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For news, students rely on Internet rather than old-style newspapers
Constantin Barbu
More students rely on the Internet than the traditional media to get their news, with television their second most-popular source. Less than one in five get most of their information from newspapers although many continue to consult them almost every day, according to an online poll conducted by The Bullet.
Our survey was conducted over the Internet (http://tinyurl.com/2rlxxm) from Mar. 5-11 and had 173 respondents. The survey is not scientific but gives an indication of what students think.
Asked where they get most of their news, 42 percent indicated the Internet, 35 percent cited television, 18 percent went first to the printed press and one percent got their information from friends and acquaintances. Only 4 percent of the students interviewed said they were not interested in current events.
Andreea Lupu, a freshman at the Faculty of Journalism is one of the students who relies most on the Internet. “I usually take my news from press agencies’ web sites because this is the first contact with the raw news. The news is not affected by editorial policies of newspapers or by the preferences of the authors, plus it’s easier to read. Newspapers are a source of information only when I want to follow up in detail on a subject.”
Despite these results, most students said they continued to read newspapers quite often: 37 said they looked at one every day, 30 percent twice a week. Three quarters of the student respondents said they read serious newspapers, 13 percent read tabloids and only 10 percent read newsmagazines.
Almost half of those interviewed said they were interested in political news; a quarter were mainly interested in the arts and entertainment and 9 percent in business and finance. Only four percent declared a primary interest in gossip and celebrities.
Sixty nine of respondents said that they would like to read a student newspaper coming out on a weekly basis. “I think that a students’ newspaper is very important because students, like others, are very lazy when it comes to researching information … There are a lot of events and opportunities which pass students by because they were not informed about them” said Monica Marincas, a first year student in the Faculty of Journalism.
Forty percent of respondents said universities should finance such publications, 35 percent thought the money should come from advertising; 11 percent pointed to private business while 14 percent of respondents indicated it was a job for NGOs.
Current events and job opportunities for students should be the main concerns of any student publication according to 53 percent of respondents. News on grants and scholarships (14 percent), information about concerts and events (11 percent) and information about changes and developments in the education system (11 percent) should also be covered.
And since we’re talking about students’ publications, why not talk a bit about the opinion students have about The Bullet? Sixty two percent of respondents knew about our newspaper. Out of these, 12 percent rated The Bullet as excellent, 70 percent said it’s good, 15 percent think about it as fair and 4 percent said that it was poor. Eighty nine percent of our readers described our articles as relevant and/or interesting.
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