商品簡介
Can online support networks provide the same benefits of face-to-face social support while avoiding conventional limitations of material resources, proximity, and temporality? Bambina (Center on Organizational Innovation, Columbia U.) investigates this question by examining two weeks of discussion on an online cancer support forum in order to understand patterns of relations that develop and the impact they have on the availability and transmission of social support. She identifies what types of support are offered and requested in the online forum and explores their relative frequencies, finding that companionship (chatting, humor/teasing, and "groupness") is transmitted most often, followed in order by emotional support (understanding/empathy, encouragement, affirmation/validation, sympathy, and caring/concern) and then informational support (advice, referrals, and teaching). She also examines the network's social structure and its impact on the transmission of support, discusses types of online actors, and develops a theory of optimal matching to explore how and why social support is transmitted within the network's social structure. Annotation ©2007 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
