| Summary: | 碩士 === 國立中山大學 === 傳播管理研究所 === 92 === Peer-to-peer file sharing has overturned the traditional way to communication, and has great impacts on society. But as so far, there are only few researches concerning this problem from users’ point of view, why and how users take use of it is still equivocal. Therefore in this research, I examined the motivations and behavior of P2P uses with uses and gratifications approach, and further more, whether motivations for P2P uses explain users’ behaviors and considered the contribution of individual characteristics are also examined.
As for motivations, a factor analysis revealed five motivations to use P2P file sharing software: Information seeking, Convenience, Library storage, Interpersonal communication and Self-achievement. Motivations are related to individual characteristics, including gender, age, the duration of internet use and P2P use, income, and education.
Several motivations and individual differences predict P2P use. And grouping users with cluster analysis, this research found three types of users: highly involved users, low involved users, and those who just want to download files. Highly involved users launch software frequently, have the strong motivations and are willing to share files with others. On the contrary, low involved users use less frequently, and have the relatively weak motivation of P2P use. Those who just download files are unwilling to share files with others.
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