Understanding the Motives for Joining Ethnic Online Communities: A Study of Turks in Norway

Abstract

This study intends to explore why ethnic online community members are willing to be a part of their community. Arnold and Schenieder (2007) ' Brief SummaryInitially the Web was used as an information repository in which people could access information resources according to their needs. Today this one-way type of the Web has been transformed to a co-created, interactive, internet-based platform that includes various applications such as wikis, mashups, blogs, podcasts, RSS and social networks. New kinds of communicative practices and communities have sprung up depending on the developments in internet based information and communication technologies. Millions of internet users from all over the world meet online to chat, to meet with new people, to discuss with others, to give or ask for information. These online social gatherings are known by a variety of names including 'online community '. Rheingold (1994), describes online communities as cultural aggregations that emerge when enough people bump into each other often in cyberspace. The future of online communities is very promising: technological infrastructure supporting online communities is developing rapidly and it is expected that the deployment of online communities will become more and more comprehensive and widespread (Blossom, 2005).