A Study on the Digital Immigrants and their Online News Consumption through Smartphones Jamias
Abstract
This study looked into the smartphone news consumption habits of the digital immigrants. Through the Uses and Gratifications framework developed by Katz and Blumler in the 1970s and the Technology Acceptance Model developed by Fred Davis, the researcher detailed the news consumption habits and preferences of the digital immigrants through smartphones and compared it with their consumption of news through television.
Findings showed that there is no strong preference for a single medium for news consumption. The digital immigrants consume television news in the comfort of their homes while they access online news through their smartphones whenever they have free time outside the home. The study showed that these two news platforms – television and online – complement each other. Online news provides more freedom for the digital immigrants in choosing the news that they want to consume. Television news provides more credibility because there are people presenting the news that some digital immigrants consider as authority figures.
It is important to study these digital immigrants because they are professionals who have more disposable income. They have more means to subscribe to the developments in digital media.
Keywords: news consumption, digital immigrants, online news, smartphones