What motivates health information exchange in social media? The roles of the social cognitive theory and perceived interactivity

Social media has become an attractive platform for users to exchange health information with others. However, little research has been done to identify the determinants of health information exchange. By integrating aspects of the social cognitive theory and perceived interactivity, this study proposes a research model to investigate the antecedents of health information exchange in social media. Data collected from Facebook users with health information exchange experience were used to examine the proposed model. The results demonstrate that human-to-human interaction, human-to-information interaction, outcome expectation of health self-management competence, and outcome expectation of social relationships have a significant impact on health information exchange behavior. The results also reveal that human-to-human interaction exerts a significant influence on the outcome expectation of health self-management competence and the outcome expectation of social relationships, while human-to-information interaction has a positive effect on the outcome expectation of health self-management competence. The implications for the theory and practice and future research directions are discussed.     

Do video games exert stronger effects on aggression than film? The role of media interactivity and identification on the association of violent content and aggressive outcomes

This study investigated whether media interactivity would influence the short-term effects of violent content on audience aggression. The general aggression model, social cognitive theory, and character identification offered the theoretical framework. A random sample of 102 male college students were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: video game playing, recorded game-play watching, or movie watching. The results indicated that video game players (mediated enactive experience) experienced greater increases in aggressive affect, aggressive cognition, and physiological arousal than participants who watched recorded game play or comparable movie scenes (mediated observational experience). The study indicated that media interactivity in video game exacerbated the violent effect on short-term, aggressive responses. Character identification did not mediate the effect of media interactivity on aggression. Future studies should incorporate more comprehensive measures of character identification to investigate inconsistent findings regarding media interactivity and identification.     

Can more interactivity improve learning achievement in an online course? Effects of college students' perception and actual use of a course-management system on their learning achievement

This study aims to investigate how interactivity influence learners' use of interactive functions in the course-management system (CMS) and their online learning performance. A two-tier mediation framework is proposed to examine the mediating effects of different actual-use records concerning the CMS's interactive functions. Data are collected from 381 undergraduate students who enrolled in a general-education asynchronous online course from three universities in Taiwan. The results indicate that the relationships among students' self-reported use of interactive functions, students' perceptions of the usefulness of interactive functions, and students' actual-use logs have some direct influences on students' online learning performance (online-discussion scores, exam scores, and group-project scores). In addition, students' actual-use logs (the number of times of log-ins to the online course, the number of times students read learning materials, and the number of postings on the discussion board) have a mediated effect on students' self-reported frequency of logging into the CMS, students' self-reported frequency of using the learner–instructor/learner–learner interactive functions, and online learning performance. The findings and implications could constitute a useful guide for educational practitioners and designers concerned with the effective integration of interactivity into future online courses.