Journal de communication de masse et de journalisme

Information Acquisition and Social Media: An Analysis of Pakistani University Students

Abstract

Iffat Ali A

As social media becomes increasingly ubiquitous, organizations are looking for the best way to use these new communication tools. Social media sites like Facebook and Twitter present numerous opportunities to organizations for sharing information, engaging with the public, and monitoring discussion. The current study aimed to explore the use of social media for news acquisition which come under cognitive needs. A survey was conducted involving Pakistani university students by indicating their qualification, gender, area, usage patterns, time spent and their information seeking interests. The need for information was divided into hard and soft news and the results indicated youth heavier users of social media for information regarding current issues particularly local news. The social media is used for information regarding hard news and soft news both and findings highlighted trends for using social media for information acquisition. The news values for social media are also pivotal, majority of respondents showed their concerned for local news i-e proximity. The other factor which accelerates frequency of usage is information during crisis situation. The News about calamity and relief work was searched more on social media as latest updates and instant feedback were available there. In social media, Facebook is mostly used social networking site. The demographics such as background, qualification, gender and area were also found influential factors for using social media for news.