ABSTRACT
This
research exercise is on the influence of new media in social life of Nigeria
youth; in Godfrey Okoye University students. The research study adopted the
media systems dependency theory as the theoretical framework for this study.
The method used for this study was survey research method, with the population
of 1640 students and a sample size of 311 students. The study revealed that
over 68% of Nigerian youth log in on social media at least four to six times in
a week and that over 80% of the youth believed that there is influence of
social media on youths' use of traditional mass media in Nigeria and that over
48% of the respondents agreed that to some extent social media has enhanced
youths* interaction on social media. The study conclude that social media have
provided an open arena where the.
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1
BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
The history of human communication began
with the oral or
spoken
tradition. Through the course of history, the dissemination of messages
progressed from simply the oral tradition, to script, print, wired electronics,
wireless electronics and finally digital communication. The greatest change in
message dissemination in recent history occurred with the introduction of
computers and the Internet in the early 1990s. Since then, this drastic change
of communication medium has significantly affected humans' perception of the
media, the usage of time and space, and the reachability and control of the
media (Guo-Ming, 2012).
In the present age of digital communication,
time has been compressed by reducing the distance between different points in
space, and the sense of space has led people to feel that local, ^national, and
global space becomes obsolete (Harvey, 2010). In addition, the reachability of
digital media can now extend to all people, instead of a limited audience. This
is significant because without the confinement of time and space, the control
of message production and dissemination is
The new media, that
resulted from the invention, encapsulated the characteristics of the old or
traditional media, and extended the potentials arid possibilities into which
both the "old" and "new" media could be put into use.
Tokunbo and Felix (2013) noted that the newmedia, promoted by Internet
technology, exhibit an integration and convergence
of the existing media to extend the frontiers of the possibilities of the media
of communication, The new media, which hallmarked the integration and
convergence of computer and telecommunication technologies, revolutionized the
face of human communication especially in the 21st century. The new
information Technology "provides near limitless possibilities of
increasing the quantity
and enhancing the quality, speed, and availability of information in a complex
but increasingly interdependent world (Soola, 2010).
According to Tokunbo and Felix
(2013), the new media, propelled and driven by the internet, provide platforms
for social interactions between and among users in such a manner that no older
platforms/media can boast of. Ignatius, Alice and Lucky (2014) opined that by their nature the social media have peculiar characteristics that make them
probably more appealing to the audience than the conventional media. The
veracity of this assertion could be perceived in the pace of the growth of
the social media sites over the few years of their emergence. He gave the example
of Facebook, which is the acclaimed most popular channel among the social media
reached over one billion users
within ten years of its existence as a medium of communication in the
world. The medium attained a "total of 1.23 billion users" in just a decade
of its birth (Ignatius, Alice and Lucky, 2014). Other social media sites have
similar significant number of users within
their short span. This level
of wider spread of the media among the people has
never been seen in any other earlier means of communication.
The invention of the new media in
modern communication is rapidly
changing the whole mass media landscape and communication enterprise in the
universe presently. This very development brought by technologies is affecting
the means of assembling, delivery or dissemination
and reception of mediated messages today (Ignatius, Alice and Lucky, 2014). These
new means of interactions have greatly changed the media uses by the audience,
the journalists and the mainstream media's relation with the audience. The
social media have altered the basic
processes involved in news gathering and dissemination in the world. With that,
the audience pattern of news consumption especially
with regard to the
contents of the traditional mass media is envisaged to
be affected.
However, the positive
impact of the new media is greatly among youth as its allowed youth to make
friends beyond the borders of their country. According to Chimela, Ovute and
Obochi (2015), social media have provided an open arena where the youths are
free to exchange ideas on various trending issues. In support of this fact,
Chinwe and Uche (2014) noted that as social media is quickly becoming prime
political battlegrounds for several political contenders, it has changed young
people's political outlooks and participatory behavior in Nigeria, This is because it
has a democratic potential that opens for new forms of political participation
and conversations. Socially, the new media have contributed in making an
average Nigerian youth to know more about the different tribes in Nigeria
(Ignatius, Alice, and Lucky, 2014). Therefore, the
focus of this study is on the impact of new media in social life
of Nigeria youth; looking into the credibility of News on social media amongst
Godfrey Okoye University students.
1.2
STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
With the prevalence of the new media
technologies, there is a
change
in the media choice of the youths globally, Nigeria inclusive. A
researcher
like Broddason (2016) gives credence to the above view by
noting that, "there
is general agreement among media and communication scholars that a monumental
shift is occurring in the media and communication habits of young people."
The rate at which they cling to the use of social media is quite alarming, this
leaves people in doubt whether the new channels of communication would utterly
displace or at least reduce the youths' patronage of the mainstream media.
Presently, the
youths' much reliance and choice of the social media is not hidden at all.
Invariably, these new media's ability to exert influence on the use of the
conventional media is an unarguable reality. According to Aja (2011)
"traditional media organizations such as radio, television, newspapers and
magazines seem to have lost prominence
and their
audience..." Their news and information, as the European Society of
Professional Journalists (2014) observes, are being increasingly circumvented
by users who use alternative media sources.
From
the foregoing, the mainstream media's losing of grip on the youths' and the
general usage of the prior existing channels of communication is an envisaged
phenomenon. This kind of expectation is usually nursed by the people with the
introduction of a new means of public
interaction. That perhaps informed why Broddason (2016) arguesfor instance that
"there is some suggestion of television being replaced by the "new
media." However, amidst all
sociological benefits, social media have regrettably contributed to moral
degeneration and decadence among youths in several countries, including
Nigeria. This, no doubt, stems from the gross obsession with and abuse of these
social networking sites. Due to the increase in social media web-sites, there
seems to be a positive correlation between the usages of such media with cyber
bullying, online sexual predators and the decrease in-face-to-face interaction.
Likewise, social media seem to be influencing youths' lives in terms of
exposing them to images or alcohol, tobacco, and sexual behaviors (Kaplan,
2010). Therefore, the
challenge now is that the influence of social media on youths' uses of
conventional mass media in Nigeria is hitherto buried in obscurity. Another
problem is finding out whether the social media usage
enhances the youths' interaction with the country's leaders. Also, it is important to
systematically ascertain other purposes which the social media accomplish for
the youths. These outlined points are the problems which this study has
empirically investigated and provided answers to them.
1.3
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The mam objective of
this study remains on impact of new media in
social life of
Nigeria youth, while other specific objectives include:
1. To ascertain the
influence of social media on youths' use of traditional mass media in Nigeria.
2.
To
determine whether social media usage enhance the youths' interaction with
Nigerian leaders.
3.
To
examine the influence of new media to the social behaviour of Nigerian youth.
1.4
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
1. To what extent is
the influence of social media on youths' use of
traditional
mass media in Nigeria?
2.
To
what extent does social media usage enhance the youths' interaction with
Nigerian leaders?
1.
To
what extent is the influence of new media to the social behaviour of Nigerian
youth?
1.4
SCOPE
OF THE STUDY
This work will
concentrate on the credibility of News on social
media
amongst Godfrey Okoye University students, in Enugu state.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
It
is expected that the output of this research will benefit students
and
the administration of Godfrey Okoye University, Enugu as will show the level of
the students' use of social media. This shall help them to understand how best
to sustain the students attention on using social networking sites. Also this
work will be of immense benefit to the field of Library and information
sciences as it will be on addition to existing literature, and shall also add
to the available academic literatures on new media.
Also the findings
could be used by academic advisers and counselors proffer professional advice
to the university authorities on how to regulate the social network usage among
undergraduate students.
Again, the findings
of this study would provide facts that will enable the ministry of
communication technology to know what arises
from students' use
of the social media. This will help the ministry7, to
-it
know
how to control social network usage.
Finally, this work
would be beneficial to future researchers who can now readily lay their hands
on the result of this work by making use of The research report.
1.7
OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS
•
Youth: Youth is the time
of life when one is young, but often means
the time between childhood and
adulthood (maturity). Youth could be described operationally as students in
various Universities in Nigeria and who fall between the ages of 15 -30.
•
Influence: The capacity or
power of persons or things to be a compelling force on or produce effects on
the actions, behaviour, opinions of others.
•
Social networks: Social networks are
online services, platforms or sites that focus building and reflecting social
relations among people, who, for example, share interests and or activities.
Social networking sites are websites that allow those who have account with
them to communicate with a selected group of friends (Awake, 2011).
®
New media: According to Wikipedia (2014),
"New media refers to on-demand access to content anytime, anywhere, on any
digital device, as well as interactive user feedback, -and creative
participation.
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