A SNEAK PIC INTO PROJECT WRITING

INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL NETWORKING WEBSITES ON STUDENTS ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE (A CASE STUDY OF UNIVERSITY OF UNILORIN)

BY

GANIYU RIDWAN AYOBAMI

LECTURER-IN-CHARGE: DR TEJUMAIYE

COURSE CODE: MAS 802

COURSE TITLE: APPLICATION OF RESEARCH METHODS TO MASS COMMUNICATION

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

1.1 Statement of Problem

            Internet which is one of the means of getting to know more about various things and trends has in recent times become the source of distraction instead of idea generation and knowledge increment for students. It has been observed that most students in recent times tend to log onto and spend a reasonable amount of time chatting with their friends and uploading pictures, videos etc.

            Also, Blogging which has come about as a fall out of social networking has in recent times been another point of devotion for students. Blogs function as a mini-website and if regularly updated also works as a source of revenue. For this reason, students tend to devote more time to updating their blogs at the expense of their education.

            Another hazard of social networking is cyber bullying as some students have turned social networks into another avenue to make threats, harass, post harmful and humiliating information about others. All of these actions tend to affect the victims psychologically as the students tend to suffer from social seclusion, low self-esteem amongst other things. As a result the victims are affected academically in the form of bad grades which are caused by loss of concentration.

1.2 Scope of the Study

            The Researcher will discuss issues that bother around social networking websites and how they affect academic performances of students by analyzing, the ways in which it affects them and possible ways of reducing its impacts on students.

            The case study for this research will be University of Ilorin, Since it will be impossible to cover all the school available in Ilorin due to time, finance amongst other reasons

1.3 Research Questions

1. What do the respondents use the social networking websites for?

2. How as the invention of social networking applications affected the respondents’ usage of social networking sites?

3. How can social networking website be used to attain educational objectives?

1.4 Significance of the study

·         Knowledge Increment: This study will give other students and the academia at large a better knowledge and understanding of how the usage of social networking sites could affect and hinder student from attaining their academic objectives.

·         Reference Point: This study will also be used to increase the academic Knowledge of researchers who might engage in the same topic or something similar. Students at all levels will equally find it useful most importantly as a reference point for them to begin their research.

1.5 Operational Definition of Terms

Students: An individual who is at the tertiary institution level of education and is a student of University of Ilorin.

Social Networking Websites: These are websites created for virtual interaction and it is limited to Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter.

Cyber Bullying: This is an act of using social networking websites to send messages aimed at the following making threats, harassing and humiliating individuals but this study restricts it to students of University of Ilorin.

                             CHAPTER 3

                RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research Design

            In other to achieve effectiveness in the course of the study, the researcher will make use of the survey method to elicits the views of people or population of the study about an event, activity or phenomenon, the survey research method involves drawing up a set of questions to answer them (Sobowale, 1983).Therefore, the rational for using this method is that survey method proves to be the best means of collecting the views of the youths concerning the influence of social networking websites on students’ academic behaviour. A 20 item questionnaire was developed by the researcher based on the objectives and will be administered to the samples selected from a tertiary institution in Ilorin and the Institution will be University of Ilorin.

3.2 Sampling Plan

            All persons or things that fall under the umbrella of the research topic to be examined are referred to as the population of the study (Ohaja.2003). Therefore the population of the study will be students within University of Ilorin. However 200 respondents would be selected for this study.

            Two hundred (200) respondents will be selected for the research through Cluster sampling technique. The technique will be used to categorize the population into clusters that will see them faculty then to their departments picking samples equivalent to the total size of the population of the department.

            The Sampling technique to be adopted for this research through cluster sampling which will help in selecting people based on the various clusters which will be created they the people chosen will be given the questionnaires for administration.

3.3 Research Instrument

            The researcher instrument for data collection means the tools which will be used to collect data for the purpose of testing hypothesis and answering research questions (Ojo, 2003). The instrument to be used in this study will be a structured questionnaire. A questionnaire is a data gathering instrument, which provides uninformed questions to be answered by respondents in written form. The choice of a questionnaire was made in respect to the following.

1.      It gives greater confidence to the respondents to express themselves freely because of anonymity.

2.      Uniformity is achieved due to standardized questions.

3.      It facilitates data processing through easy coding.

The questionnaire will be divided into two sections with the first containing demographic variables such as age, gender, etc. while the second section features questions that will aid the researcher’s purpose. Close and open ended questions will be used in the questionnaire and since the study is based on perception.

3.4 Method of Analysis

            In this Study both primary and secondary sources of data will be included. The [primary data for this research study will be collected through a questionnaire; the data of questionnaire will be collected from 200 respondents. The secondary data will be gathered through literature review that is published research which are inline or similar to the subject of the study.