The role of television and social media news videos in raising the socio-political awareness of Jordanian University students

Al-Jalabneh, Abd Allah Sultan Hamed

Abstract

This thesis investigates the use and perceived awareness of Jordanian university students towards the socio-political news presented by Television “National Jordanian and Satellite TV” in comparison to Social Media “Facebook and YouTube”. The thesis employs the use of qualitative and quantitative data through surveys and interviews with stratified simple sampling from 1000 students enrolled at the University of Jordan. The survey had been designed after a careful view of the demographics and behavioural perceptions and subsequently examined the viewing habits of the university students with 66% of the sample aged between 18 and 25 years old.
The survey questions allow the participants to explore, identify and state their perceptions of online news videos, their credibility weighed against traditional media television, more specifically, JRTV with a focus on how each of the two mediums influenced and manipulated their socio-political awareness. The research further identifies the motivations and perceptions that each of these factors had to play in allowing the sample survey to identify their preferences through the application of uses and gratifications theory.
This study reveals that traditional media such as television contribute to raising socio-political awareness of domestic and global events. JRTV has taken the role of domestic news provider to all age groups in Jordan, despite university students relying on satellite television for international news. Interestingly, a significant number of students spend more than an hour on social media for news updates.
The findings of the study indicate that 86% of the sample survey to be more inclined towards using social media than watching JRTV. The research further concludes that the traditional media platforms including JRTV need to enhance their content and to include various programs and talk shows that capture the interest of students and allow them to rely on national television rather than satellite or online news for local socio-political news, since only 3.4% of the total sample size placed reliance on traditional media. Therefore, the research identifies the need to provide importance to content improvement by national authorities, to result in having representative platform to all voices in the country and also, reducing the possible influence by other foreign media providers.

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 4, 2020
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/1491266
• Award Date: Aug 4, 2020