A Study of Users Attitude and Motivation Towards Print Media Among College Students in Haryana : Implications for the Design of Dissemination Strategies

Author:Mahendra Pratap Singh

Abstract:
Newspaper reading is the easiest means of getting up-to-date information with facts. It makes a man to be considerate and practical in a democratic and civilized society. Reading newspapers in forming public opinion and the people can access all news and updates at their fingertips. Even in this digital world, newspapers in the print form rule out the sleep of passionate readers who are waiting for their morning dailies. Newspaper reading, catering to diverging tastes and outlook, thus has become embedded into the daily lives of people. Conducting a survey with 352 Students pursuing higher education in Arts and Science colleges in Haryana, under a multivariate statistical framework, this research investigated the users' motivations and value importance to the reported news from the readers' perspectives in Haryana. The study employed multi - dimensional scaling (MDS) technique to segment the newspaper market according to the perceived similarities in the respondents' motivations, and the findings offer evidence for the presence of diverging motives among young readers in the State. Multiple discriminant analysis administered in the research was able to make out the perceptual differences of readers based on their newspaper choices. The findings suggested the presence of two dimensions of discrimination among the newspaper brands - language simplicity and news credibility on one side and political bias and coverage of news on the other end. Language simplicity along with political reasons separated Dainik Bhaskar newspaper brands from the leading Hindi dailies, while the latter were favored in terms of the quality of news contents. In sum, youth in Haryana was inclined to adopt a utilitarian approach towards newspaper reading. Hence, the newspaper brands should be more familiar with the perceptual differences among the readers on a wider and richer perspective based on which they should design dissemination strategies to expand their business frontiers.

Keywords:Keywords: Motivation, Political bias, Quantity of News Socio-economic Development, Information.

DOI:

International Journal of Trade & Commerce (Vol: 7 Issue:2)