The influence of new media in reading participation of college students

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of new media in reading participation among college students with the questionnaire answered by 204 respondents of Central Philippine University. The collected data from the Henry Luce III library from 2004 to 2013 was utilized. The questionnaire was composed of two parts: Part 1 asked about personal demographic features and their practices of using new media and reading participation. Part II consists of questions answerable by never, rarely, sometimes, and always to know the frequency of their practices in a 5-column format. The findings reveal that most of the respondents are 17 year-old Filipino female, living in their own house. Majority of their parents are college graduate, earning P9,999 and below per month as employees. Most actively spend hours in new media, mostly the internet, but passively participate in reading. Most of them usually read one or two books per month and mostly for academic purpose to meet their requirement not for their pleasure. Contrast to their awareness of the necessity of reading in their life, it is drawn that reading is not their preferred leisure activity anymore and the use of E-Book even among college students who are much familiar with media devices is still not common. It is clear that college students’ reading participation has been declining, taken away its position as the most preferred habit to the media. Along with that conclusion, they have the tendency to prefer easy and light information, not requiring deep understanding like literary books in the inundated flood of information.