STUDENT PERCEPTION ON THE INTERNET AS A NEWS CHANNEL AUCHI POLYTECHNIC AS A CASE STUDY

ABSTRACT

This project on “STUDENTS PERCEPTION OF THE INTERNET AND ITS USE AS A NEWS CHANNEL” is structured to critically examine how students view the internet as a source for information. New technologies, the internet in particular, have transformed journalistic practices in many ways around the world. While a number of studies have investigated how established journalistic are dealing with and using new technologies in a number of countries, very little attention have been paid to how the journalists of tomorrow view and use the internet as a source of news. This study examines the ways in which students of Auchi Polytechnic (Mass Communication in particular) get their news, how they use the internet as a news channel, as well as their perceptions and use of other new technologies. To effectively analyze this, the theoretical framework is drawn from the uses and gratifications theory, and the survey method was used as the methodology. Questionnaire was drafted out and administered to students of mass communication, which served as the base for the work. The project will be of immense benefit to both students and researcher who would want to delve to this area.

Background of the Study
New technologies have transformed journalistic practice in many ways around the world. Newspapers in particular are under pressure in many developed countries to adapt to technological changes as revenue dwindles and new online business models are being explored. As a result, the internet has become an immensely significant source of news for many developed countries.

Not surprising, there has been a surge in scholarly attention to how news is delivered online, as well as who is producing it and who is reading it. However, while numbers of studies have investigated how established journalists are dealing with using new technologies, very little attention has been paid to how the journalists of tomorrow view and use the interest as a news medium.

Splichal and Sparks (1994) seminal study of first year journalism students in 22 countries around the world was conducted many years ago, long before the internet became a mainstream news sources for many people, they saw it coming in fact, in the developed world, the internet has become an integral part of students’ lives to the extent that theses “digital native” have been teaching their lectures a thing or two above the internet. Beyond students’ use of the internet as a news source, a number of studies also examined student’s use of the internet in general. For example Aderson (2011) examined how internet use had impacted on the social or academic lives of university students. Kandell (1998) analyzed internet addiction among students similarly; Kubey et al (2001:366) noted the increasing use of the internet by university and polytechnic students while Jones et al (2009) reports that students are “heavy users” of the internet.

Yet, as pointed out previously, there exist limited studies of exclusively journalism students’ use of the internet as news source. Considering that vast majority of journalist in the world now have some tertiary education in communication or your nations field, the group is imperfect to examine in order for us to understand how the journalist of the future will be engaging the internet and other new technologies. In this context, this project reports the result of a survey that examined the ways and means by which mass communication students of Auchi Polytechnic receive their news, including their perceptions and the use of the internet as a news channel. The study serves as a foundation for a proposed much larger (global) study of journalism students’ use of internet as a news channel.

1.1 Background Study
Studies indicate that as online information resources proliferate, tertiary institution students are making fever visits to the Newspaper stand or libraries to retrieve information and that their use of the world wide web as an information source is increasing overall (Lubans 1998 and Shaleford .J Thomson .D .S and James M. B 1999).
In fact, university and Polytechnic Students are taking advantage of the internet and web to complete course assignment and for the latest information Brown, M. N Freeman, K. E and Milliamson C .L (2000). The movement away from the traditional news media and towards cyberspace raises impartial concern about the nature of information obtained by students and their ability and desire to evaluate online information effectively.
Accordingly, groups such as the American Library Association, the National institute for literacy and Myrid Libraries and Instructors have called for schools to teach internet literacy skills with emphasis on evaluating the quality of web-based information.

While the number of students using the internet grows annually, studies of the nature of students’ web use have kept same pace. There is remarkably, little research addressing how frequently students use the internet, what prompts them, and what efforts they make to verify that the information they find online is credible. However, this is crucial topic to monitor, given students’ use of the internet as a source of news and the potential for online information to be misleading or inaccurate.