“Glocal” patterns of communication-information convergences in Internet use: Cross-cultural behavior of international teaching assistants in a culturally alien information environment

SummaryThere is minimal research on the cross-cultural needs, priorities, and behaviors of international participants immersed in contemporary culturally alien information environments. Through a quantitative analysis of Internet use patterns of international teaching assistants (ITA) studying in graduate school at a representative university in the United States, the authors discover communication-information convergences in ITAs’ use of the Internet as a “glocal” network, connecting the “global” and “local” dimensions in their everyday lives. The paper identifies dual functions of the Internet considered meaningful to the ITAs in the diaspora, namely: (1) to engage in various communication activities with friends and family in their home countries (the “global”), thereby providing psychological comfort and overcoming social isolation; and (2) to conduct information gathering activities that establish coping mechanisms for ITAs in their new homes in the United States (the “local”). The paper presents empirical data highlighting correlations between communication and information intersections in ITAs’ use of the Internet. Findings extend past Internet research and user studies in traditional communication and information research, which only alluded to these communication-information convergence processes, to better understand how international people use the Internet in present-day cross-cultural contexts of interaction.