| Summary: | 碩士 === 世新大學 === 口語傳播學研究所 === 104 === Analyzed from a dramaturgical perspective by Goffman and following Abercrombie & Longhurst’s spectacle/performance paradigm (SPP), Facebook (FB) is regarded as an intersection of both one’s public and private domains. This study, inspired by the interpersonal experiences of the resercher, aims to explore the intentions of the FB-romantic-news-feed-posters (hereafter, posters) who choose to reveal their personal relationships online and the manifestations of their disclosures. The study attempts to understand the motives and purposes of the posters, their disclosure performance and strategic behavior, as well as the ways in which the posters utilize the news-feed function to maintain their personal relationships.
In-depth interviews and text analysis are used as research methods. Five single posters (1 male and 4 female), who are currently in a close relationship with their significant others and frequently update their romantic-news feed on FB, voluntarily agreed to participate in this study. They gave the researcher the permission to retrieve their romantic-news feed for text analysis. Emerging from the interviews conducted, three types of motives of posting were identified: “uncertainty reduction”, “reminder of the existing romantic relationship”, and “seeking for acceptance and recognition”. Furthermore, five purposes of posting are generated from the previously-mentioned motives: “mutual-precariousness reduction”, “heeding potential threats”, “increasing mutual communication opportunities”, “changing relatives’ opinions”, and “gaining more social support”. Guided by the respective purposes of posting, posters use different types of news-feed to maintain their romantic relationships. At the initial relationship stage, posters prefer to use the typology of “customary disclosure” to signpost the uniqueness of their partners. Also, posters generally tend to mention three circumstances: “holidays and special occasions”, “self-image creation”, and “daily routines” to foster their relationships; such an action gives the readers a good impression that the posters and their partners are in harmony. Besides, the study found that the posters not only utilize the positive disclosure strategy to sustain their relationship, but also select atypical strategies (negative romantic-news feed) to enhance their intimate bounds with their partners.
In conclusion, posting romantic-news feed on FB can be considered as a way to nurture their romantic relationship and to build social support by the posters. To maintain their relationships, posters share their stories with others by means of the romantic-news feed function on FB. Evidently, the relationship mutually maintained by the couples themselves has transformed into a publicly manufactured "Participative love relationship”.
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