Abstract
Web-based instant messaging applications are predominant as means of Internet usage in rural settings. This becomes particularly interesting in the Indian rural context where applications like WhatsApp are accepted and used extensively, while the Internet is still rather an alien concept for a large part of the population. While adoption of these applications is motivated by ease of access, ease of use, and other facilitating conditions, to better understand the collective acceptance, the role of social influence needs to be contextualized for the rural areas in point. To this end, we use the analytical lens of social capital to understand and elaborate on the rural sentiment around the usage of WhatsApp. We triangulate a thematic analysis of qualitative details from an ethnographic study with the sentiment analysis of selected parts of interviews conducted during the study. This mixed-method study throws light on how social constructs in rural households play a role in defining technological usability and habits, as well as individual-level perceptions and sentiments. Our study, which illustrates the usefulness of mixed methods in ICT4D, has implications for various stakeholders to understand the usage patterns and perception of digital platforms in rural contexts.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aharony, N.: What’s App: a social capital perspective. Online Inf. Rev. 39(1), 26–42 (2015)
Aharony, N., Gazit, T.: The importance of the WhatsApp family group: an exploratory analysis. Aslib J. Inf. Manage. 68(2), 174–192 (2016)
Aronson, J.: A pragmatic view of thematic analysis. Qual. Rep. 2(1), 1–3 (1995)
Balkrishan, D., Joshi, A., Rajendran, C., Nizam, N., Parab, C., Devkar, S.: Making and breaking the user-usage model: WhatsApp adoption amongst emergent users in India. In: Proceedings of the 8th Indian Conference on Human Computer Interaction, pp. 52–63, December 2016
Braun, V., Clarke, V.: Thematic analysis. In: APA Handbook of Research Methods in Psychology, Research Designs: Quantitative, Qualitative, Neuropsychological, and Biological, vol. 2, pp. 57–71. American Psychological Association (2012)
Bijarnia, S., Ilavarasan, P.V., Kar, A.K.: Comparing SERVQUAL for transportation services in the sharing economy for emerging markets: insights from Twitter analytics. In: Rana, N.P., et al. (eds.) Digital and Social Media Marketing. ATPEM, pp. 127–134. Springer, Cham (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-24374-6_9
Bijarnia, S., Khetan, R., Ilavarasan, P.V., Kar, A.K.: Analyzing customer engagement using Twitter analytics: a case of uber car-hailing services. In: Pappas, I.O., Mikalef, P., Dwivedi, Y.K., Jaccheri, L., Krogstie, J., Mäntymäki, M. (eds.) I3E 2019. LNCS, vol. 11701, pp. 404–414. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29374-1_33
Bourdieu, P.: The forms of capital (1986)
Chamlertwat, W., Bhattarakosol, P., Rungkasiri, T., Haruechaiyasak, C.: Discovering consumer insight from Twitter via sentiment analysis. J. UCS 18(8), 973–992 (2012)
Coleman, J.S.: Social capital in the creation of human capital. Am. J. Sociol. 94, S95–S120 (1988)
DePaolo, C.A., Wilkinson, K.: Get your head into the clouds: Using word clouds for analyzing qualitative assessment data. TechTrends 58(3), 38–44 (2014)
Devanuj, Joshi, A.: Technology adoption by “emergent” users: the user-usage model. In: Proceedings of the 11th Asia Pacific Conference on Computer Human Interaction (APCHI 2013). Association for Computing Machinery, New York pp. 28–38 (2013)
Digital Empowerment Foundation Publication Page. https://www.defindia.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/WhatsApp-Rural-Study_V3.pdf. Accessed 29 May 2020
DiMaggio, P., Hargittai, E., Neuman, W.R., Robinson, J.P.: Social implications of the Internet. Ann. Rev. Sociol. 27(1), 307–336 (2001)
Galloway, L.: Can broadband access rescue the rural economy? J. Small Bus. Enterp. Dev. 14(4), 641–653 (2007)
Gazit, T., Aharony, N.: Factors explaining participation in WhatsApp groups: an exploratory study. Aslib J. Inf. Manag. 70(4), 390–413 (2018)
Güven, S., Steiner, M., Ge, N., Paradkar, A.: Understanding the role of sentiment analysis in contract risk classification. In: IEEE Network Operations and Management Symposium (NOMS), pp. 1–6. IEEE, May 2014
Harwood, T.G., Garry, T.: An overview of content analysis. Market. Rev. 3(4), 479–498 (2003)
Heimerl, F., Lohmann, S., Lange, S., Ertl, T.: Word cloud explorer: text analytics based on word clouds. In: Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, pp. 1833–1842 (2014)
IMRB Homepage. https://imrbint.com/images/common/ICUBE™_2019_Highlights.pdf. Accessed 29 May 2020
Kayser, V., Blind, K.: Extending the knowledge base of foresight: the contribution of text mining. Technol. Forecast. Soc. Chang. 116, 208–215 (2017)
Kenny, R., Kenny, C.: Superfast broadband: is it really worth a subsidy? Info 13(4), 3–29 (2011)
Kleine, D.: ICT4WHAT?—using the choice framework to operationalise the capability approach to development. J. Int. Dev. 22(5), 674–692 (2010)
Leininger, M.M.: Ethnography and ethnonursing: models and modes of qualitative data analysis. In: Qualitative Research Methods in Nursing, pp. 33–72 (1985)
Leong, L.W., Ibrahim, O., Dalvi-Esfahani, M., Shahbazi, H., Nilashi, M.: The moderating effect of experience on the intention to adopt mobile social network sites for pedagogical purposes: an extension of the technology acceptance model. Educ. Inf. Tech. 23(6), 2477–2498 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-018-9726-2
Lin, N.: Building a network theory of social capital. In: Social Capital, (pp. 3–28). Routledge (2017)
Liu, B.: Sentiment analysis and subjectivity. In: Handbook of Natural Language Processing, vol. 2, pp. 627-666 (2010)
Liu, B.: Sentiment analysis and opinion mining. In: Synthesis Lectures on Human Language Technologies, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 1–167 (2012)
Mir, U.B., Kar, A.K., Dwivedi, Y.K., Gupta, M.P., Sharma, R.S.: Realizing digital identity in government: prioritizing design and implementation objectives for Aadhaar in India. Gov. Inf. Quarterly 37, 101442 (2019a)
Mir, U.B., Kar, A.K., Gupta, M.P., Sharma, R.S.: Prioritizing digital identity goals – the case study of aadhaar in India. In: Pappas, I.O., Mikalef, P., Dwivedi, Y.K., Jaccheri, L., Krogstie, J., Mäntymäki, M. (eds.) I3E 2019. LNCS, vol. 11701, pp. 489–501. Springer, Cham (2019b). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-29374-1_40
Mittal, A., Goel, A.: Stock prediction using Twitter sentiment analysis 15 (2012). Standford University, CS229 (2011 http://cs229.stanford.edu/proj2011/GoelMittal-StockMarketPredictionUsingTwitterSentimentAnalysis.pdf)
Nie, N.H., Hillygus, D.S., Erbring, L.: Internet use, interpersonal relations, and sociability. Internet Everyday Life, 215–243 (2002)
Pang, B., Lee, L.: Opinion mining and sentiment analysis. Found. Trends® Inf. Retrieval 2(1–2) 1–135 (2008)
Parmar, M., Maturi, B., Dutt, J.M., Phate, H.: Sentiment Analysis-Interview Transcripts (2018)
Putnam, R.D.: Bowling Alone: the Collapse and Revival of American Community. Simon and Schuster, New York (2000)
Putnam, R.D.: Bowling together. Am. Prosp. 13(3), 20–22 (2002)
Rambocas, M., Pacheco, B.G.: Online sentiment analysis in marketing research: a review. J. Res.Inter. Market. 12(2), 146–163 (2018)
Rathore, A.K., Kar, A.K., Ilavarasan, P.V.: Social media analytics: literature review and directions for future research. Decis. Anal. 14(4), 229–249 (2017)
Rathore, A.K., Ilavarasan, P.V., Dwivedi, Y.K.: Social media content and product co-creation: an emerging paradigm. J. Enterp. Inf. Manag. 29(1), 7–18 (2016)
Sánchez-Moya, A., Cruz-Moya, O.: “Hey there! I am using WhatsApp”: a preliminary study of recurrent discursive realisations in a corpus of WhatsApp statuses. Procedia-Soc. Behav. Sci. 212, 52–60 (2015)
Scott, N., Garforth, C., Jain, R., Mascarenhas, O., McKemey, K.: The economic impact of telecommunications on rural livelihoods and poverty reduction: a study of rural communities in India (Gujarat), Mozambique and Tanzania (2005)
Selouani, S.A., Hamam, H.: Social impact of broadband internet: a case study in the Shippagan Area, a rural zone in Atlantic Canada. J. Inf. Inf. Tech. Organ. 2, 79–94 (2007)
Singh, P., Dwivedi, Y.K., Kahlon, K.S., Pathania, A., Sawhney, R.S.: Can twitter analytics predict election outcome? An insight from 2017 Punjab assembly elections. Gov. Inf. Q. 101444 (2020)
Statista Page. https://www.statista.com/statistics/280914/monthly-active-whatsapp-users-in-india/. Accessed 29 May 2020
Taylor, S.J., Bogdan, R.: Introduction to Qualitative Research Methods: The Search for Meanings. Wiley, New york (1984)
Thapa, D.: Exploring the link between ICT intervention and human development through a social capital lens: the case study of a wireless project in the mountain region of Nepal. Universitet i Agder/University of Agder (2012)
Venkatesh, V., Sykes, T.A.: Digital divide initiative success in developing countries: a longitudinal field study in a village in India. Inf. Syst. Res. 24(2), 239–260 (2013)
Williams, D.: On and off the’Net: scales for social capital in an online era. J. Comput.-Mediated Commun. 11(2), 593–628 (2006)
Woolcock, M.: The place of social capital in understanding social and economic outcomes. Can. J. Policy Res. 2(1), 11–17 (2001)
Zachariadis, M., Scott, S., Barrett, M.: Methodological implications of critical realism for mixed-methods research. MIS Q. 855–879 (2013)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing
About this paper
Cite this paper
Vagrani, A., Bijarnia, S., Ilavarasan, P.V., Masiero, S. (2020). Appraising WhatsApp in the Indian Context: Understanding the Rural Sentiment. In: Bass, J.M., Wall, P.J. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies for Development. ICT4D 2020. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, vol 587. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65828-1_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65828-1_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-65827-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-65828-1
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)
