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Oldenburg's Great Good Places Online: Assessing Potential for Social Network Sites to Serve As Third Places, a Qualitative Analysis

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Oldenburg's Great Good Places Online: Assessing Potential for Social Network Sites to Serve As Third Places, a Qualitative Analysis Oldenburg’s Great Good Places Online: Assessing the Potential for Social Network Sites to Serve as Third Places by Jerod W. Foster, B.S., M.S. A Dissertation in MEDIA & COMMUNICATION Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of Texas Tech University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Approved Todd Chambers, Ph.D. Chair of Committee Robert M. Peaslee, Ph.D. Weiwu Zhang, Ph.D. Erica Irlbeck, Ed.D. Dominick J. Casadonte, Jr., Ph.D. Interim Dean of the Graduate School December 2013 © 2013, Jerod Foster Texas Tech University, Jerod Foster, December 2013 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Against what seems common protocol, I want to thank my family first. Specifically, I want to express my infinite appreciation and love for my wife, Amanda Waters Foster, who has bore the brunt of what is the Ph.D. process. Her undying support and patience throughout this journey was invaluable and can never be repaid. I would also like to thank my daughter Eva, and even though she is not able to read this currently, I want her to know that she was much of the joy I saw in the latter stages of this writing. Thanks also go to my parents, Jay and Marsha Foster, who have had confidence in me from the beginning and have always encouraged me in the direction I was steering. And to the rest of my family, thank you all for your words of encouragement and wisdom. To the members of my committee: Dr. Chambers, I can’t thank you enough for the opportunities you have provided me, both as an educator and as a scholar, and the unwavering support along the way. Thank you for recognizing my interest in community and my passion for building it in all facets of my life. Thank you Dr. Peaslee for your colleagueship and your friendship, as well as your guiding hand in trying to balance my dual methodological interests. To Dr. Zhang, my sincere gratitude for nurturing my interest in sociology and democracy, as well as my deep respect for the hard work of the academic. A great deal of appreciation is reserved for Dr. Irlbeck. Our educational relationship through the years has been a noted one, and I am honored to have had you involved in this process. You have all provided me the stepping-stones to where I am now, and I am ever grateful for your support, your expertise, your interest in me, and your patience. I’m thankful I work with each of you on a daily basis. ii Texas Tech University, Jerod Foster, December 2013 I must also thank other key people in my academic life that have seen me along the way. Great thanks go to Dr. Baker, Dr. Akers, Dr. Hudson, Dr. Callison, Dr. Johnson, Dr. Reeves, Dr. Wilkinson, Dr. Bucy, Dr. Perlmutter, and the entire faculty I have had the great pleasure and honor of working with the past several years. I also want to thank all of my fellow graduate students. Specifically, Dr. Sims, Dr. Stone, Kent Lowry, Dr. Merle, Dr. Ngondo, Dr. Nutting, Dr. Matthews, and Dr. Wise, my sincere thanks for your continued friendship over the years. Thank you also to the staff I have worked with closely over the years: Annie Ruland, Bridget Christopherson, and Jessica Robinson. You ladies have done more than many can handle for not only me, but an entire student body and faculty. Thanks. I want to thank my publisher, Peachpit Books, for their support as well. My editors Ted Waitt and Susan Rimerman have in a very short time become vital members of my life, and they too have encouraged me along the way. Even when I tended to overload my plate with writing, photographic, and academic responsibilities, they were always there to provide an encouraging word and the necessary patience to work with a guy like me. Lastly, I want to thank all of my friends, near and far, for your love and support. You are simply too numerous to name. From babysitting a newborn to grabbing the quick lunch, to a brief chat on the phone, I cannot thank you enough for your help in making this a reality. You have been a vital part of my family, and I dearly hope that continues. I am extremely fortunate to have so many fine people in my life. Thank you all. ii i Texas Tech University, Jerod Foster, December 2013 TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ................................................................................... ii ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................. vii LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................. ix I. INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................... 1 Purpose of this Research ........................................................................................ 3 Third Place Pressure ............................................................................................... 4 A Democratic Imperative ....................................................................................... 7 II. LITERATURE ................................................................................................... 10 The Third Place ....................................................................................................... 11 The Third Place and Electronic Media ..................................................................... 20 The Virtual Third Place ......................................................................................... 23 Social Capital ........................................................................................................... 27 Bonding and Bridging Social Capital ....................................................................... 29 Dark Side of Social Capital ....................................................................................... 30 Media and Social Capital .......................................................................................... 31 Social Capital and the Internet .................................................................................. 33 Social Network Sites and Social Capital .................................................................. 38 The Augmented Reality of Social Network Sites ................................................. 43 Can a Social Network Site Make it as a Third Place? ......................................... 46 III. METHODOLOGY ........................................................................................... 51 Ethnographically Investigating the Social Network Site as a Third Place ....... 52 Participant Observation ............................................................................................. 52 Positioning the Researcher ........................................................................................ 55 Criteria for Evaluation .............................................................................................. 56 Triangulation ............................................................................................................ 58 Measuring the Effects of the Virtual Third Place ................................................ 58 Dependent Variables ............................................................................................... 60 Social Capital ............................................................................................................ 60 Civic and Political Engagement ................................................................................ 61 Trust .......................................................................................................................... 62 iv Texas Tech University, Jerod Foster, December 2013 Independent Variables ............................................................................................ 63 Third Place ................................................................................................................ 63 Facebook Intensity and Use Measures ...................................................................... 65 Demographics .......................................................................................................... 66 Population and Sample ............................................................................................. 67 Ethnographic Sample ................................................................................................ 69 Survey Sample .......................................................................................................... 69 IV. ETHNOGRAPHIC ANALYSIS AND RESULTS ......................................... 71 The Third Place-ness of Facebook ......................................................................... 71 Entering Facebook: A Doorway to Social Connectivity ........................................... 74 The Newsfeed: A’buzz with Social Discourse ......................................................... 78 Profile and Timeline: The Stool at the End of the Bar ............................................. 81 Navigational Structure .............................................................................................. 86 Facebook and the Conceptual Third Place ........................................................... 87 Facebook as Neutral Ground .................................................................................... 88 Facebook as a Leveler ............................................................................................... 89 Facebook and Conversation as Key Activity ............................................................ 94 Facebook’s Accessibility
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