The Internet Usage among Students: A Uses and Gratifications Perspective

MELWYN S. PINTO¹ & D S POORNANANDA²
¹St Aloysius College, India
²Kuvempu University, India

Abstract
Uses and gratifications research helps in finding out how audience makes use of mass media to gratify their needs. Media research can help both the industry and the academia to map audience behaviour which is very much connected to various factors such as geography, culture, education and socio-economic circumstances. This research conducted among students reveals that students make use of the Internet primarily with an entertainment motive, and only secondarily for education and current affairs knowledge. The study also reveals that digital divide is widely prevalent and it is an important issue to be looked at especially in terms of gender, though the digital divide has been narrowing among students in terms of geography.

Key words: Internet, uses and gratifications, digital divide, ritualised and instrumental needs

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Dr. Melwyn S. Pinto is currently the Head of the Department of Journalism and Communication at St Aloysius College, Mangalore, Karnataka, India. His research interests include media and cultural studies, new media and film studies.
Prof. D. S. Poornananda is a faculty in the Department of Journalism and Mass Communication at Kuvempu University, Shivamogga-577 451, Karnataka, India. His research interests include environment journalism, film studies and new media.