[Commlist] New issue of the World of Media journal published

New issue of  'World of Media. Journal of Russian Media and Journalism 
Studies' has just been released.

You can access the full-text articles here: 
http://worldofmedia.ru/volumes/2019/2019_Issue_4/

Guidelines for authors can be found here: http://worldofmedia.ru/authors/


*Table of contents*
*World of Media. Journal of Russian Media and Journalism Studies*
*Issue 4-2019*

/Li, X., Zhu, Q. & Li, W. (2019) An empirical study on the cognitive 
attitude of rural children using mobile phones (based on the example of 
children from rural areas in Northern Suzhou) // World of Media. Journal 
of Russian Media and Journalism Studies, 4: 5-23./

The small-screen era has created a new life scene for China’s ‘Internet 
generation’. With the increase in mobile phone penetration among rural 
children, entertainment has become the biggest goal of rural children 
using mobile phones. The mobile phone usage of rural children is mostly 
concentrated on short videos, WeChat and other information apps. The 
method of direct prohibition adopted by parents and school is not 
effective in correcting the child’s attitude towards using the phone. 
The simple living environment of rural children and the left-behind 
phenomenon leads to the lack of parental supervision. Systematic 
analysis of rural children’s attitude towards the use of mobile phones 
and finding factors affecting their use of mobile phones can effectively 
guide them to obtain knowledge and achieve anti-sinking purpose. Based 
on the ABC attitude model combined with face-to-face interviews, this 
paper firstly determines the influencing variables and designs the 
questionnaire for collecting the data in the rural schools. With fitting 
of structural equation model, the attitude model affecting rural 
children’s use of mobile phones is established. The factors influencing 
rural children’s mobile phone use are analyzed to improve the essential 
understanding of the problem.

/Islam, Md. A., & Kumar, B. (2019) The relationship between social 
network, social media use, loneliness and academic performance: A study 
among university students in Bangladesh // World of Media. Journal of 
Russian Media and Journalism Studies, 4: 25-47./

Multiple information and communication technologies are ubiquitous in 
human lives today. Our pattern of social interactions, formation and 
maintaining of relationships and status of mental health are mostly 
shaped by the communication technologies and social media platforms. Yet 
several studies show that we feel increasingly alone and the sense and 
feeling of loneliness are becoming an epidemic in modern society. On the 
other hand, several studies indicate that the use of communication 
technologies and social media platforms affect academic achievements of 
students both positively and negatively. The dimensions of an 
individual’s loneliness and interactions on social media platforms are 
well documented from the perspective of western countries, yet little is 
known about it from the context of developing countries like Bangladesh. 
The purpose of this study was to examine the structure of real-life and 
virtual social network and their relationship with loneliness and 
academic achievements of university students in the country. In this 
regard, the study used primary data collected from 234 university 
students. The study employed Lubben Social Network Scale (LSNS-6) and 
UCLA loneliness scale to measure the level of real-life social network 
and loneliness. The study finds that students are averagely engaged in 
real-life social network and moderately lonely. The study also finds a 
significant and positive relationship between Facebook use and 
loneliness, and a significant and positive relationship between social 
media (Facebook) use and loneliness. In addition, the study finds that 
academic performance or GPA of a student may be decreased by 0.843 and 
0.781 if the student uses social media one hour more and suffer from 
loneliness, respectively.

/Udenze, S., Ugoala, B. (2019) Building сommunity and constructing 
identity on WhatsApp: A netnographic approach // World of Media. Journal 
of Russian Media and Journalism Studies, 4: 49-69./

The social media serve as a means of expediently connecting people 
across the world, fostering new connections and friendships among people 
living abroad. Today, technology, mainly WhatsApp, seems to proffer a 
new stage for diasporas to engage in diasporic identity and community 
construction. The study investigates the motivation behind Nigerians 
living in the United States (diasporas) use of WhatsApp platform for 
building community and constructing identity online, and how they 
perceive the platform. The research adopts netnography, a qualitative 
research methodology suited for online research. This study adopts the 
aforementioned research method to explore forty five (45) persons on a 
WhatsApp platform. Besides, the social constructivist theory was 
employed to guide the study. The theory reiterates how meaning is 
developed through the interactions of social processes involving people 
in the environment. Analyzing automatically archived data from the 
WhatsApp platform, the study discovers that members of the group 
imagined the platform as a home community. Furthermore, there is a 
considerable dependence on the platform for homeland and related 
information seeking, creating national identities, and companionship. 
The study concludes that the WhatsApp diaspora platform provides its 
members with a sense of community and a strong bonding that engenders 
national identity and consciousness. The authors of the study believe 
that researchers should pay more attention to the study of WhatsApp for 
diasporic engagement.

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