AN ANALYSIS OF NEWSPAPER READERSHIP PATTERN AMONG THE YOUTHS (A CASE STUDY OF I.M.T STUDENTS)
ABSTRACT
This study was carried out to determine the Newspaper Readership pattern among the youth. This arose because it was thought that the youths did not read newspapers and their use of other media was minimal. Against the background of seemingly lack of readership among the youths, questionnaires were drawn and administered to ascertain the extent of reading habit formed by this group. The students of the Institute of management and Technology Enugu were used as case study. This was good sample as they represent the youths found all over the country. They all experienced similar socio-economic dilemma. They are also faced with financial crisis as well as education problems. 250 respondents were sampled randomly and data analysed and presented as percentages in frequency distribution tables. The work traced the reading habits found among the youths. Research questions and hypotheses were used as guides for analysis and conclusions respectively. The work reviewed other literature on the topic and found out what their results were. The conclusions drawn were based both on other related works of literature and the results gathered form the questionnaire. The result showed that there were indeed readership patterns among the youths. They showed that students read newspapers and they also buy them on regular basis. The majority of the respondents bought and read when they found convenient. Only a small group hardly bought or read. Results also showed that students who bought were both more financially and academically favoured than others that had lower reading habit. It was also found out that sex was on barrier to who read and what was read. The female students read more than the male students, but they both reads the same contents in their favourite newspapers. Male youths read entertainment news in equal proportion with the female youths. There was also equal reading proportion in contents that have to do with features politics, world news, etc. At the end of the study, recommendations were made about activities that will help the youth to develop their readership pattern for the newspaper and other media.
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