Fourth International Conference on Communication & Media Studies

Abstract

Online Social Network (OSN) provides borderless connections with the origin society to migrants, but also enables them to create new social networks with the people who can echo their thoughts and feelings gained in migration process (Wellman 2000; Castells 2011). While migrants are embedding in the new society, they learn how ‘the others’ define them and where they are belong. Migrants’ transnational identity can be, therefore, diversified by social positioning within and across home and destination society (Lametal 2012). My research strives to understand how migrants develop their complex transnational identity in different online social networks, by comparing three OSN platforms mostly used by the migrants communities. The technological evolution of internet, defined by Web 1.0, Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 are considered to classify the different types of OSN (O’Reilly 2005; Graham, 2005). Recently the first case study has been carried out, regarding the social movement led by Korean migrants group in Germany against an ethnic/gender-stereotyping advert of a German company. During the incident, their major OSN has been dominated by the relevant postings–to share the feelings, thoughts, and the experiences found on the same line with the message from the ad. The research adapted Content Analysis (Elo & Kyngaes, 2007) based on Straussian Grounded Theory (Morse et al., 2009). Most similar system different outcomes find changes on the timeline. The results indicate that each platform has a predominant opinion on the case, in light of a particular identity (e.g.Traditional Korean, East Asian, and Global Citizen, respectively).