Digg Communication Studies

DIGG is a new network media, which has emerged recently due to the development of Web 2.0 technology as well as the demand of netizens. DIGG refers to the website on which all the information or news are submitted by netizens themselves and ranked automatically on the home page according to the comments or voting results made by the users or browsers. The core feature lies in that website contents can be provided and ranked by the users without any need for professional website editors.As one of the new media forms, DIGG represents a new trend in network communication. It not only reflects some innovation of the mass media in the traditional sense, but also embodies the inheritance and development of other new media forms.Compared with the vehicles of traditional mass media and network media, DIGG bears its distinctive features in the information transmission, including grass-root disseminators, high news value, and bottom-up and two-way reversible communication channels. The receivers of DIGG information are also disseminators, and the disseminating contents are decided by the feedback of users.DIGG has great significance for the development of communication theories. It shows some renovation from Lasswell's 5W Model by blurring the boundaries between the Disseminator and the Receiver. The net users play the roles as both information disseminators and the receivers. Besides, DIGG brings new ideas to the Agenda Setting Theory with the changes on the main body, content and method of agenda setting. It also challenges the Gatekeeper Theory by making groups of users as the gatekeepers. Furthermore, DIGG develops the Spiral of Silence Theory because the "minority" in the DIGG are not keeping "silent" any longer.The thesis will summarize the characteristics and modes of DIGG communication, and analyze the role of traditional mass communication theory in the DIGG communication, so as to discover the great significance of DIGG and its communication features in enriching and developing communication theories.The thesis is divided into four main parts.Chapter One is an introductory part, giving a brief and general introduction to this research, such as the research background and the current study on DIGG, research significance, literature review, as well as the research motivation, subject and method.Chapter Two will offer an overview to DIGG. It begins with a clear definition of DIGG by analyzing and integrating different understandings and viewpoints from different researchers. Then, it will give a preliminary interpretation of DIGG based on its classification, and the comparison between DIGG and other network media such as BBS and BLOG. In addition, it will elaborate the involution of DIGG, and make analysis on its emerging background, the world's first DIGG website and its current situation, and the development and current situation of Chinese DIGG websites. Besides, it will also make some analysis on the problems existing in Chinese DIGG websites.Chapter Three will summarize the characteristics of DIGG communication. It will make a detailed theoretical description of these characteristics from five major perspectives, including DIGG disseminators, communication contents, channels, receivers and feedbacks.Chapter Four will demonstrate the significance of DIGG in the development of communication theories. The DIGG communication has a great influence on the mass media, and has posed an unprecedented challenge to the communication theories which were established in the framework of mass media. Focusing on four mass media theories (5W Model, Agenda Setting Theory, Gatekeeper Theory, Spiral of Silence Theory), this chapter will illustrate the differences in the communication process between DIGG and traditional mass media, put emphasis on the transformation and renovation of DIGG communication to the above theories, deconstruct these communication theories, and finally reveal the great significance of DIGG communication to the development and innovation of popular communication theories.