CMC and Ethnic Communities: A Case Study of Chinese Students' Electronic Publications.

This paper presents a case study exploring the impact of Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) on the formation of ethnic social groups, or communities, by examining the case of Chinese students in North America and other parts of the world. The paper (1) reviews the relationship between communication and community; (2) traces the development of the electronic publications on the Internet targeted at the overseas Chinese students; (3) examines the Chinese student virtual communities in existence; and (4) discusses the significance of such communities in view of the mass media and ethnic community relationship. The paper concludes that what has made the communities of Chinese students unique is that they depend almost solely on the new electronic technology of computer networking while other communities are usually helped by the traditional media in their formation. The paper also concludes that the arrival of CMC has provided more opportunities for the establishment of various communities. Contains 47 references and 3 tables of data. (Author/RS)