Few university students reading newspapers online

Newspaper Research Journal, Spring 2002 by Bressers, Bonnie, Bergen, Lori

Newspaper readership dropped precipitously when respondents were asked about readership of the local daily newspaper, other state newspapers, national newspapers (such as USA Today and The Wall Street Journal) and online versions of their campus or other newspapers.

Only 29.9 percent of student respondents reported ever reading the local daily, and of those, just 13.8 percent said they read it daily, 24.1 percent read it a couple of times each week and 62.1 percent read it occasionally.

More respondents, 56.3 percent, did report reading other state newspapers. When asked which newspaper, most named major dailies from nearby cities. Some mentioned hometown newspapers. Of these, only 17.8 reported they read any other state newspaper daily with 32 percent reporting they read another paper weekly and 50.2 percent saying they read one occasionally.

National newspapers were read by 28 percent of respondents, but only 4.5 percent of those did so daily; 23.2 percent read a national paper weekly and 72.3 percent read one occasionally.

We found nearly universal readership of the printed campus newspaper, but only 17.5 percent reported ever reading the online version. Of these, only 4.3 percent read it daily, 14.3 read it a couple of times each week and 81.4 percent read it occasionally.

About 83 percent of respondents said they never read any other online newspaper. Of the few who did 0 7.3 percent), 11.6 percent read an online paper daily, 31.9 percent read one weekly and 56.5 percent read an online newspaper occasionally.

Newspaper Readership by Gender

Males and females were virtually identical in their use of the printed edition of the campus newspaper, which was the most frequently read newspaper of any type.

However, there was a statistically significant difference in use of the campus online newspaper, with males more likely to access the online edition than females (t=2.107, d.f. =59, p=0.034).

Although student readership of newspaper was low, we note that males' use of national online newspapers was the same as their use of state newspapers, and their use of those two outlets exceeded every other category except the printed campus newspaper. (See Table 1)

Time Spent With Media and Other Activities

Students interviewed for this study do not regularly read traditional or online newspapers - with the exception of the traditional campus newspaper. So how do they allot their time to newspaper readership, consumption of other media (both traditional and online) and other college activities such as studying and going to class?

We asked: "Thinking back over just the last 24 hours, can you tell me about how much time you've spent doing the following things?" A list of activities followed and interviewers recorded the time indicated by respondents. The sum of the average time spent in each activity does not equal 24 hours because many could be done simultaneously, listening to the radio and studying, for example.

Students reported that they spend more time sleeping than they spent on any other single activity. Other activities that consumed more than two hours on average each day were going to class, studying, working and watching television. (See Table 2)