The Role of Social Media Websites in raising the awareness among Egyptian Youth of Sustainable Development Issues - A Field Study
, Vol.4
, Thirteenth Issue
PP:37
Authors:
Dr. Ayman Mohamed Ibrahim Borik -Assistant Professor of P R & Advertising,Public Relations Department,Mass Communication Faculty,Al-Azhar University
Abstract:
This study monitors the role of social media websites in raising awareness among young people of issues of sustainable development by examining the relationship between the rates of their use of social media, their motivations to use these sites, the degree of satisfaction they get, the type of the websites that they always access to, the degree of awareness among young people of issues of sustainable development and their interaction with and attitudes towards these issues.
The study used the methodology of survey and questionnaire. It has been applied to a sample of Egyptian young people consisting of 372 users of social media in the period from March 1, 2016, to April 30, 2016.
The study found an increase in the rates of using social media by young people. From among social media websites, Facebook ranks first in terms of its use by young people, then comes Twitter, then YouTube, then Google plus, then Instagram, then LinkedIn, then MySpace, then Hi5, and then Flickr.
The study observed that the issues of economic growth rank first among the different issues of sustainable development that young people follow up through social media, followed by reducing of unemployment rates, then issues of energy, then poverty reducing, then education, then issues of technological and technical development, then health, then the management of water resources, then the shift from consumption into production, then environmental development, then sanitation, then development of tourism, then the climate change, then rural development, then reducing of population growth, and finally "other" category.
The study also found that social media websites came as the first means that young people rely upon to get information about issues of sustainable development, followed by satellites, then news websites, then newspapers, then radio stations, then seminars and conferences, then friends and acquaintances, and finally "other" category.
The study showed that the degree of awareness of issues of sustainable development among young people, as a result of following these issues via social media, came in the first rank as medium with a percentage of 51.6%, then as a high degree with a percentage of 34%, and finally as a low degree with a percentage of 14.4%.
Key Words:
The role, social media, youth awareness, sustainable development issues.
Research Language:
Arabic
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