The role of media in user participation: Focusing on the knowledge activity in online space

Media technology have been considered a catalyst for boosting communication between the sources of information. Contrary to traditional media, new media which use online communication shows high interactivity properties. This characteristic allows people to participate in collective activities such as discussion, evaluation, or creating documents. Consequently, the role of media in online space has focused on delivering individual knowledge to others rather than just adopting selected information. We studied the effect of media usage patterns on creating knowledge in online communities. In our study, we divided user groups into three based on the degree to which people participate in knowledge collaboration in the online space: active participant, passive participant, and bystander. The results indicate that the active participant group is most likely to use smartphone and tablet PC to create knowledge in online space which means they prefer high accessibility rather than familiar mediators.