The Adoption and Usage of Smartphone Media Technologies as A Source of News by Egyptian University Students

Abstract

This study examines the adoption and use of smartphones as a source of news by Egyptian university students. The study was applied on a random sample of 400 university students, whom already have smartphones. This study was guided by the uses and gratification theory to explore the use of smartphones among university students as a news resource. The study used quantitative research methodology in the form of a survey. Information was collected using a self-administrated questionnaire between March 2018 and April 2018. Findings showed that although Egypt is not one of the oil-rich countries, most of the university students are heavy smartphone users and the vast majority (87.5%) of them are accessing news via their smartphones. More importantly, the findings revealed that university students mainly used smartphones to get general information (47.5%), Egypt's news (37.5%), entertainment (29.25%) and follow world's news (27.75%). Finally, findings showed that (70%) of students use their smartphones to follow current affairs, while 67.5% said that smartphones helpe them to communicate with their friends.

Evaluation of the online learning of veterinary anatomy education during the Covid‐19 pandemic lockdown in Egypt: Students' perceptions

“…The present result showed that approximately 80% of respondents used smartphones either alone or in combination with other Internet‐ready electronic devices in their online learning during the pandemic lockdown. This result passes in line with that of Saad (2019), who reported that the majority of the Egyptian university students are heavy smartphone users. About 93% and 50% of the total population in Egypt have mobile connections and a mobile Internet connection, respectively (Kibuacha, 2021).…”

Patterns and Motivations Predicting Mobile Hard News and Soft News Consumption

“…Smartphones have also become the most important devices used to access the news among universitystudentsintheGCC (Zayani,Elareshi&Gunter,2015).AccordingtoKatzandAakhus (2002)universaluseofsmartphonesamonggroupsofcommunities,suchasuniversitystudentshas reshapedandrevolutionizedthewayyoungadultsandvariousgroupscommunicate.Furthermore, Saad(2018)examineduniversitystudents'usageofsmartphonesasanewsresourceinEgyptand revealedthatmostuniversitystudentsinEgyptareheavysmartphoneusersandthevastmajority (87.5%)ofthemareaccessingnewsviatheirsmartphones.AccordingtotheArabYouthSurvey (2016),socialmediacontributestothewayArabyoungadultsaccessthenews,as32%saidthey would get daily news electronically, 29% would watch TV, and 7% would read newspapers. The applicationWhatsAppisconsideredasthemostpopularsocialnetworkingplatformforArabyoung adults,giventhat2of3people(62%)useitdaily,followedbyFacebook(55%),YouTube(33%), Twitter(28%)andInstagram(28%)("ArabYouthSurvey",2016).Thesefindingsclearlyindicate thatsmartphonedevicesaregaininganincreasedpopularityasanewsresource,especiallybyyoung adultsintheArabregion.…”