A Study of University Students’ Perceptions and Usage Behaviour of Mobile Media Technologies in Nigeria

The emergence of mobile media technologies has changed the social fabric of Nigerian society, with every segment of the populations now users of the technological devices, from mobile phone to smart media. This development necessitated its investigation with a view to determine how students in Nigeria perceived these new technologies in their midst and what these technologies do for them. In order to handle the inquiry, a mixed methods approach based on qualitative and quantitative procedure was undertaken. The methods were focus group interviews of thirty two students at two universities: Benson Idahosa University and Delta State University, selected through the convenience sampling method. The respondents’ data were transcribed, coded by hand and analysed using the constant comparative method. The findings revealed a number of usage benefits of mobile phone to the students. To complement this study further, a quantitative based survey of 600 students, 350 from DELSU and 250 from BIU was carried out using the heterogeneous sampling procedure and questionnaire design to collect data on the students’ attitudes towards smart media device and functionalities to users. The self-completed questionnaire data was subjected to statistical analysis, based on Chi-Square test, One-way ANOVA and Bonferronni test of multiple comparisons. The results yielded a number of significant outcomes bordering on smart and social media use for socialising, relationships building through which social capital of bonding and bridging social relationships, with significant resource benefits to respondents in both platforms. The use of simple percentages underscore gender differences in smart and social media usage behaviour, relative to men and women students in smart and social media arena. This thesis contributes to the advancement of theories that are relevant to the study of mobile media technologies and research philosophy: inductive and deductive on which this PhD thesis was hinged.