An Investigation of Online News Consumption Behaviour of a Malaysian Higher Education Institution: A Case Study of Southern University College

Abstract

The Internet and new technologies have created new versions of news reporting, and they have changed the news consumption behavior of people around the world. The online news consumption among adolescents nowadays may differ from the older news consumers because of the accessibility of the Internet and other news sources provided in their growing environment. This study examines the online news consumption behavior among the students in private university college by applying uses and gratifications theory. There were 341 respondents engaged in this study. The Pearson correlation coefficient and one-way ANOVA analysis are applied in data analysis to identify the relation of interactivity, demassification, and asynchrony to the online news consumption behavior. The finding reveals there is a significant difference between the attribute of interactivity, demassification and asynchrony to online news consumption behavior.These attributes have led the respondents toward online news use to fulfil their cognitive needs, social integrative needs and affective needs. Meanwhile, news from Facebook specifically lifestyle news is generally consumed by university students today.