Keyword : Age, Educational attainment, Online Newspapers, Readership
Author(s) : Sunday Jessie Antai; Prof. Church Akpan & Bassey Esuk Bassey, Ph.D
Abstract :
This study investigated the influence of demographics of age and educational attainments on the readership of online newspapers among civil servants in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria. It adopted a survey as research design, and a questionnaire as data-gathering instrument. Its major objectives included finding out the level of awareness of online newspapers among civil servants in Akwa Ibom State; determining whether age differentials and educational qualifications influence the exposure and usage of online newspapers among the study population; and establishing the motivations for consuming online newspapers among the study population. The study deployed the Uses and Gratifications and Technological Determinism media theories as its theoretical framework. The study had a population of 11,643 senior civil servants on salary grade levels 07-17, working in the state’s Pooling Ministries, Departments and Agencies (PMDAs). From this, the researcher, deploying proportionate and purposive sampling techniques, selected a sample size of 375 respondents based on Krejcie and Morgan's (1970) sample size recommendation. The researcher worked with 357 (95.2%) retrieved copies of the questionnaire, which were found usable. Data gathered from the field were collated and computed into tables and analysed into simple percentages. Findings showed, among others, that the awareness of online newspapers among the study population was very high at 186(52.1%); the extent of educational influence on readership of the newspapers was equally very high at 310(86.8%). The extent of the influence of the demographic of age on online newspaper readership was also high at 187(52.4%). On whether persons with higher educational attainments read online newspapers more than those with lower educational attainments, the result showed the majority of 332(93%) agreed that this was the case, while those who disagreed were 11(3%). And on the question of whether older civil servants consumed more online newspapers than their younger counterparts, the finding was that 197(55.2%) agreed to this while 134(37.5%) disagreed, even as the rest were undecided. The study concluded that there is a correlation between online newspaper readership and the demographics of age and educational attainments among the study population. Based on the findings, the researcher recommended that operators of online newspapers in Akwa Ibom State should leverage on the high awareness level of their products among civil servants to seek business patronage by way of subscription from them; online newspaper operators should use easily comprehensible language in their publishing efforts to attract more readership from those with lower educational attainments, while retaining the interest of the more educated ones. Also, online newspaper operators should create content that would be appealing to readers across the age groups.
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