Full length articleSelf-concepts in cyber censorship awareness and privacy risk perceptions: What do cyber asylum-seekers have?
Introduction
Following the Candlelight demonstrations in Korean cyberspace of 2008, cyber censorship and cyber asylum have become prominent social issues. Participation by cyber communities in online or offline demonstrations was a novel type of cyber community civic movement motivated by complex interactions between the formation of issue-related groups by community members, the cyber community's tradition of trusting and sharing information, and current democratic ways of learning (Sangarasivam, 2013, Shin, 2010, Song, 2012). Cyber asylum, a phenomenon in which Internet users move from one online space to another one to avoid cyber censorship, has taken place since the cyber inspection of Daum Kakao (a Korean online messenger service) in 2014 because of continued restrictions on the Internet imposed by cyber slander law, copyright law, packet wiretapping of messengers, and search and seizure of e-mails by government authorities. Rising concerns regarding such issues are leading to social discussions about building a safer cyber world. The present state of the Korean Internet, where fear and inconvenience coexist, gives rise not only to cyber asylum-seeking by users but also to economic damage to Internet companies.
The ever-expanding world of cyberspace has been studied largely with substantial statistical data, but the principles underlying the abovementioned cyber phenomena and their associations with psychological variables have drawn little attention in the relevant literature (Baym & Ledbetter, 2009). Even existing studies have failed to report consistent findings regarding the effects of the traits of individual cyberspace users on society or cyberspace culture. We lack an integrated model explaining the phenomena that result from this growth in online behavior (Ledbetter et al., 2011, Posey et al., 2010).
Thus, the self-concepts of cyberspace users (who use, e.g., the Internet, SNSs, etc.) were identified and classified for the purposes of this study, and relationships between each of the components of the self-concept construct with cyber censorship awareness, privacy concerns, privacy risk perceptions, and the behavioral intention to seek cyber asylum were examined.
Section snippets
Cyber censorship, privacy, and cyber asylum
The term cyberspace has often been used interchangeably with Internet in reference to Internet culture, Internet applications, and so forth (Jordan, 2000, Puathasnanon, 1998, Sangarasivam, 2013). The advent of the Internet and the supply of wired/wireless networks have created a virtual space known as cyberspace. In cyberspace people are considered more equal and act more laterally than in the real world because the online community consists of fluid identities of individuals and rejection of
The relationship between self-concepts and cyber censorship
The foregoing review of the literature and theoretical constructs pertaining to self-concept and cyberspace users provides the framework for this study. The study explores how the elements of self-concepts affect cyber censorship and privacy issues. And the purpose of the study is to investigate how censorship and privacy concerns affect the behavioral intention to seek cyber asylum. On this logical basis, in this study self-concept was applied in terms of space on the Internet, that is,
The relationship between cyber censorship and privacy risk perceptions and privacy concerns
Cyber censorship involves an act undertaken by a country (usually its government), a firm, a private organization, or the like, without the approval of users, to place a wiretap, collect personal information, or restrict Internet access. In other words, censorship is used to inhibit one's ideas or opinions from becoming known by screening and sorting them before they are announced to the public. Motahari et al. (2007) suggested seven factors regarding personal information that are concerned
The relationship between privacy risk perceptions and privacy concerns and the intention to seek cyber asylum
The behavioral intention to seek cyber asylum is grounded in fundamental psychological theories. The protection motivation theory (Rogers, 1975) is helpful in explaining a mediated process of behavioral change that one undertakes when exposed to a certain risk to protect oneself from the threat by raising intrinsic protection motivations. The expectancy–value theory and the cognitive processing theory explain a process through which a behavioral change undertaken by an individual to protect
Theoretical model
To guide the analysis of the data collected for this study, the author devised the following theoretical model to illustrate the relationships between the elements of cyber space users’ self-concepts and cyber censorship, privacy risk perceptions, privacy concerns, and cyber asylum-seeking behavior (Fig. 1).
Sampling and data collection
The sample for this study was identified through convenience samples of cyberspace users from active panel members (n = 1500). They were then contacted by e-mail and phone and were asked to participate. Willing participants were then directed to the online survey website. Data collection started on March 15, 2016 and ended on April 15, 2016. To increase the volume of statistical evidence and enhance the credibility of the study, actual data were collected from each respondent to identify those
Exogenous variables
The research used previously developed scales, modified when necessary, to measure the variables. The roles of the components of self-concepts were measured as self-disclosure, self-efficacy, self-assertion, social presence, self-esteem, and self-identity. Six items for self-disclosure (Pedersen & Higbee, 1968), three items for self-efficacy, four items for self-assertion, three items for social presence, three items for self-esteem—including two reverse items (Jin, 2015)—and six items for
Descriptive analysis
The eventual sample consisted of 761 men and 739 women for 1500 questionnaires. One hundred eighty-eight subjects were 10–19 years of age, 437 were 20–29 years of age, 414 were 30–39 years of age, and 461 were over 40 years of age. Two hundred thirty-four were college students (15.6%), and 1061 of the respondents had an educational background that included at least some college-level instruction (70.7%). On average, monthly income ranged from 2000 to 5000 dollars (see Table 3).
Assessment of measurement model
To confirm or
Conclusions and discussion
The results of this study can be explained by reference to causal relationships between self-concepts as independent variables, mediating variables, and dependent variables. First, awareness of cyber censorship that takes place in cyberspace was examined through relations of dynamics with the self-concepts of users. The components of users’ self-concepts had close connections with phenomena in cyberspace.
The self-concept has two dimensions, holistic and interactional. In other words,
Implications and limitations
In cyberspace, the autonomy of editing that has been monopolized by conventional media is passing to consumers, which means that cyberspace users are going to win more effective control. Cyberspace is more accessible than conventional media, and is varied with respect to the formality and content of information circulation. Thus, there has been an expectation that true freedom of expression will be realized in cyberspace on democratic grounds. With increasing numbers of legal cases regarding
Acknowledgement
This research has been supported by Kyonggi University Research Grant 2016
Chang-Hyun Jin is an associate professor in the department of business Administration at Kyonggi University, Korea. His main research interest is in marketing communication strategies such as branding, communication technology, sports marketing, and consumer psychology. His work has been published in several journals.
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Chang-Hyun Jin is an associate professor in the department of business Administration at Kyonggi University, Korea. His main research interest is in marketing communication strategies such as branding, communication technology, sports marketing, and consumer psychology. His work has been published in several journals.