Communication In The Network Community From The Perspective Of Social Exchange Theory-take Sina Micro-blog For Example

This research has investigated the Sina micro-blog users’ characteristics. By adopting questionnaire survey, in-depth interview and text study, the research has revealed the participating motivation and behavior of users, the forming process of micro-blog circle and the form and characteristics of resource exchange.First, most of the Sina micro-blog users are students or have a job on enterprises management, technology, science or education. They have a high school education. They are young and have considerable income. The majority of users began to use Sina micro-blog in2010, and used it1to2hours a day. They used to land Sina micro-blog on computer. But it can be expected that3G phones and tablet computer will be used more often when they are more and more popularized.Second, the users use micro-blog mainly to access information, and interpersonal communication. In addition, convenience is also one of the major features of micro-blog which attracts users a lot. Users exchange information here. They see micro-blog as one of the important methods to exchange information. However, when it comes to interpersonal interaction, micro-blog can not completely replace SNS until now. A number of users, especially students, communicate with friends and classmates mainly in SNS rather than micro-blog.Third, in this study, there are several types of relationship in micro-blog:the acquaintance circle, users with mutual interest and interaction, bloggers with relative resources advantages to each other. The first kind of relationship is built mainly for social interactions and emotional communication. The second type is built for he needs of entertainment or being respected. And the third type is for learning and other instrumental purposes, and its characteristics of resource exchange is more apparent.Further, in the micro-blog community,"effective relationship" exists not only in the mutual concerns, but also in the unilateral concerns. Users can continue to obtain required resources from the relationships. And users have great autonomy to choose the objects they want to give attention to. In this process, resource advantage is the most important factor users would consider. Users continue to exchange resources, the majority of which is intangible information, through the relationships.As the users mostly exchange information, they have a very cautious approach to information. When significant unexpected public events occur, users usually get informed by micro-blog, but they don’t track the event only through micro-blog. They even don’t see micro-blog as the main channel to get the information about the event. Instead, they usually tend to combine the immediacy of micro-blog and the authority of traditional media.In addition, with the continued advance of the real-name system, the environment of micro-blog community will be changed. And users will meet greater challenges to exchange information effectively.