MEDIA HABITS OF SCHOOL STUDENTS

A study conducted under project Media Clubs in

schools

INTRODUCTION

Media studies as subject has entered the boundaries of

schools

One of the key point made by the National Curriculum

Framework 2005 i.e. connecting knowledge to the life

outside the school, has actually opened the door for media

studies

The way other subjects like history, geography, maths,

languages etc are taught at school. Similarly, it was felt

that media should also be taught.

HOW TO INTRODUCE MEDIA STUDIES AT SCHOOL LEVEL

Introduction of media at school level can be done in two ways:

It can be integrated with other subjects like language or

social science.

It can be offered as a standalone subject.

We tried both

MEDIA IN DIFFERENT CURRICULAR AREAS

MEDIA AS A STANDALONE SUBJECT

Media was introduced as a subject but it had its own

challenges.

Most teachers were unfamiliar with the subject

Teachers Parents and students felt introduction of one more

subject may increase curriculum load on students

Then came the idea of establishing media clubs in schools

OBJECTIVES OF MEDIA CLUBS

To develop among students an understanding of the effects

of mass media on themselves as individuals and also upon

society and how the media influence our understanding of

reality.

To develop skills to deconstruct media messages by

making them understand the constructed nature of media.

To develop skills to encourage the production of creative

media messages.

To encourage students to express their feelings and

thoughts through media messages they produce

To introduce students to various career opportunities in

mass media.

TRACKING MEDIA HABITS

To understand their own media habits which includes what they are watching, reading and listening and how media content influence them.

Each student of media club is involved in the survey ( to be conducted in their own school) to track media habits of school students.

The club coordinator (teacher) along with the Media club students will analyze the data to see the trend regarding media habits of students.

OBJECTIVES

To find out the time spent by students on various media

To find out their favourite media products

To find out how and where they access media content

To identify various types of Media Rules formed in their

family

To find out their expectations from media content

METHODOLOGY

Four hundred students from Delhi were

interviewed for the survey.

The schools which participated in the survey were

the ones that established Media Clubs in their

schools.

As first activity of the club the students with the

help of their teachers conducted this survey.

The questionnaire was given to the teachers when

they came for the orientation programme

organized at NCERT.

The idea was to track the media habits of students

over a period of one week. Students of age group

8-18 participated in the survey.

Students were from both private and public

schools.

PHYSICAL ACTIVITIES

MEDIA FACILITIES AT HOME

MOBILE PHONES

ANY RULES?

NEWSPAPER

Seventy-five percent of students do read newspaper

Average newspaper reading time for the students is from 5-

30 minutes.

When asked about their favorite newspaper Time of India

came first followed by Hindustan Times, Navabharat Times,

Hindu, Mail Today and Indian Express. Their favorite

newspaper supplements are Delhi Times, HT city, Hello

Delhi and Education Times.

TELEVISION

Ninety-five percent of students watch TV regularly

34% of students spend 1 to 3 hours on TV, 29% spend30

min to 1hr, 16% watch TV for 5 to 30 minutes. Around 20

percent watch more than 6 hours and around five percent

say they do not watch TV at all.

When asked about their three favorite programs

Adventure ( this includes both reality shows and also the

fiction)

Cartoon Shows

Reality Shows ( songs, comedy, dance)

Soap operas

VIDEO GAMES

Thirty percent played videogames.

For those who do not own Video games 18% of them still

play the games by visiting game parlors and at their friends

place

Action based Video Games were the most preferred game

The GTA is their favourite series of game in which players

take on the role of criminal who rises through the ranks of

organized crime through the course of the game. Other than

this other games which are liked by the students are:

Burnout, The Prince of Persia, Contra, The Teenage Mutant

Ninja Turtles, God of ,Road Rash, Sniper, Angry Birds, Pac-

Man , Need for Speed, Call of Duty , Counter-Strike, Forza,

Crysis Transformers, Underworld, Halo, DIRT,Circus.

These games are based on action and thrill and revolves

around fighting, revenge, weapons and racing.

COMPUTERS

Out of all, 63% students use computer wheras 30 percent do not use it at all.

Forty nine percent of students have internet at home whereas 34% do not have internet facility at home.

Regarding the internet facility available in school 92 % said they do not have access to internet at school and only one percent said they do have internet facility at school.

The students who did not have internet access at home and also at school were asked whether they access internet at any otherplace than home and school, 84 percent said no while 9 percent said yes they use internet at cyber café or at friends place.

ACTIVITIES ON INTERNET

Out of those who access internet 68% of them downloaded music from internet 58% watched video on you tube or Google tube, 56% visited social networking site, 51% created their profile on social networking site, 52 percent used it for chatting, 55% got information from internet on health issue that affect them or their relative, 41% watched video on the internet from a computer, 40 % read a blog.

20% posted a video to a site like youtube, 14 percent of them tried their hand in writing a blog, 17. 5 listened to radio through internet. The internet is mainly used by the students to download music followed by watching video, visiting social networking site, chatting, getting information on health issue.

MEDIA RULES AT HOME

ARE YOU SATISFIED WITH MEDIA CONENT

THANKS

Dr. Anubhuti Yadav

Associate Professor, New Media

Indian Institute of Mass Communication

New Delhi

anubhutiy@gmail.com