Predicting mobile news use among college students: The role of press freedom in four Asian cities

Abstract

This study explores how mobile phone-savvy Asian college students use mobile news, especially news posted on mobile-accessible Twitter-like microblogs, to stay informed about current events. Our survey of more than 3500 college students in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan asks why young people turn to mobile phones for news and how the news-getting behavior is related to the level of press freedom in their respective societies. The results show that using mobile phones to read news and follow news posts on mobile-accessible microblogs is rapidly on the rise and significant differences among respondents in the four cities exist; press freedom was found to be negatively related to reading and following news via mobile phones. Finally, the study discusses the role of press freedom in accounting for these societal-level differences.

News on the Move

“…Gratifications of information seeking and instrumentality predicted use of pagers for news consumption, whereas other motives such as novelty and fun seeking and were not. In a replicated version of the pager study, Wei, Lo, Xu, Chen, and Zhang (2013) found that information facilitation was the strongest predictor of reading news via the mobile phone.…”

Nyhetsjournalistik i en mobil tidsålder: En genomgång av tio viktiga forskningsområden

“…För det första handlar det om forskning kring människor som aktiva medproducenter och deltagare, något som Axel Bruns (2012) fångat in genom sitt begrepp produsage (vilket för samman «producer» och «user»). Exempelvis har det inom mobilforskningen studerats hur mobilen används för att tillgå och interagera med nyheter via sociala medier som Twitter (Wei, Lo, Xu, Chen & Zhang, 2013). liksom att det finns åtskilliga studier som behandlar hur medborgare produ-This article is downloaded from www.idunn.no.…”

A Comparative Study of the Relationship Between Mobile Phone Use and Social Capital Among College Students in Shanghai and Taipei

“…The mobile phone was also found to play an important role in fulfilling people's information needs. For example, Authors [43] reported some Asian college students getting news via mobile phone and mobile phones in general may help information-seeking. Mobile phone use may also be driven by entertainment needs.…”