The Study Of Local Online Media And City Community Attachment Through The Lens Of Media System Dependency Theory

The sense of attachment is part of the human basic needs,and the community attachment plays an important role and function in the formation and development of community.However,with continual urbanization in the past three decades,the traditional interpersonal communication has been changing.Studies by some Chinese scholars have also confirmed this trend:neighbor relationship in China has weakened and city community attachment in China is no longer as significant as before.According the literature review,the building of community attachment is affected by many factors,and the factor of communication as "community bonding ties" also plays an important role.The relationship between mass media and community is an important area of communication research.Previous studies have shown that readership of local media served an important role in community integration and helped immigrants to adapt in society.With the prevalence of the Internet,the relationship between online media and offline community attachment and social capital has been explored in recent years.Meanwhile,online media are increasingly important to the general public in China.The interest in online communities to support social interaction in geography-based communities has intensified,and the local online media are thriving in urban areas.They provide local news,local information and features that enable interaction between audience members and media professionals.Will the increasing availability of local online platforms increase a person's community attachment,or will it reduce a person's attachment?These are some of the significant issues that need to be addressed in communication research.This study investigates the role of local online media in the development of local community attachment using the media system dependency(MSD)theory.Firstly,based on the literature review,there are few studies have focused on the relationship between local online dependency and community attachment at the individual level.Therefore,the primary objective of this research is to explore the relationship between local online dependency and community attachment at the individual level.According to the literature review of the community attachment,some factors which have influence on community attachment as identified in previous research are regarded was control variables.Then the research questions and hypotheses are proposed and examined in a survey data of residents in Hefei city.These research questions and hypotheses are examined by empirical research methods,including quantitative research and qualitative research.As far as quantitative research concerned,an empirical study was conducted in Hefei City,the capital of Anhui province in central China,in 2013 and 2015,and 671 respondents were randomly selected and asked to complete a questionnaire by the trained interviewers of the Hefei University of Technology using a door-to-door data collection method,through which to gauge their impact of local online media on building community attachment.Qualitative research was conducted by observation and depth-interviews,in order to examine the relationship between local online and urban community attachment and how local online resources available operate as mechanisms of local online effects.The findings of the study indicate that the difference in community attachment between Internet users and non-Internet users was not observed,because the results of T test between the internet users and non-internet users doesn't show significant difference.However,in the study we verified the applicability of media system dependency to Chinese society and investigated the effects of local online MSD on Hefei community attachment.The results of the regression analysis indicate that the local online MSD has a positive impact on local community attachment.Media system dependency theory is employed to examine the usefulness of local online media on community attachment.If local online media provide unique information resources to accomplish individual goals,local online media will serve a greater role in the effect on local community attachment.Based on the findings of interviews and observation,the study analyzed the question of how local online resources available operate as mechanisms of local online media effects on the city community attachments.The study examines important factors that influence city community attachment at individual level by examining the use of online media for local information?local activities and local relationship.The impact of local online media on city community attachment was partially mediated through the role of local information sources?local activities?and local relationship.First the information provided by local online media help the people build an urban imagined community and easily participate in public affairs discussion,which is positive to the community attachment building.Secondly,the local online media use facilitate participation of local activities,people gradually formed the personal experience to the city,preservation and construction of collective memory to the city.Thirdly,the local micro-community based on the local online media help the people communicates each other emotion and interests,expand the local intimacy relationship.On the whole,the positive influence of local online media on the community attachment is limited,which may be strongly affected by other environmental factors,especially the face-to-face interaction and offline activities can impact the effect on the community attachment.The mechanisms of local online media effect also show the characters of Chinese traditional culture.For example,the people easily established many online micro-communities according to their needs,presenting Chinese traditional features of Cha-xu-ge-ju.So the effect of local online media on city community attachment may be complex,which is relate to the relationship of the individual local online MSD and other social factors.