Sociation Today Spring/Summer 2014

The Relationship between Media and Identity: A Case Study of the Students of Shiraz University

by

Jahangir Jahangiri

and

Seyyed Mohammad Ali Mousavi

Shiraz University

Introduction

    Surely, we are nowadays living in the most revolutionary era of the history in which the permanent transformation and evolution have turned into an essential and irrefutable component of social life (Nolan and Lenski 2009, 46-47). Practically, we have witnessed the social evolvement to be quite slow down the history lane, and people, mostly, have echoed their forefathers and have took a leaf out of their book; however, presently, quite opposite, we are living in a world with continuing drastic changes. (Giddens 1991, 206) Hence, the unprecedented speed of social change can be the most glorious and wonderful event of the contemporary history (Nolan and Lenski 2009, 3).

    If we consider alteration in communication technologies as a cause of cultural change, we should declare, as Marshall McLuhan believes, that modern communicative technologies which are not analogous with the former culture, have fashioned a ceaseless incongruity, and this incongruity, or 'cultural lag', has developed cultural crisis which appears as a result of social change (Cazeneuve 1996, 32-35).

    Therefore, communication-information revolution of the 21st century should be regarded as far more than electrifying the human relations. Modern communication technologies, of which the newest is the Internet, with providing the possibility of the emergence of a network society which have granted identity to people and societies in a new framework (Castells 2010, 22), not only have changed the rules of communication and human interaction, but also our attitude towards ourselves, others, and the world (Olson 1974, 26). Shattering the common group borders and subsequently changing the relative eminence of the necessity of resemblance and distinction, the Internet has played a pivotal role in the identity of people, and also anonymity or impersonation, which is quite possible and common in the realm of Internet, influences the clarity and the importance of group delimitations and the meaning of social identity consequently (Doran and Mohseni 2004). The youth, specifically the university students who are considered as the most significant strata of society, seem to be influenced more by Internet since they are familiar with the Internet and use it abundantly. In this study we are to evaluate the effects of the Internet and its various dimensions, as the independent variables, and the national identity of the students, as the dependent variable.

Literature Review

Alavi et al (2010) in their study A Comparison between the National and Religious Identity of the Addicted and Non-addicted People to the Internet, using a periodical descriptive-analytic method on 250 students of the universities of Isfahan, drew to a conclusion that the more one is addicted to the Internet, the more he/she would deny his/her national and religious identity. Rafat-Jah and Shakoori (2008) in another study Internet and National Identity, applying a survey method, between two groups of girls, i.e. those who used Internet and those who did not, and aiming at evaluating the effect of the Internet on the dimensions of social identity, came to this conclusion that between the two mentioned groups, according to their religious, ethnic, familial and personal identities, exists a meaningful difference and that the religious, ethnic, familial and personal identities in the first group (those who used the Internet) were weaker than in the second group. Heng Lu, Tai-Quan Peng, Jonathan J. H. Zhu, in a prolonged study (from 2000 to 2008) called National Identity and the Internet: A Cohort Study in Hong Kong (2011) concluded that the old generation is less probable to turn into a hybrid identity than the new generation. They also state that Internet users are more likely to develop hybrid identities than the non-users. Internet users' online behavior was not much relevant to the national identity in this study (Heng Lu, Tai-Quan Peng, Jonathan J. H. Zhu, 2011). Ja-Young Nam in Does the Internet Promote Nationalism in East Asia?: A Comparative Research on the Correlation of Internet Use and National Identity (2010) concludes that establishing general and universal procedures about the correlation between using Internet and national identity is utterly troublesome. Though in some countries and regions correlation exists between these two factors, the correlation between them is low.

Theoretical Background and Previous Theories

On national identity and also communication, various theories exist, and some of which would be mentioned here. According to George Herbert Mead, each person models his or her identity of "self" from organizing personal attitudes of others in frame of organized attitudes of the society or group (Miller 1973, 46-49). Mead believed that an understanding of the self would be provided only when a person puts him or herself in place of another one, or a social 'generalized other', or assumes to be doing so (O'Neill 1972, 169). According to Charles Horton Cooley, one's identity is his 'looking glass self' which is shaped in the process of interactions. Accordingly, identity is a definition of the self which a person achieves through his or her interaction with others, that is, with looking in the mirrors of the others (Cooley 1902, 184). Erik H. Erikson, in his Identity, Youth and Crisis (1968), notes that identity is a process of compilation of the personal changes and social needs of the future. Erikson considered the development of the identity as the construction of an identical feeling and self unification felt by the individual and recognized by others which is not changed through the time. We may summarize Erikson in F. L. Gross's words as follows:

"What is unique about the stage of Identity is that it is a special sort of synthesis of earlier stages and a special sort of anticipation of later ones. Youth has a certain unique quality in a person's life; it is a bridge between childhood and adulthood. Youth is a time of radical change—the great body changes accompanying puberty, the ability of the mind to search one's own intentions and the intentions of others, the suddenly sharpened awareness of the roles society has offered for later life." (Gross 1987, 39)

Henri Tajfel defines identity according to a sense of belonging; that is, the person considers those who belong to them as 'ingroups' and those who do not as 'outgroups'. Tajfel theory mainly has been used to distinguish between ingroups and outgroups. According to this theory, social identity is the self-awareness of the person which originates from perceived membership of social groups. Tajfel tried to prove that people hanker after a positive evaluation of themselves to the degree that if the membership of a group shapes the meaning of their selves, they will also evaluate that group positively. In other words, people search a positive social identity, and due to this fact that the value of each group is evaluated in comparison with other groups, a positive social identity is accepted in a positive assessment of the ingroup from the outgroup (Tajfel and Turner 1986).

Fancowser and Shaw argued that film, television, and computer influence the understanding of the person of reality through a manipulation of the content and the processes of communicative experience. Constant encounter of the viewers with such artificial experiences can affect them. Fancowser and Shaw state five effects, among the probable effects: low tolerance, high tendency towards perfection, an expectation to solve problems quickly, a wrong understanding of some of physical and social events and limited contact with the environment around his or her lodging (Severin and Tankard 2001, 293).

Sandra Ball-Rokeach and Melvin DeFleur argue that people are dependent to the media in various and different manners, and such dependences are different from one person to another and from one society to another. They also argue that, specifically, in a new industrial urban society, the audience is highly dependent on the information promulgated through the media. This theory focuses on the triple relation of media, the audience and society. (Ball-Rokeach and DeFleur 1976)

Gerbner's Cultivation Theory asserts that the media bolster the attitudes and values existent in a culture, and via this, keep and promulgate those values among its members and so link its members with each other. Gerbner believes that the media offer a distorted picture of reality to their viewers. This process continues to the point that the viewer stops interpreting the content of the media, and instead of paying attention to the objective truth around his or her vicinity, believes in the reality of the content of the media (Gerbner, et al. 1986).

Theoretical Framework of the Current Study

Since the current study seeks the effect of Internet on university students' national identity, due to a certain belief in the existence of complex relations among social and human phenomena, it does not rely on a single theoretical approach. So as to determine the students' national identity, Tajfel's theory of social identity is used. In the sphere of the communication theories, as we know, the media perform various functions such as: communicating the information, education, and entertainment. Internet, due to possessing certain features such as: placelessness, timelessness, being unrestrained to the governmental law, simultaneous access capability, possessing new cultural, religious, economic and political sites, and specifically, dynamicity and immunity of users for using it, has gathered new users day after day. Each of these users, depending on his or her personal and social traits, uses this modern media in a certain way and is influenced by it. In order to determine the effect of Internet on the students' national identity, Gerbner's cultivation theory has been applied.

Independent variables include personal traits (age, gender, marital status, place of birth, place of residence, and education), family characteristics (father's job, mother's job, father's income, and mother's income) and social and economic features (the student's employment status, the student's income and ethnicity). Mediating variable of the research is the Internet use, and its dependent variable is national identity. The designed questionnaire contains 70 questions out of which 25 questions are related to the independent variables and 45 related to the dependent variable.

Hypotheses

1.    It seems that there is a relationship between the student's age and the Internet use (duration and extent of use).

2.    It seems that there is a relationship between the student's gender and the Internet use (duration and extent of use).

3.    It seems that there is a relationship between the student's place of birth and the Internet use (duration and extent of use).

4.    It seems that there is a relationship between the student's place of residence and the Internet use (duration and extent of use).

5.    It seems that there is a relationship between the student's ethnicity and the Internet use (duration and extent of use).

6.    It seems that there is a relationship between the student's employment status and the Internet use (duration and extent of use).

7.    It seems that there is a relationship between the student's income and the Internet use (duration and extent of use).

8.    It seems that there is a relationship between the student's marital status and the Internet use (duration and extent of use).

9.    It seems that there is a relationship between the student's major and the Internet use (duration and extent of use).

10.    It seems that there is a relationship between the student's degree and the Internet use (duration and extent of use).

11.    It seems that there is a relationship between the student's mother's job and the Internet use (duration and extent of use).

12.    It seems that there is a relationship between the student's mother's income and the Internet use (duration and extent of use).

13.    It seems that there is a relationship between the student's father's job and the Internet use (duration and extent of use).

14.    It seems that there is a relationship between the student's father's income and the Internet use (duration and extent of use).

15.    It seems that there is a relationship between the Internet use and students' national identity.

16.    It seems that there is a relationship between the extent of using Internet and students' national identity.

17.    It seems that there is a relationship between the duration of Internet use and students' national identity.

Methodology

The current study applies the quantitative and survey approach to obtain needed information and data. In this approach, questionnaires have been implemented. The questionnaire applied in this research contains two types of questions which are open and closed ones. In order to design the questionnaire and also measure some its variable Likert scale has been consulted. The population of the research is 14900 students of Shiraz University. The sample size was determined, according to the Lin table and also the total population of 14900 students of Shiraz University, to be 375 students. Stratified sampling method is used since there are various classes in the sample population. Face validity controls the validity of the questions embedded in the applied questionnaire, that is, the viewpoints of the professors of social science have been consulted. To measure the reliability of the evaluation tool, Cronbach's alpha has been used. Cronbach's alpha method is utilized to analyze the internal consistency of evaluation tool such as questionnaire or the tests which examine various features. The concept of national identity has been evaluated here within 3 dimensions: 1. The dimension of ingroup common features; 2. The dimension of being attracted to the ingroup; 3. The dimension of understanding the intergroup competition. Cronbach's alpha for these 3 dimensions are 0.886, 0.925, and 0.896 respectively. The obtained data through questionnaires was processed in SPSS Windows application, and the data was also analyzed at two levels of description and explanation. At the descriptive level, this study uses descriptive frequency distribution tables and a picture of the statistical population has been offered. In the section of inferential statistics which includes the level of the explanation of data analysis, applying advanced regression tests, Anova, T-test, and the correlation between the dependent and independent variables, the hypotheses were examined.

The Results of Descriptive Data

The most significant results of the descriptive data are as follows: regarding gender, 58.1% of the population was male and the remaining 41.9% was female. Most of the population (259 students) belonged to the 20-24 age bracket. 63.2% of the population was from Fars ethnicity and the other 36.8% to the ethnicities rather than Fars. Most of the sample students (36%) studied Engineering and Art majors, 33.1% studied Humanities, 18.4 Basic Sciences, and 5.12% studied Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary Medicine. 83.1% of the population was born in urban areas and the remaining 16.9% in villages. 85.3% of them live in the cities and 14.7% in the country. 75.2% of students were single and the other 24.8% married; 27.7% were employed and the remaining 72.3% didn't have any jobs. 76.6% of the population had no income, 2.8% earned about 105 to 165 dollars (250,000 to 400,000 tomans), 6.6% earned about 165 to 210 dollars (400,000 to 500,000 tomans) and 8.6% of them earned more than 210 dollars (500,000 tomans.) The access to the Internet for 74% of the population was very good, for 16.5% of the population it was average and for 12.5% was low and very low. 25.3% of the students used the Internet for an hour or less than that daily, 31.2% of them for 2 hours, 27.2% for 3 hours, 5.9% for 4 hours, 10.4% of them used Internet for 5 or more hours daily.

Inferential Statistics

Our findings indicate that the independent variables, i.e., age, sex, place of birth, place of residence, ethnicity, employment status, marital status, educational groups, education, mother's occupation, father's occupation, mother's income and intermediate variable, i.e. the use of the Internet, there is a significant relationship; though, no significant relationship was found between the father's income and the student's income with the Internet use. Between two variables of the extent of Internet use and the duration of Internet use and also the Internet use and the students' national identity a significant relationship was observed. Finally, 15 hypotheses were confirmed and two of them rejected.

Table 1: Correlation and regression analysis of the variable of age and Internet use

Variable	R	R²	R²Ad	Standard Error	Coefficient B	Beta	T	F	Sig
Age	0.563	0.317	0.315	1.44	0.361	0.563	13.15	172.93	0.000

Table 2: Evaluation of sex differences in respondents' Internet use

Variable	Frequency	Internet Use Average	Standard Deviation	T	Significance Level
Female	218	-0.204	1.79	-2.69	0.007
Male	157	0.283	1.62	-2.69	0.007

Table 3: Evaluation of the differences in Internet use based on the place of birth

Variable	Frequency	Average	Standard Deviation	T	Significance Level
City	304	0.09	1.76	3.28	0.001
Village	62	0.69	1.51	3.28	0.001

Table 4: Evaluation of the differences in Internet use based on the place of residence

Variable	Frequency	Average	Standard Deviation	T	Significance Level
City	320	0.28	1.68	11.11	0.000
Village	55	-1.63	1.08	11.11	0.000

Table 5: Evaluation of the differences in Internet use based on the ethnicity

Variable	Frequency	Average	Standard Deviation	F	DF	Significance Level
Fars	237	0.102	1.85	7.18	3	0.000
Lor	70	0.411	1.61
Tork	48	0.579	1.27
Others	20	1.256	0.65

Table 6: Evaluation of the differences in Internet use based on the place of residence

Variable	Frequency	Average	Standard Deviation	T	Significance Level
Employed	104	0.849	1.97	5.48	0.000
Unemployed	271	-0.326	1.53	5.48	0.000

Table 7: Correlation and regression analysis of the variable of student's and Internet use

Variable	R	R²	R²Ad	Standard Error	Coefficient B	Beta	T	F	Sig
Student's income	0.04	0.002	0.001	1.74	0.019	0.04	0.772	0.595	0.441

Table 8: Evaluation of the differences in Internet use based on the marital status

Variable	Frequency	Average	Standard Deviation	T	Significance Level
Single	282	-0.377	1.66	-7.87	0.000
Married	93	1.14	1.46	-7.87	0.000

Table 9: Evaluation of the differences in Internet use based on the field of study

Variable	Frequency	Average	Standard Deviation	F	DF	Significance Level
Engineering and Art	135	-0.43	1.72	18.38	3	0.000
Humanities	124	-0.41	1.73
Basic Sciences	69	0.91	1.58
Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine	47	0.97	1.07

Table 10: Evaluation of the differences in Internet use based on the degree

Variable	Frequency	Average	Standard Deviation	F	DF	Significance Level
AA, BA and BS	276	-0.51	1.59	57.83	2	0.000
MA and MS	84	1.39	1.32
Ph.D	15	1.54	1.58

Table 11: Evaluation of the differences in Internet use based on the mother's occupation

Variable	Frequency	Average	Standard Deviation	F	DF	Significance Level
Worker	18	-0.07	0.33	8.63	3	0.000
Office Employee	112	0.51	1.38
Higher Jobs	20	0.76	2.71
Housewife	225	-0.24	1.78

Table 12: Correlation and regression analysis of the variable of mother's occupation and Internet use

Variable	R	R²	R²Ad	Standard Error	Coefficient B	Beta	T	F	Sig
Mother's occupation	0.221	0.049	0.046	1.7	1.03	0.221	4.38	19.2	0.000

Table 13: Evaluation of the differences in Internet use based on the father's occupation

Variable	Frequency	Average	Standard Deviation	F	DF	Significance Level
Worker and Farmer	56	-1.47	0.99	20.92	3	0.000
Self-employed	138	0.03	1.17
Office Employee	107	0.28	1.78
Higher Jobs	74	0.71	1.55

Table 14: Correlation and regression analysis of the variable of the father's income and Internet use

Variable	R	R²	R²Ad	Standard Error	Coefficient B	Beta	T	F	Sig
Father's Income	0.005	0.000	0.000	1.74	0.01	0.005	0.098	0.010	0.922

Table 15: Correlation and regression analysis of the variable of Internet use and national identity

Variable	R	R²	R²Ad	Standard Error	Coefficient B	Beta	T	F	Sig
Internet Use	0.192	0.037	0.034	27.04	3.04	0.192	3.79	14.34	0.000

Table 16: Correlation and regression analysis of the variable of the extent (rate) of Internet use and national identity

Variable	R	R²	R²Ad	Standard Error	Coefficient B	Beta	T	F	Sig
Extent of Internet use	0.141	0.02	0.017	27.27	3.88	0.141	2.75	7.56	0.006

Table 17: Correlation and regression analysis of the variable of the duration of Internet use and national identity

Variable	R	R²	R²Ad	Standard Error	Coefficient B	Beta	T	F	Sig
Duration of Internet Use	0.194	0.038	0.035	27.02	5.34	0.194	3.82	14.62	0.000

Discussion and Conclusions

Through this study we came to conclude that there is a significant relationship between Internet use and the national identity with 99% confidence according to the amounts of F=14.34 and Sig=0.000. A significant hypothesis was also confirmed that as the Internet use (duration and extent of use) of students becomes more, their national identity gets more strengthened. However in Rafat-Jah and Shakoori's study Internet undermines and weakens the national identity; in Alavi's research also, though the sample population was all students, indicates that denial of national and religious identity is more common with Internet addicts.

Like any other means of communication, Internet technology is like a double-edged sword, which depending on whom and for what purpose it is being used, can generate positive or negative effects. This study showed that the Internet has a positive impact on the national identity of students, and this intelligentsia, together with raising the levels of education and awareness and more use of the Internet, achieves a stronger national identity. The main motivation of students to use Internet is to gain knowledge and understanding, and mostly, they visit scientific, educational, political and social websites.

It is also crucial to point out that in the culture of Iran, there is an increasing tendency towards national and patriotic values and the students using Internet, who are among the elites of their society, with strong cultural foundations, possess a strong national identity. The tendency towards local culture is so powerful that various and incompatible websites with our culture cannot weaken our sense of national identity. In the dimension of in-group common features which is an important facet of national identity, Internet causes an awareness of commonalities in beliefs and common national features among the students, and helps them to consider themselves as the members of a bigger group called Iran and 'us.' In the second dimension of national identity which is being attracted into the ingroups, Internet causes attraction and positive tendency of the students to national identity via conveying information about Iranian identity and national culture and also comparing such rich culture with other cultures. In the dimension of intergroup competition, when a student regards him/herself as the member of an ingroup called Iran, with certain values and culture, he or she can also recognize an outgroup called 'others' or 'strangers', and just that attraction to ingroup and the positive tendency towards it, awakens a sense of responsibility in him or her against the 'strangers' and 'others' and leads into his or her loyalty to the national values and norms, and hence, he or she would give his or her life so as to preserve them.

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