Use of Social Media in Activating Student Participation at the Faculty of Mass Communication – Sana'a University: A Field Study

Abstract

This study focused on how students of the Faculty of Mass Communication use the social media networks, the differences between male and female students and the differences between the study levels in terms of using social media in academic communication and for the arrangement of various activities and events in their academic environment. The study aimed to identify the motives behind the students' use of social media, the academic activities they follow and arrange for, as well as the way they present themselves through these media. The survey method was adopted, using a questionnaire as the data collection tool. The study revealed that facebook was ranked first among the respondents, followed by the WhatsApp application. The students’ motives for using social media varied; the first motive was to communicate with their classmates in the college. The most frequently discussed topic was to know the time and date of classes and exams, followed by issues of interest to the whole batch. The results also revealed partial acceptance of the two hypotheses; there were statistically significant differences between the use of social media networks and the variable of study level. In the second hypothesis, there were also statistically significant differences between the use of social media networks and the gender variable.