Acculturation strategies through social media among the Egyptian community residing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Author

Mass Communication Department , King Saud University, KSA

Abstract

Based on Perry's (1979) model of acculturation, this study sought to identify the most prominent acculturation strategies used by the Egyptian community residing in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through their communication with the Saudi host community through various social media platforms and the relationship of these strategies with various social and demographic variables. The researcher used an Arabized version of the Perry Acculturation Scale to identify the uses of the Egyptian community residing in Saudi Arabia for the four main acculturation strategies: assimilation, integration, separation, and marginalization during their communication with members of Saudi society. The study used an electronic questionnaire to collect the sample responses   412 Egyptian people who live in Saudi Arabia was participated in this study. 
The study concluded that the most prominent acculturation strategies used by the Egyptian community residing in Saudi Arabia during their communication with Saudis via social media platforms are: integration in first place with a degree of (agreement) and an arithmetic average of (3.46), separation in second place with a degree of (agreement) and an arithmetic average. It reached (3.77), and assimilation ranked third, with a degree of (neutral) and an arithmetic mean of (2.94). Moreover, there were no statistically significant differences at the level of significance (α ≤0.05) between the responses of the study sample regarding the acculturation strategies used by the Egyptian community residing in Saudi Arabia while communicating with Saudis through social media platforms according to the (gender), age, region of residence in Saudi Arabia, length of residence in Saudi Arabia, educational level and number of Saudi friends.
In light of the results, the study recommended strengthening the positive role played by modern means of communication in enhancing positive communication among the Egyptian community with Saudi society.

Keywords

References

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