Abstract

On a daily basis, social networks pervade society. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, WhatsApp, and YouTube are examples of social networks. According to a recent study, (90 percent) of University of Buea students are drawn to new media because of the high quality of the content and the fact that these platforms are also used for academic purposes. This is one of the reasons why many students prefer new media to traditional media.

The Uses and Gratification theory was used in this study. A survey method is used in conjunction with a quantitative design. Twenty questionnaires were pretested, and 100 questionnaires were distributed to undergraduate students at the University of Buea at various levels.

The researcher suggests that traditional media adopt new content publishing styles. This will go a long way toward reuniting advertisers and audiences who have fallen out of favor.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the study           

Conventional media has its origins in myth and culture, and includes not only radio, television, and newspapers, but also magazines. In the 1440s, Johannes Guttenberg invented the printing press, which revolutionized traditional media.

Before the invention of radio, television, and newspapers, information was disseminated in a limited and slow manner. Despite this, the Socio-Economic structure of the society is to blame. Even after the introduction of traditional media, its use was still economically motivated.

As technology grew to a strong level, Conventional media access became cheap, which among others, speed up news publishing processes, while technology and its advancement have been a backbone to social media platforms.

New media is referred to as on-demand access to content anytime, anywhere, and on a digital device such as smartphones, computers among others.  Before the inception of new media, only conventional media like television, radio, and newspapers were available for use.

In fact, advertisements were concentrated on conventional media since there were no other alternatives. However, with the increase of new media in the fields, advertisers have also switched to new media platforms. This gives the impression that the conventional media is gradually losing its popularity as observed by (Bell & Garret, 1998).

According to C. Shirky (2008), an individual with a camera or keyboard is becoming the norm for a non-profit of self-publishing. According to the 6th June 2017 edition of the New Strait Times newspaper, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram are the top three applications used by both public and private universities for searching, reading, and sharing news, including viral of breaking or current news, due to their ability to spread news faster than broadcast or print media.

Nearly 90% of daily newspapers in the United States have been actively using technologies to search articles for over a decade, and the majority of them have also created their own news websites to reach new markets (Garrison, 2011).

The Cameroon tribune, a government newspaper that used to pass government degrees or important information about the state, was the first newspaper that existed in Cameroon at the time. The Seattle Times was one of the world’s newspapers at the time, and it appeared to be the epitome of traditional media, with its news still being printed in print form, just as it was in 1897 when presses first ran.

The New Media and its evolution

The print media, which has always been a one-way medium, has given way to the new media, which allows people to act as both transmitters and producers. In this study, the term “new media” refers to various social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, and Twitter.

The new media seems to be giving solutions to every need possible. Right from the very beginning till present, the new media is been a vast preference for the flexible features it provides. This new media has made flexibility of content possible as it has an ample amount of information and news that meet audience needs.

The new media is said to be more reliable than conventional media. New media paradigms have flourished in the past few years due to their competence to satisfy their users. One can news, using news aggregators and smartphones, getting back to the same information was not within the reach of the common man. The age has changed so much that the dynamic newspapers have become less important.

Over the years, with the increased number of smartphone users in the world, they realized that the internet can be used in any place and anywhere. Over a decade, over 90% of the daily population seems to be redundant as the processed newspapers in the U.S have been actively using online, but the circulation of newspapers has been on a decline over the past ten years.

There have been opportunities to personalize news consumption due to the number of internet users since 1995; Affordable news updates several times a day say an hour after hour and interesting Journals and articles online pushed audiences’ mobile phones to a rate unlimited. The aspect of feedback that enriches content makes the new media unique.

The late 1990s and early 2000s powered the internet to the user’s experience. Internet with its social media platform has empowered the skills of individuals and made the world a global village. With the coming of the internet, social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Instagram, have changed given people’s view of conventional media.

The Conventional Media and its evolution

Conventional media refers to those methods indicative of print-based newspapers and televisions. They include electronics, print, and narrowcast media with tremendous achievements over decades. The advent of conventional media especially television, offered both video and visual, created a creative background for advertisers to explore.

At the time, the advent became more real and interesting to the masses since it made it possible for them to see human action. So, more attention was given mostly to television until the advent of the new media. Of note, in recent times, the advent of new media has posed a challenge to conventional media use. In order words, conventional media aided people like advertisers to present their products to a heterogeneous audience as well as allowing people to see what was being presented to them on screen.

Hence, the need to integrate social media and allow readers to get access to information on time and anywhere. Conventional media turn to limit access to information as some huge devices are needed before readers can get access to information, the difference is that the new media is accessible at any time.

The print and radio listenership flourished during the pre-internet era where instant access to news, using smartphones and online news aggregates, was not within the reach of the common man. The dynamics of information have significantly changed over the years, due to the increasing number of smartphone users. The interactive nature of new media has pulled a great number of university of Buea students to its usage. Print circulation and radio listenership have been declining over the past few years.

The breadth of information available online and the opportunity to personalize news consumption according to individual interest, with being able to get news updated several times a day pushed audiences online for their news. Furthermore, considering the interactive nature of social media platforms, it allows users to provide feedback, which in turn is used to enrich user’s experiences. All these have threatened the existence of conventional media in recent years till date.

1.2 Statement of the problem

The advancement of technology especially information communication technology (ICT), started with printing machines, telegraphs, radio, newspaper, magazine television and now the internet and social media have highly influenced society in consuming news.

Smartphones and computers, for instance, converge all platforms to facilitate access to information in multimedia forms. People now access information from Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter. Unlike those days when people had to listen to the radio and read newspapers to access information, radio and newspapers are becoming minorities.

Today’s evolution of inter-based technologies has taken over conventional media, with speed in disseminating news and information. Comparatively, printed newspapers deliver information daily, radio and television did it over a period of time daily, while new media does it in real-time. Conventional media has been known for its limited coverage and hefty setting with regard to cost compared to social media which are cheaper and have no boundaries.

Unlike conventional media, the internet allows two-way communication, eases accessing information, and enables users to control what information to be exposed to (Amichai-Hamburger 2008; Kirat 2007; Ayish 2005). The Internet allows users to converse with others within a group or individually using any combination of text, audio, and video channels (Amiel & Sargent 2004).

These unique characteristics of new media have posed a problem for conventional media. Conventional media faces challenges such as low readership habits, low listenership, and a decrease in credibility in news delivery due to heavy influence by the government through different mechanisms and forms of control (Banerjee, 2008).

There is a decreasing pattern in the circulation of newspapers around the world. While the new media industry has witnessed significant development in the last few decades, few studies have been conducted on student patterns of using new media in the University of Buea. This study examines the use of Social media platforms in comparison to mainstream media among university of Buea students.

1.3 Research questions

Here are the major research questions to be answered.

1. To what extent are students exposed to conventional and new media?
2. Has your use of new media affected the way you use conventional media and why?
3. Between new media and conventional media which do you depend on for academic matters and why?

1.4 Research objectives

1. To examine the extent to which students are exposed to conventional and new media
2.  to look at how the use of  new media affected the way you use conventional media 

SIMILAR JOURNALISM AND MASS COMMUNICATION PROJECT TOPICS WITH MATERIALS

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THE IMPACT OF NEW MEDIA ON CONVENTIONAL MEDIA USE: CASE STUDY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUEA, THE IMPACT OF NEW MEDIA ON CONVENTIONAL MEDIA USE: CASE STUDY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUEA

THE IMPACT OF NEW MEDIA ON CONVENTIONAL MEDIA USE: CASE STUDY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUEA, THE IMPACT OF NEW MEDIA ON CONVENTIONAL MEDIA USE: CASE STUDY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF BUEA