Access, usage and influence of mass media on students’ academic performance: A private university experience

Abstract Previous studies on the influence of mass media on students’ academics are common, but none relating to private missionary schools with core values such as these has been rigorously evaluated. To determine the medium of media accessible to students, examine the purpose of media usage and media influence on students’ academic performance triangulated research design was adopted with the use of quantitative data through questionnaire and qualitative data through in-depth interview. The sampling technique adopted was stratified random sampling. The framework utilized to examine the data is the Uses & Gratifications theory. A number of significant findings firstly access to media mediums and contents are influenced by the University Christian values. Secondly, almost all of the respondents perceived the internet as the most useful communication medium to connect with their friends and families. Thirdly, a significant number of students were dependent solely on the internet contents for academic purpose. Finally, students also perceived media had an important influence in their academic performance. Students should develop good reading habits; mass media access and usage should be designed in line with academic needs, interests, aspirations and values of both the audience (students) and the society (university). Another contribution is that educational institutions, academicians as well as enterprises should familiarize with changing technologies, develop policy that will impact on student access and usage of mass media mediums as it affects their academics.


Introduction
The world is migrating towards a digital era whereby massive improvement in technology is facilitating wide range of communication in the world. Ufuophu and Agobami (2012:129) observe that Information and Communications Technology (ICT) include internet, satellite, cable data transmission and computer assisted equipment but the most widely used media mediums by individuals of all ages being print and electronic media (Wahab et al., 2017). Though, the concept of mass media remains unarguably the process of conveying message from one point to a very large number of points in any direction, however, its uses and influence can either pose a positive or negative effect on the user. There are several ways that mass media affects university students, both positively and negatively. Higher education officials must have a thorough understanding of the amount of time and the types of activities that students spend on mass media mediums.
According to communications research (Treapăt, 2017;UNICEF, 2013), mass media is projected to have a considerable impact on students' attitudinal or behavioural habits, as well as their overall disposition to academic success. In a blended learning strategy, the integration of e-learning resources and face-to-face teaching in educational system promises positive outcome for students' learning experience (Azizan, 2010), with an increased expectation about its usefulness in complementing traditional face-to-face learning in schools (Dwivedi et al., 2019). In Malaysia for instance, the Ministry of Education introduced e-learning initiatives in both primary and secondary Smart Schools to prepare students early enough for the knowledge based economy and the marketplace of the 21 st century. However, students at all stages of learning now have split focus as a result of technological improvements and the expansion of internet software. Academics have raised eyebrows over the implication of media mediums on students' academics as a result of the different media mediums available (Asemah et al., 2013). Taking into account the widespread use of mass media in learning process in schools, there is need for assessment study in order to understand how the access, usage and influence of mass media impact on student's academic performance in a private missionary school in North Central Nigeria.

Objectives of the study
The specific objectives of the study are: (1) To determine the media mediums accessible to students (2) To examine the purpose of mass media usage by students.
(3) To examine the influence of mass media on Students academic performance

Research hypotheses
The following hypotheses stated in null form (H0) are presented for this study; (1) Mass media mediums and access does not affect students significantly.
(2) Purposes of mass media usage do not affect students' academic performance significantly.
(3) Mass media influence and students academic performance do not have significant relationship.

Mass media mediums
A lot of scholars have been delving into extensive studies on how mass media mediums affect student academic performance. Many parents are also concerned that their university students are not spending enough time studying and are instead spending too much time with media mediums (Rideout et al., 2003).
Mass media mediums have been utilized to achieve organizational or individual objectives in recent times (Mafé & Blas, 2008). Petty et al. (2009) discovered that mass media has the power to alter how people think, feel, and act. Teenagers gain cultural knowledge through the media, which has an impact on their lifestyle, sex, choice of dressing, interactions with peers, use of drugs and alcohol, and other relevant behaviours to a teen's life (Zastrow et al., 2019). Similarly, University students gain cultural knowledge through the messages conveyed through mass media mediums. Such messages have impact on their predisposition to their academics invariably affecting their academic performance either positively or negatively (Sue et al., 2021). Several scholars (Cho & Cheon, 2005;Florescu, 2014;Fuochi et al., 2020;Nguyen et al., 2020;Perse & Lambe, 2016;Prawd, 1995;Sulong & Abdullah, 2010) noted that the influence and impact of media can be seen from small scale (individual) and wide scale (society) as well as sooner or later the spread of certain influences. Media is a tool that can stimulate and influence the attitudes and behaviors of individuals or communities that embrace all aspects of human life. It also plays a role in establishing a nation's identity and culture for its overall development. When the mass media can propagate and instill moral ideals such as loving one's neighbour, respecting the rights of other communities, and valuing a high moral, it is regarded to play a constructive impact. One of the most powerful social influences in moulding a society's attitudes and social standards is the media. The media also serves as a medium for disseminating information and can therefore be a tool for setting good examples for society in terms of changing behaviour.

Influence of mass media on students academic performance
As a means of mass communication, the media plays an important role in societal transformation (Thompson, 2013) as it possesses the power to alter behaviour. In Nigeria like most parts of the world adolescents and students are categorized as the mass media users who cannot avoid the impact of media, especially on the impact of cognitive, effective and behaviour (Alabi, 2013;Wahab et al., 2017). Online or offline games were found to negatively impact the teenagers who were doing excessive surfing (Kurniasanti et al., 2019). According to Villani (2001), children and adolescents are involved with the actions and behaviors they watch in aggressive films. Hiebert and Reuss (1985) noted from an experiment made by the National Mental Health Institute in Maryland found that school-age students fighting in school were among those who watched terrorist program. Similarly, Agrawal and Krishna (2021) found that communication media had a profound effect on the youth change which involved three aspects of cognitive, affective and psychomotor. The dissemination of unethical information through broadcast programs, elements of violence and sex from import media are widely broadcasted by electronic media (Reiner, 2002). In 1974, Stanford and Stanford, 1996as cited in Adamu (2011, the Uses and gratifications theory assumes that the user has alternate choices to satisfy their need as it is concerned with "what do people do with media". Rather than "what do media do to people". This theory emphasizes the concept that people utilize the media in various ways to acquire various types of pleasure or to meet various requirements. It also shows how viewers' responses to media content are highly customized. Such responses include feelings of pleasure or anger, changes in conduct, and increased comprehension, among other things.

Elihu Katz, Jay Blumler and Michael Gurevitch' uses and gratification theory (UGT)
The theory has the following premises • The individual audience is conceived as active interpreters and choice makers, rather than passive receivers of media messages. This concept is based on the belief that media consumers are profitdriven and want to achieve their objectives through the usage of mass media.
• Initiative in linking needs and gratification and media choice lies with the audience in mass communication process. The idea surrounds the assumption that people use the media to their advantage.
• Like every other means of needs satisfaction, the mass media is a competing force. The focus of this idea is the fact that individuals have several needs that are striving to be satisfied, individuals employ different method in fulfilling their needs and the media is one of the source people use in satisfying their needs, but it is continually competing with face to face mode of interaction.

Implication of uses and gratification theory
A student needs represent something necessary or desired that they lack. That is, needs are fundamental elements and the starting point of the process that leads to behavioral results. According to U&GT, a student is motivated to use a particular media to satisfy unmet needs. Therefore, motivations represent "general dispositions that influence people's actions taken to fulfil a need or want" (Papacharissi & Rubin, 2000, p. 179). These needs and motivations drive student's media choices through their evaluation of media based on gratifications.
In applying this theory, the fundamental question that comes to the mind is who uses which contents, from which medium, under what conditions and for what reasons? For example, why do students surf the net? What is expected, and on which condition? It could be for entertainment, value transmission, argument facilitation or to locate old time friends. This theory focused on the fact that the audience member links his or her need gratifications to media content. That is, users make deliberate choice of media content in order to satisfy their needs.
Uses and gratification theory is functionalist in character, suggesting that the media performs a function but ignores the dysfunctional nature of the media, as it may influence on audience being.

Methods
The study method was triangulated, hence, quantitative data was elicited using questionnaires and the qualitative data was captured using in-depth interview. The selected study locale is Landmark University, Omu-Aran, located in Kwara State Nigeria. The locale was selected purposively due to seven core values (Spirituality, Capacity building, Possibility mentality, Diligence, Responsibility, Integrity, and Sacrifice) upon which the institution is hinged as a Christian missionary school owned by the educational arm of the Living Faith Church Worldwide.
The main respondents in this research are undergraduate and postgraduate students of Landmark University. Respondents were selected using stratified sampling technique. Utilising Watson's (2021) sample size calculation recommendation, which proposed that for a total population of 3000 to 15,000 and above with 5% margin of error a sample size of three hundred and eighty and above is acceptable, hence a sample size of 414 respondents was administered questionnaire, although only 390 were analysed on basis of adequate completion. For a representative study respondents were stratified into colleges and in each of this stratum simple random sampling was used to randomly select a total of 414 respondents during the Alpha semester of 2020/21 and copies of structured questionnaire were used to elicit data from the respondents.
Twelve (12) in-depth interviews (IDI) were conducted for college and departmental representatives. These IDI participants were purposefully selected based on their positions as representatives of their various levels, departments and colleges. Furthermore, their knowledge of the university's core values and student handbook were perceived to be critically important in determining media access, usage and influence on students' academic performance.
Ethical considerations were duly observed, as respondents were informed and their consent forms were obtained. Confidentiality, anonymity of the participants was guaranteed and adhered to. Respondents were also informed of their right to discontinue participation in the study at any time they feel uncomfortable.
The quantitative data was analysed using Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) version 20 and presented on tables using percentages and frequency counts. Contingency Chi-square was used to find the relationship between the variables and test of hypotheses. The qualitative data were recorded, transcribed, interpreted and content analyzed.

Study limitations
This study has several limitations that should be considered.
• The first pertains to the use of convenience sampling in data collection. It cannot, therefore, be used to infer causality.
• The relatively high proportion of undergraduate participants in this study may introduce a bias toward greater media usage.
• The responses were based on self-report and may be subject to recall bias, self-reporting bias, and a tendency to report socially desirable responses.
• Lack of cooperation on the part of the respondents in Landmark University in evading the IDI questions appropriately for fear that it was a trap set to elicit information from them in order to face the Students Disciplinary Committee of the institution.
• The use of one singular university.
• The singular use of the contingency Chi-square in the statistical analysis of the quantitative variables.
Despite these limitations, the study data contribute tremendously to the understanding of the how access, usage and influence of mass media impact on student's academic performance in a private missionary school in North Central Nigeria.

Results
The socio-demographic characteristics in Table 1 reveal that many (47.3%) of the respondents are in the age group of 16-20 years. This result is an indication that many of the respondents in the institution were competent to respond to the questionnaire items based on familiarity with the media mediums, usage and vices investigations. The male gender dominated (58.2%) the study population and the distribution further revealed representation across all levels in the school. Table 2 shows that majority (88.7%) of the respondents had access to mass media. 64.4% agreed that the school limits access to media content and 76.4% high respondent are exposed to the internet medium of mass media. This implies that despite the high presence of new media (internet) among the studied group, the school retained restrictions on the contents of media accessible by students.

Access and medium of mass media
This finding was also corroborated by a first year student who said: I am impressed with the internet services within the college building and library, but in honesty, the idea that the school has access to our browsing history (. . . chuckles) is very terrifying.
Another final year undergraduate student also said: I don't bother visiting the library! In all my years of study, our lecture notes are made available in the online platform. Any other thing I need is sourced on Google! These days, internet has answer to every academic question. Table 3 shows that majority (97.2%) of the respondents used the internet medium more, 84.4% pay for the internet usage, 37.2% spend between two to four hour on media and many (78.7%) of the respondents use the media for entertainment, news information, and research purposes. This implies that students are aware of the multiple functions of the mass media and conscious effort is made to utilize the media in satisfying or meeting their individual needs. This finding was also corroborated by a postgraduate student who said:

Usage of mass media
The world is fast becoming a global sphere where one can get everything just by a click on the mobile device. I do not necessarily need to go outside to watch a match, shop for groceries, or even make secondary research. The internet makes it seamless.
Another undergraduate student also said: Due to the limitations on students' social life, the mass media, especially the internet is the best friend of almost every student. The internet serves all purpose for us and is even more close to us than people within the same physical space.
Yet another undergraduate student also said;  Table 4 shows that many (76.4%) of the respondents are not influenced by the negative vices portrayed by the internet. 67.9% never surfed pornographic items, 25.1% believed that dependency on media contents has lowered students mental capacity and almost half (49.7%) of the respondents rarely gets distracted in class by media prompt information. Table 5 indicated that few (15.4%) of the respondents have been walked out of lecture halls for surfing through the internet. From a combined weight of Strongly Agree (SA) and Agree (A) 76.2% accepted that mass media influences students' academic performance. 84.9% noted that the media had more positive influence on their academics than negative. This finding was also corroborated by a postgraduate student thus:

Influence of mass media on academic performance
The advent of mass media especially the new media has made life easier. It effects on students academic performance cannot be undermined.

Decision criterion:
Reject H 0 if the calculated (observed value) of chi-square (χ 2 c) is found to be greater than the critical (table) value of chi-square χ 2 t (0.01) in the cross tabulation, if not, do not reject. Table 6 shows that the chi square value to determine the level of effect academic level has on purpose for media use is significant. The null hypothesis is rejected and the alternate hypothesis is accepted as stated that there exist a positive relationship between academic level and purpose for media use because the calculated χ 2 (15) = 38.790 is higher than the critical chi-square (P < 0.01). In other words it implies that students' academic level (freshman, final year or postgraduate) has a lot of influence on what purpose students uses the media to achieve. This could be because of the level of importance and or seriousness attached to each academic level with more seriousness attached to final year and or postgraduate than at first year. Table 7 shows the relationship between sex and media influence on students' academic level. While 38 (9.8%) of the respondents who were of the male gender agreed to negative influence of the mass media on their academic performance, 33.0% female gender among the respondents accepted that the mass media had positive influence on students' academic performance. With the calculated value χ 2 (4) = 25.868 higher than the critical chi-square (P < 0.01), the null hypothesis is rejected and the alternate hypothesis accepted. Empirically, there is a positive relationship between sex and mass media influence on academic performance. It implies that the female gender is not prone to much negative influence of mass media maybe due to. This could be because of their feminine genetic makeup.

Discussion
Despite the convenience and sophistication of today's media environment, it has an impact on an individual's performance, particularly that of a student. This effect can occur in a short period of time or over a long period of time. Media and communication have the ability to have a positive or negative impact on people depending on the message they carry, as well as create and characterize personalities based on the references they use (Leung & Lee, 2012).
This study found that students' depended more on the media (internet) content to proffer solutions to all academic related issues while neglecting other forms of media especially the print/ traditional medium. . As noted by Shek et al. (2013), extreme addictions to the use of social media among adolescents causes severe mental stress, functional decline of daily activities daily.  This therefore implies that dependency on media has the ability to lower students' mental capacity.
This could also be a further effect of socialization process as children who do not have the opportunity to interact with books during their early years of life will find it difficult to develop excellent reading habits later in life. A repercussion Palani (2012) noted to be the aftermath of media influence. This is not consistent with the assumption of uses and gratification perspective which is concerned with "what do people do with media" rather than "what do media do to people".
This study contradicted the study by UNICEF in 2013 which indicated that 90% of teenagers watch TV daily and that 50% spend more than 3 hours doing this activity. This study discovered that a larger number of the study population preferred using the internet over other media mediums including the TV. The interview result shed light on the possible reason being that the respondents do not have access to TV individually within the school premises. This finding corroborates Calisir et al. (2013). In corroboration of Treapăt (2017), this finding implies that the internet is the most accessible media mediums of the respondents, granting them the possibility to inform themselves, socializes, and also have fun.
Noting that the institution exhibits control over media mediums and contents for the students, the study finding negates the uses and gratification perspective. This could imply that students' motivation regarding their media use is dependent on the available media mediums. In other word, if their access to other media alternatives is restricted, then their usage of a particular medium is affected.
The findings that student use media (especially the internet) for research purposes is in line with the report of Hadeel Al-Obaidi's study at the University of Bahrain (Harrath & Alobaidy, 2018) which shows that through the effective and efficient use of social media, technology could have a good impact on students' academic performance.
On time allocation, this study found that the respondents' spend between 2 to 4 hours on their most preferred medium of media. This finding negates that of Treapăt (2017) but validates the study accomplished by UNICEF in 2013.
The study found that students' uses their preferred media medium (internet) for several purposes. This finding corroborates Rosen et al. (2013). This result is consistent with the uses and gratification theory's assumption that people use the media in a variety of ways to gain various forms of enjoyment or to suit various requirements.
Indications drawn from this study was that the respondents' media access and usage were curtailed by the institution. This result however negates the assumption of uses and gratification perspective which noted that media audience are purposive and conscious selectors of messages that fulfil their personal needs; that is, users choose media content consciously in order to meet their needs.

Contribution and implications
Researchers have started to objectively investigate effects of mass media on students' academic performance, and preliminary findings have been made that warrant further study such as this. Previous studies discover that; • While social media platforms themselves are not the issue, it is how they are used and why that makes a difference.
• Depending on the message they convey, media and communication can have a positive or negative impact on student academic performance.
• They can also help to shape and characterise student's personalities.
• Fundamentally, the media is a tool and its uses are a reflection of the people who uses it. So understanding the media itself and its dynamics will help in using it and in mitigating its downsides.
• It is clear from the development of mass media to date that further evolution is uncharted territory for stakeholders and it is difficult to accurately predict what impact this will have on communications, and academic performance.
It is essential we understand current usage, behaviour and identify potential problems so that they can be addressed. In an effort to provide an "alternative history" of six fundamentally and theoretically argued cumulative media effect models for the period 1956 − 2005, Neuman and Guggenheim analyse the citation patterns of 20,736 scholarly articles in five communication journals. With special attention to the 200 most frequently cited papers about the evolution of media effects, it was discovered that none of these papers covers Nigeria and not to mention the private missionary institution in North Central Nigeria where this study was conducted. Therefore, adopting a triangular data collection method, this study bridges this empirical gap by providing useful data for academicians as well as educational organizations. The implication of this study is that both students and institution can leverage on the findings of this study to maximize mass media for optimum benefit in their academic pursuit and academic delivery.
At first look, this can appear to be a waste of time, but it actually aids students in acquiring critical knowledge, social skills, and becoming engaged citizens who produce and share material irrespective of the type of educational institution (public or private, conventional or missionary). Regardless of the pros or cons of mass media, it is important to understand that many students use and rely on media mediums regularly both for academic work and general entertainment. This study therefore contribute to the many research that ascertain that technology is an essential component of today's student success equation, especially as related to non-conventional school setting.

Conclusion and recommendation
This concludes among other issues, that students' access and usage of certain media mediums are controlled by the university. Also, students' access to certain media content considered negating to the university's values is banned. Whereas, students' make use of the media to fulfil their needs, the study concludes that students' dependency on media contents has contributed to lowering students' mental capacity.
More so, because students are more prone to carry out communication and relationships on a cyber space, this study concludes that such pattern of communication has the capacity of determining what influence the media has on the students' academic performance. Noteworthy is that students' reliance on lecture notes and lack of scrutiny on the "chew and pour" syndrome is becoming a big concern in many academic institutions. Google now serves as information provider rather than comprehensive research done by visiting the library. Therefore, this study recommends that academic staffs should encourage students to visit the library to borrow books and conduct offline research not just read lecture notes uploaded on the OMS platform (which encourages more neglect of print media).
Again, it is recommended that students should develop good reading habits, abstain from finding book reading boring thereby avoid absolute dependence on mass media in solving school work.
Furthermore, it is recommended that the mass media should be designed in line with academic needs, interests, aspirations and values of the audience (students) and the society (university).