A
Report
On
Uses
of Mass Media
By
Patrick Jordan
(1st
year Media and P.R)
For
Introduction
to Media Studies
16th
of April 2012
Terms
of reference
“The
assement given for Media studies entails the student carrying out a piece of
research on the uses of the mass media including social media”
Introduction
I have undertaken
this survey as part of an assignment that was given to me by my Media Studies
lecturer. It is my personal ambition on
completion of this report to find out how people’s needs are met through the
mass media.
Method of Procedure
I learned from
conducting a previous survey that formatting the questionnaire was very time
consuming. Therefore not to waste any
valuable time I copied the format of a Social Psychology survey I completed on
a previous occasion. I first gave the
survey to five people in my class to sample and make any necessary
changes. Once I made the changes I then
proceeded with conducting the survey. I
asked a total of ten questions which were made up of multi-choice, dichotonous,
and likert scale. A total of 20 people
took part in the survey which was made up of both males and females. I interviewed students and others from
various walks of life. The people I
interviewed for the survey all varied in age.
While I was writing my report I used “English Communications for
Business Students” which gave me an understanding of the various sections
needed in my report. I believed it was
important that my report was presented in a professional manner, so I examined
the layout of two reports I found online.
Findings
Profile
of participants
The participants
of my survey were made up of 65% male and 35% female all of whom came from two
age groups 18-25 and 26-30. It was
unfortunate that no one over the age of 30 took part in the survey; this
probably had an impact on the overall result.
I found that (61.5%) of the males surveyed described themselves as
students while the remainder were employees (15.3%). Similarly to the males who took part the
majority of females also described themselves as students (85.71%). I was fascinated how many people described
themselves as student /employees (14.28%)
female and (15.38%) male.
Forms of the Mass Media
Due to the large
variety of media that is available to people, I thought it would be appropriate
to ask the question “What form of Mass media do you use regularly?” I was fascinated how the majority of both
male and female used more than one form of media on a regular basis. Similarly in both categories social media and
television were among the most frequently used.
However more males use newspapers as a form of media. I then asked the question “how often do you
use this form of the mass media every week?”
The results of the male and female groups were in sharp contrast to each
other. The majority of males surveyed
(61.5%) said they use their chosen form of media every day, while the remaining
(38.46%) said they used it three times a week.
The females surveyed said (42.5%) they used their chosen form of media
three times week while the remaining (14.28%) used it a few times a day.
Internet
The majority of
homes in Ireland today have some form of internet access, so I then asked the
question, “Do you have internet access?”
Only two people out of the total 20 surveyed said they didn’t have
access to the internet. The quality of
internet access is an on-going issue so I thought it would be appropriate to
ask the question “is your internet access of good quality”. The majority of males and females surveyed
said yes while the minority, who said no previously, indicated they had no
access to the internet.
Social
Media
Social media is
becoming increasingly popular as time goes on, so I asked the question. “Do you
use social media to communicate with others?”
The majority of males and females surveyed said yes, while only one male
said no. It is important to note that
this person previously indicated their internet access was not of good
quality. A significant amount of
journalist and broadcasters use social networking sites such as Facebook and
Twitter. I asked the question “would you
use social media to follow current affairs?”
The majority of males surveyed (69.23%) said yes while the remaining
(30.76%) said no. I then asked the
participants to what extent do you agree or disagree with the statement “social
media is a reliable source of information”.
The results between the male and female groups greatly differed. Of the
females surveyed (85.71%) agreed with the statement and (14.8%) strongly
agreed. This was in sharp contrast with
the male participants surveyed as (46.15%) disagreed, while only (15.38%)
didn’t know
Conclusions
Due to the fact
that I distributed half of my survey around the college and the other half
among personal friends meant that the majority of people taking part were going
to be students. This probably had a
significant impact on the overall result.
It is clear from my results that newspapers and television are two of
the most popular forms of media. It is
important to note that national papers such as the Irish Independent and the
Irish Times are available for half price while the Carlow People is available
free. Audiences have certain needs,
which they seek to satisfy or gratify in the media. A newspaper satisfies the need of
surveillance (seeking information about the world). It is a well-known fact that not everyone has
the same access to the internet this could be due to the computers that are
available around the college. Despite
the popularity of social media it is clear that there is a gender divide on
whether or not social media is a reliable source of information. Due to the number of people who indicated
that they use social media to communicate with others it satisfies the need of
personal relationships, companionship or discussion. It is also important to highlight that
Facebook is not available on college computers till 5pm.
Recommendations
More half price newspapers around the college
Despite the fact
The Irish Times and Independent Newspapers are half price; the college should
make arrangements with other national and local papers in order to get more of
them at half price.
Lift
the ban on Facebook on college computers before 5pm.
Facebook is not
only a method of communication, but also a method to educate the young P.R practitioners
of tomorrow. It is important for people
involved in the P.R industry to have knowledge of social media sites such as
Facebook.
Encourage social media sites to monitor
reliability of information.
This could have
the effect of increasing people’s confidence in information available on social
media sites such as Twitter and Facebook.
References
Fitzpatrick associates Economic consultants.
(2001). Small business failure in
Ireland. Report to the Department of Enterprise Trade and Employment.
Concawe (2005). Evaluation of automatic polycyclic aromatic
hydrocarbon emissions. Brussels, concawe.
Scott. F. John.(2000) English Communications for business
students, Dublin: Gill and Macmillan.
