Digital Asymmetries in Transnational Communication: Expectation, Autonomy and Gender Positioning in the Household
Dublin Core
Title
Digital Asymmetries in Transnational Communication: Expectation, Autonomy and Gender Positioning in the Household
Subject
Digital Asymmetry, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), Transnational
Communication, Gender, Participant Observation, Ecomap, Chinese Migrant Mothers
Communication, Gender, Participant Observation, Ecomap, Chinese Migrant Mothers
Description
In contemporary society, information and communication technologies (ICTs) are widely cherished for helping transnational households preserve a coherent sense of familyhood despite geographical separation. Despite ICTs having positive bene®ts for the maintenance of long-distance intimacies, digital asymmetries characterized by gaps in routines, emotional experiences, and outcomes of ICT use can also emerge between family members of different structural, social, and geographical conditions.
Drawing on an innovative “content–context diary”-cum-participant observation, this article investigates the multi-dimensional digital asymmetries emerging from the transnational communication of Chinese “study mothers” in Singapore. Using the data visualization and analysis tool “ecomap,” the ®ndings uncover that study mothers were largely beleaguered by expectation asymmetry and autonomy asymmetry, arising from different expectations to and control over daily transnational communication with their family members. The study mothers were disadvantaged by their relatively isolated life situations in the host society and accentuated gender hierarchies in the household.
Drawing on an innovative “content–context diary”-cum-participant observation, this article investigates the multi-dimensional digital asymmetries emerging from the transnational communication of Chinese “study mothers” in Singapore. Using the data visualization and analysis tool “ecomap,” the ®ndings uncover that study mothers were largely beleaguered by expectation asymmetry and autonomy asymmetry, arising from different expectations to and control over daily transnational communication with their family members. The study mothers were disadvantaged by their relatively isolated life situations in the host society and accentuated gender hierarchies in the household.
Creator
Yang Wang & Sun Sun Lim
Source
https://academic.oup.com/jcmc/article/25/6/365/5929328
Publisher
Oxford University Press
Date
3 February 2020
Contributor
Sri Wahyuni
Format
PDF
Language
English
Type
Text
Coverage
Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication 25 (2020)
Files
Collection
Citation
Yang Wang & Sun Sun Lim, “Digital Asymmetries in Transnational Communication: Expectation, Autonomy and Gender Positioning in the Household,” Repository Horizon University Indonesia, accessed May 20, 2025, https://repository.horizon.ac.id/items/show/8670.