Uncertainty Reduction Strategy and Networking Sites Choice among International Students in Eastern Mediterranean University, North Cyprus

Abstract

The emergence of Web 2.0 in the 21^st century was accompanied by various social networking sites (SNSs). Although the democratic nature of the Internet offered freedom to choose an SNS, selecting the appropriate one for communication became difficult. The research examines the most used uncertainty reduction strategy international students employ for communication within and outside their school environment. It investigates the most dominant social networking platforms used by international students in their home country, within North Cyprus and among other international students within the school environment. The study population was 16,000 students, with 450 respondents as sample size. The analysis was done using SPSS for demographics and JASP 0.10.20, with a binomial frequency that captures the results depicting that international student most prefer WhatsApp for communicating with families in their home country, school environment North Cyprus and others. The results also revealed that users looked out for convenience and security as the best reasons for reducing their level of uncertainty in communication. The study recommends that further research should be concentrated on longitudinal studies and also consider doing research using any of the approaches that are qualitatively inclined to ascertain if the result will be in tandem with the Eastern Mediterranean University when communicating with other international students.

KEYWORDS: Uncertainty Reduction Strategy, Choice, Networking Sites, International Students.