| Abstract: | Growing numbers of individuals use social networking and instant messaging to
communicate. This memoire investigates academic discourses regarding the factors
motivating participation in social networking platforms. It is driven by the following
question: What are the main factors identified as motivating people to adopt and use
social networking platforms in three established fields of communications research? The
approach taken to address this question involves analyzing literature published in three
leading journals in the fields of communication studies, human computer interaction and
information studies to identify areas of complementarity and differences across these
fields. The findings suggest that across the three fields examined social influence factors
are viewed as having the greatest impact on peoples’ commitment to social networking
platforms, while the adoption of these platforms is impacted most greatly by a
combination of individual and social factors. |