Thesis (MPhil (Journalism))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / Do young people have any news interest? Which subjects interest them most and what is their medium of preference?
In order to answer these questions, research was done on news reading trends of young people – both nationally and internationally. A questionnaire was completed by 180 grade 11 scholars from the Western Cape, the Free State and Gauteng. The results of the different provinces are compared in this study to monitor newstrends nationally.
The child’s cognitive development phase has an influence on nurturing healthy (news)reading habits. In this study the correlation is explored by using Jean Piaget’s (1896-1980) theory of cognitive development stages.
From interviews with the JIP supplement editors (Beeld, Burger and Volksblad), as well as the cell phone companies (MTN, Vodacom en Cell C) the biggest obstacles and possible strategies to draw young readers were identified.
In this work the public’s need for media, as well as the influence of the media on the society (especially the youth) is discussed by looking at Fourie’s (2001) model of short term and long term influences of media on the society.
The study showed that the majority of young people see one news bulletin (newspaper, television and/or radio) per week as sufficient. Research results indicated that the medium of preference for news headlines among young people is SMS. Just less than half of the respondents are willing to pay for such a service. The second medium of preference to receive news is noted as youth newspapers. The main news subjects amongst the youth is entertainment, followed by sport and sosial issues. Political and international news seems to be less popular amongs this group.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:sun/oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/2748 |
| Date | 03 1900 |
| Creators | Botha, Benescke |
| Contributors | Rabe, Lizette, University of Stellenbosch. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Dept. of Journalism. |
| Publisher | Stellenbosch : University of Stellenbosch |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | Afrikaans |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | 939683 bytes, application/pdf |
| Rights | University of Stellenbosch |
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