Effects Of The Use Of Social Media On Acculturation Of International Students In The U.S.:Application Of The Cultivation Theory

This paper explored the role social medias played in the process of acculturation of international students who are currently studying in American university.There are already several articles using cultivation theory demonstrated the effect of mass media such as television programs on the acculturation process.However,few articles explore the cultivation effects of social media on the acculturation process.This paper considers social medias a new source for people to shape their cognition of reality and adapts cultivation theory into examining the effects of the social media on the process of acculturation.The process of this study is reviewing relevant literature and then the measurements and factors gathered from the literature review were used to create a survey.This survey was conducted by an online questionnaire website called Qualtric and then distributed to a big mid-western university.This survey was composed of three section including the involvement of social media,acculturation level and the demographics.The study found that,social media usage and acculturation level are significantly correlated with each in a positive way,which supported our hypothesis.The study also found that international students' heritage cultural identity and host cultural identity are significantly and positively correlated with each other.In addition,demographics didn't make any difference in the acculturation process.