland mainstream media. The connections to interpersonal networks as well as to local and homeland media intensified during the COVID-19 pandemic. The interactions with the storytelling networks were established via offline and online communication and generated various social support, including informational, emotional, and instrumental aids. However, this support did come with some negative consequences, such as the circulation of misinformation, which might compromise the benefits of social support. The participants additionally reported implementing various empowerment processes with assistance from the storytelling networks in their everyday lives and amid the COVID-19 pandemic, including information acquisition, the management of ties, and engagement in empowering activities, although some also performed disempowering actions, such as the adoption of maladaptive behaviors.
Following the interview, a survey of 402 MDWs was conducted to examine the effects of connections to storytelling agents or, specifically, their integrated connectedness to a storytelling network (ICSN). The findings reveal that in the context of everyday life and during the COVID-19 pandemic, ICSN was consistently used for social support. It also led to empowerment outcomes through different mechanisms. For instance, in daily life, ICSN directly affected behavioral empowerment, but its influence on intrapersonal and interactional empowerment operated via social support. During the COVID-19 crisis, ICSN additionally directly influenced interactional health empowerment, while social support mediated the effect of ICSN on intrapersonal and behavioral health empowerment. The findings also reveal the moderating role of SNS dependency in the relationship between ICSN and social support.
This study demonstrates how storytelling networks can empower marginalized communities such as MDWs. The study’s findings also contribute to the advancement of the communication infrastructure approach by integrating social support theory and empowerment theory into the framework of CIT. Moreover, this study enriches the literature on crisis and health communication by explaining how communication resources of vulnerable communities produce health-related outcomes. This research also offers practical insights into policymaking and public health campaigns.
| Date of Award | 1 Sept 2021 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Supervisor | Marko SKORIC (Supervisor) & Wan-Ying LIN (External Co-Supervisor) |