Transcript Online News Paper Reading Habits among PhD Students and

The IFLA International
Newspaper Conference 2010
Indira Gandhi National Centre for
the Arts (IGNCA)
New Delhi
25th - 28th February 2010.
ONLINE NEWSPAPER READING HABITS AMONG PhD
STUDENTS AND FACULTY MEMBERS IN
ALIGARH MUSLIM UNIVERSITY
Dr. Naushad Ali P.M.
PhD
(Chairman)
&
Mohamed Musthafa. K
(Research Associate)
Dept. of Library and Information Science
Aligarh Muslim University,
Aligarh, India
www.amu.ac.in
Online Newspaper /
Web Newspaper
1. Definition
“A newspaper that exists on the World
Wide Web or Internet, either separately or
as an online version of a printed periodical“
-Wiki
2. Features:





Multimedia -sound records, video clips...
Hyperlinks
Contact through Forums and Chat rooms
Easy access to archives
Instant news update
 Full screen photos and interactive polls
3. Limitations:






Need power connection to use
Need live Internet connection
Not easily portable
Varied style of presentation
Need to click and scroll to select a news
Too many links make confusion
and waste the time.
4. Objectives of the study
 To find out online newspaper reading habits
of faculty members and PhD students of
Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), India
 Frequency and time spend for reading
online newspaper
 Preferred languages
 Reasons for choosing online newspaper
 Media (On screen/ Print out), and locations
Cont…..
Objectives of the study
–
Cont….
 Preferred news items –
Local, National,
International, Sports, Employment ..
 Special features like video clips, sound
records,
 Online surveys, hyperlinks, forums and
chat room facilities,
 Readers’ attitude towards advertisement
 Difficulties to read online
 Suggestions to improve the online reading
habit.
5. Methodology
 200 online questionnaires among faculty members
 Through online forums and social networking sites to
PhD students
 100 each printed questionnaire among faculty
members and PhD students.
 90 filled up questionnaire were received from faculty
members. Out of this, 80 considered.
 Out of 95 questionnaires collected from PhD students,
88 were considered.
 A semi-structured oral interview is conducted among
faculty members and PhD students
 A personal interview with the in-charge of computer
section in Maulana Azad Library (university central
library) and central computer centre
6. Results & Finding
 Majority of the faculty members (88.75 %) and PhD
students (95.45 %) have a habit of reading online
newspaper.
 Even though, print news paper is the preferred
medium of reading news among faculty members
(53.25%) and PhD students (60.23%)
 online newspaper is not used as a daily reading
material by many respondents. Only 36% of
respondents read online newspapers daily.
 Majority of the respondents spend only 10-30 minutes
at a time to read online newspaper.
 65% faculty members and 59.09% of PhD students,
prefer English online newspaper followed by Hindi
(21.25% F.M & 22.72% P.S) and Urdu (13.75% FM &
11.36% P.S). A small percent (6.81) of PhD students
prefer Kashmiri, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam and Arabic.
Results & Finding
(Contd …)
 Newspaper Readership –
The Hindu (English) 48.75% FM & 59.09% PS
Dainik Jagaran (Hindi) 13.75% FM & 25% PS
Siyasath, (Urdu) 15% FM & 11.36% PS
Results & Finding
(Contd …)
Preferred Online Newspapers
The Hindu
Dainik Jagaran
Siasath
Results & Finding
(Contd …)
Preferred Online Newspapers
 Other than Hindi/Urdu languages:
Madhyamam Online, Manorama Online (Malayalam),
Dinamani (Tamil),
Pratidin (Bengali).
(22.73 percent PhD students)
Results & Finding
(Contd …)
 Why do prefer ONP ?
 Instant news update (95% FM & 97.72% PS)
 Maximum news coverage. (88.63% PS & 62.5% FM)
 Free of cost (56.25% FM & 81.89% PS)
Results & Finding
(Contd …)
 How do read ONP ?
1. On screen (100% FM & 93.18% PS)
2. Take printout (5% FM & 6.88 PS)
Results & Finding
(Contd …)
 Where do read ONP ?
1. Faculty Members
-at their chambers (72.5%)
2. PhD students
-Department computer labs (37.5%)
-Central library (20.46%)
-Central computer lab (27.28%)
-Internet café (5.68%)
No faculty member goes to Internet café
Results & Finding
(Contd …)
 What do read in ONP ?
1. National and international news items (77.5%
FM & 79.54 PS).
2. Local news items (47.5% FM & 60.23% PS)
3. Employment news (65.91 PS)
-No faculty member read this item.
4. Sports and entertainment (16.25% FM &
54.55% PS).
5. Social and political commentary (8.75% FM &
4.55% PS)
Results & Finding
(Contd …)
 Additional Features
1.
2.
3.
4.
Sound records -on special occasions
Video clips - on special occasions
Surveys (47.5%FM & 31.81% PS) on special occasions
Response to the columns and feature reports
through Forums and Chat rooms (13.75% FM
regularly & 25 on special occasions only).
5. Advertisements, (No FM but 40.90% PS on special
occasions)
Results & Finding
(Contd …)
 Problems faced
There is no any common problem
 ‘Unknown character display for regional
languages’ (22.5% FM)
 ‘Slow downloading rate’ (34.09% PS)
 ‘Too many links’ (20% FM& 11.36% PS).
 ‘Reading on screen is tiring’ (29.55% FM & 12.5% PS).
Results & Finding
(Contd …)
 When did started reading ONP
1. Within 2-4 years - Majority (47.5% FM & 56.81% PS)
2. Within 5-10 years - A minor group, (8.75% FM &
4.54% PS)
7. Suggestions &
Recommendations
 To publishers:
1. Facility to enlarge the font size may be given in every news
papers.
2. Keep up-to-minute news update regularly.
3. Special attention may be given to career / employment news.
4. ONP should provide more spaces for news than
advertisements.
5. Measures may be taken to avoid the character display
problems in regional languages. A standard Intic script may be
followed by regional newspapers.
6. News and reports given in online newspaper should be as
sufficient as in print counterpart.
7. e-Papers may be available at free of cost or at minimum
charge to all readers.
8. Sufficient consideration may be given to local news.
Suggestions &
Recommendations (Contd..)
 To Aligarh Muslim University:
1. Wi-Fi facility should be provided in the entire university campus
for easy access to internet.
2. The number of computers with internet connectivity may be
increased in the hostels and computer labs.
3. Online newspaper awareness programs may be conducted
4. Faster broadband connectivity and better bandwidth should be
provided in order to download large amount of data which may
include text, graphics, sounds etc.
5. Subscription to e-Paper should be considered to provide full
access to the online newspapers through out the campus.
6. Digital archive of news clipping may be set up in the university
library.
7. Facility to take print out of research related news items /
articles may be provided in the campus.
the end
Thanks