A Critical Investigation of News Consumption and Its Preferences by University Students in Ghana (a Case Study of University of Cape Coast)
CHAPTER ONE
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The primary aim of this study is to investigate the news consumption preferences of college students. Specifically, the study will;
- Find out the news consumption preference of students in University of Ghana
- Find out the pattern of their engagement with news.
- Find out the gratification derived from preferred news consumption.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
University students may be considered part of the elite members of society as they attain higher education levels. Research has revealed that a students’ use of news media during college years is likely to impact how in future they will be politically aware, acquire political knowledge, and their involvement in political activity (Lee, 2006). News is usually associated with the elite and university students are considered elite in most communities. With University students being viewed as the elite future force, their level of knowledge which is critical for democratic life needs to be assessed. A study by Prior (2005) states that content preferences are determined mostly by what those with cable or Internet access view, read, and listen to. Young people preferred a mix of entertainment and hard news, local news however the go-to news type. Qayyum, Williamson, Liu and Hider (2011) discovered local news to be more important to young people because it was more relevant to them. Studies have proven that young people’s news consumption is mainly sought from new media, especially social networks. Newspapers over the years are almost no more the main source of news consumption in the digital context. Research of university students in the united states has revealed a great connection between overall patterns of news use and news consumption (ChanOlmsted, Rim, & Zerba, 2013). However, the type of news that young consumers seek is not an extensively researched area. When university students attend to media for news which type of content do they prefer? Studies on the types of content younger readers prefer to consume is largely lacking (Rosenberry, 2008). Literature on news consumption of young people will be reviewed to find out the type of news they consume and why they consume it.
Young persons and media use
According to Huang (2009), young people who live double-quick lives tend to juggle school, employment, sports, social networking, leisure, entertainment, news consumption and so on. News consumption may gratify some needs for them. Vincent and Basil (1997) contend that with the abundance of options available, some young people consume specific types of news when the topics and content affect them directly. All the same, this abundance of news avenues available to young people can overwhelm them especially with likely frequent attention to social media via mobile phones and other gadgets.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
INTRODUCTION
In this chapter, we described the research procedure for this study. A research methodology is a research process adopted or employed to systematically and scientifically present the results of a study to the research audience viz. a vis, the study beneficiaries.
RESEARCH DESIGN
Research designs are perceived to be an overall strategy adopted by the researcher whereby different components of the study are integrated in a logical manner to effectively address a research problem. In this study, the researcher employed the survey research design. This is due to the nature of the study whereby the opinion and views of people are sampled. According to Singleton & Straits, (2009), Survey research can use quantitative research strategies (e.g., using questionnaires with numerically rated items), qualitative research strategies (e.g., using open-ended questions), or both strategies (i.e., mixed methods). As it is often used to describe and explore human behaviour, surveys are therefore frequently used in social and psychological research.
POPULATION OF THE STUDY
According to Udoyen (2019), a study population is a group of elements or individuals as the case may be, who share similar characteristics. These similar features can include location, gender, age, sex or specific interest. The emphasis on study population is that it constitutes of individuals or elements that are homogeneous in description.
This study was carried to examine a critical investigation of news consumption and its preferences by university students in Ghana. University of Ghana, Cape coast forms the population of the study.
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
INTRODUCTION
This chapter presents the analysis of data derived through the questionnaire and key informant interview administered on the respondents in the study area. The analysis and interpretation were derived from the findings of the study. The data analysis depicts the simple frequency and percentage of the respondents as well as interpretation of the information gathered. A total of eighty (80) questionnaires were administered to respondents of which only seventy-seven (77) were returned and validated. This was due to irregular, incomplete and inappropriate responses to some questionnaire. For this study a total of 77 was validated for the analysis.
TEST OF HYPOTHESIS
H0: there is no news consumption preference of students in University of Ghana
H1: there is news consumption preference of students in University of Ghana
H0: there is no pattern of their engagement with news.
H2: there is pattern of their engagement with news.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Introduction
It is important to ascertain that the objective of this study was to ascertain A critical investigation of news consumption and its preferences by university students in Ghana (a case study of university of cape coast). In the preceding chapter, the relevant data collected for this study were presented, critically analyzed and appropriate interpretation given. In this chapter, certain recommendations made which in the opinion of the researcher will be of benefits in addressing the challenges of news consumption and its preferences by university students in Ghana
Summary
This study was on a critical investigation of news consumption and its preferences by university students in Ghana (a case study of university of cape coast). Three objectives were raised which included; Find out the news consumption preference of students in University of Ghana, Find out the pattern of their engagement with news and Find out the gratification derived from preferred news consumption. A total of 77 responses were received and validated from the enrolled participants where all respondents were drawn from University of Cape coast. Hypothesis was tested using Chi-Square statistical tool (SPSS).
Conclusion
News consumption before internet news was known to be consumed through reading newspapers, listening to the news on radio and or watching news television. With the advent of the internet, news can be watched, read and listened to online on various devices. Even though research has proven that as people get older their interest in news increases, it has also been found that college students have the type of news that holds their interest. This research is a study which was conducted to survey the news consumption preferences of students of the University of Ghana. The main objective was to find out the type of news students preferred to consume and what gratification the type of news they consumed satisfied. According to this research entertainment news, politics sports and business are the top four types of news preferred. Students also have an interest in health and science news which has little content in news.
Recommendation
From the findings, multimedia news is the future. Students will watch, listen and read news online at their convenient time more than they attend to any other type of news channel. Traditional news outlets should pay more attention to the new media and make it their main focus as the attention of young people is focused there. Students are more interested in entertainment, sports, politics and business according to this study, therefore, news content is most likely to be more interesting to students if more focus is put into these types of news.
References
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- Andreessen, M. (2014) The future of the news business. Andreessen Horowitz: Software is eating the world. Retrieved from http://a16z.com/2014/02/25/future-of-news-business/
- Avor, A. A. (2015) A Survey of News Consumption Patterns of Students of the University of Ghana (unpublished Masters Dissertation). University of Ghana, Accra, Ghana.
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- Bolalek, L. A. (2013) News Source Preferences and News Source Credibility among College Staff, Faculty, and Students (Unpublished Masters dissertation) The Rochester Institute of Technology. Retrieved from http://scholarworks.rit.edu/theses
- Chan-Olmsted, S., Rim, H., & Zerba, A. (2013). Mobile news adoption among young adults: Examining the roles of perceptions, news consumption, and media usage. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 90(1), 126- 147. https://doi.org/10.1177/1077699012468742
