Millennials include all those people that were born between 1982 and 2000. It is also known as the digital generation and the first internet generation. For last many years, the debate has been continued about the characteristics, attitude, behaviour and nature of new generation or Millennials (Dauria, 2015). In the same field, the debate has emerged among the researchers that New Generation or Millennials are not very much interested in news as compared to those who born and grew in the pre-internet or digital age. The concerns began when the data finding suggested that the underlying generation is not involved in visiting news sites, newspapers, and traditional television news channels and even not looked for news in greater terms (Young, 2015).
Various studies have argued that the new generation or Millennials are more involved and spend more time in use of social media and their smart mobile devices (Gangadharbatla, Bright & Logan, 2014; McDonalds, 2016). The researchers are now more concerned and worried about the knowledge and awareness of the Millennials about the world (Media Insights, 2015). In seeking out the news trend among the new generation, few studies have found that the new generation is using different channels and medium for news as compare to the previous generations such as baby boomers. The generation is more involved in discovering new ways and varied sources than anyone can imagine. The generation is criticised to use alternatives for finding news and information rather than directly going to get the news from the news providers. The new generation is also found to be more involved in connecting to the world with the mixture of news, connections, actions, conversations and entertainment. The trend in the study has found that the millennial generation is involved both in hard news and soft news but they are more interested in the hard news such as crime, politics, social issues, technology, developments, etc. as compare to the reporting about fashion and life style (Young, 2015; Dauria, 2015).
In the following debate, the researcher considered to reveal the news trends among the millennial generation or internet generation in more focused and specified manner to find more detailed and specified data and outcomes about the news sources and news trends of the new generation (Young, 2015). For this purpose, the researcher is going to study the new generation or digital generation of New Zealand as very few studies have previously focused on the New Zealand in terms of the trends of news among Millennials of the country. The research is going to evaluate that how New Zealand’s first digital generation goes to find news. Either the generation of New Zealand is also following the same trend as found in general about the Millennials or there are some other factors that affect the choice of the digital generation or Millennials in New Zealand.
Research objectives
It is very important for the research studies to define and explain the purposes and objectives of the study to clearly understand that what is going to reveal and find out at the end of the study. In the same context, the major purpose of the study is to find out the trends of news and the news sources used by the Millennials in New Zealand. The purpose is to understand that how and why the new generation is different from the previous and old generations in getting and finding news. In line with these aims and purposes, the study is going to achieve the following objectives at the end of the study:
Sub research Objective/Question 1: to identify the choices of sources of news of the Millennials in New Zealand/what are the choices for sources of news of Millennials in New Zealand?
Sub research Objective/Question 2: to explore the factors affecting the selection of news sources of Millennials in New Zealand/What are the factors that affect the selection of news sources of Millennials in New Zealand?
Sub research Objective/Question 3: to find the role of social media in the news and awareness of Millennials in New Zealand/What is the role of social media in the news and awareness of Millennials in New Zealand?
Sub research Objective/Question 4: to reveal that how Millennials perceived news in New Zealand.
Ethical Considerations
According to Creswell (2013), ethical consideration is the imperative and important aspect of research studies. It is very important for the researchers to understand and ensure the ethics, while conducting research. The researchers are bound to pay notice to the norms, values and ethics and code of conduct while making the decision for the ways of conducting research and collecting data and considering the ethics as the priority for the study (Jankowicz, 2005). For the study in hands, the research is required to ensure some major ethics to be considered as accurately followed to the meet the legal and ethical criteria for the research study. The following actions have to be taken:
The research ensures the copyright of the previous writers and researchers while using their results and statements in the paper. For this purpose, the researcher will properly cite and reference all the information and data gather from the studies of other researchers, scholars and writers even the used pictures.
In the case of conducting survey, experiment or focus group study, the researcher will inform the participants about the purposes and objectives of the study and also to make sure that the information will only be used for the defined purposes.
The researcher will ensure that no confidential information will be collected that can harm the individuals, organisations, groups, etc.
The researcher will also make sure that the research activities will not harm any living organism such as animals and plants.
The personal information such as name and contact numbers of the participants will not be disclosed in the study.
Research Methodology
According to Kumar & Phrommathed (2005), the methodology is very important to identify path and way to conduct the research. It will help the researcher to identify the proper ways of collecting data for the research (Pelissier, 2008; Patton, 2002).
Approach
Saunders et al. (2011) have found that the researchers select the research approach based on the objectives, purposes and statement of the study. In general, the researcher chooses one of the two research approaches include inductive approach and deductive approach (Goddard & Melville, 2004; Soiferman, 2010). As the study in hands is aimed to explore the news trends among the digital generation of New Zealand, testing the previous theories, models, and literature, therefore, the researcher is meant to use the deductive approach. It is the appropriate and relevant approach for the study that is not aimed to propose a new theory. This type of study is conducted in more top to down manner collecting general information and providing specific insights (Snieder & Larner, 2009; Lewin, 1939).
Strategy
Once the researcher decides the approach for the study, the next step is to choose the strategy for the data collection. There are many strategies used for research data collection but in general, there are two major types include qualitative research (Crabtree, 1992) and quantitative research (Neuman, 2005). As the researcher selected deductive approach, therefore, the quantitative research method is more appropriate for the study in hands to find that how first digital generation search for the news in New Zealand.
The quantitative strategy of data collection is also suitable as to find more accurate empirical findings to measure the data in the statistical means by measuring the responses of the participants about their preferences of news and news sources (Neuman, 2005). Therefore, the qualitative method is going to use for the research study to collect data.
Data collection techniques
The data can be collected in many ways; therefore, the researchers must select the appropriate methods and ways to collect data for the particular study. For the following study, the researcher is going to collect both primary and secondary data for the accuracy, validity and reliability of the results (Gupta & Gupta, 2011; Sekaran, 2006).
Primary data: the primary data can be collected from various sources as it is the first hand data (Bernard, 2011). The major sources of primary data include surveys, interviews, focus discussion, experiments, questionnaires, etc. For the study in hands, the researcher is going to use the survey to collect primary data.
Secondary data: the secondary is the data collected from secondary sources. It can be collected from various secondary sources include research journals, research papers, articles, newspaper, magazines, books and online sources (Stewart, 1993). The data collected from secondary sources will be used as review of the literature in the underlying study.
Sampling and Population
For the survey study, the researchers have to decide the population for the sampling (Babbie, 2010). The universal population for the study in hands is the Millennials. However, the sampling is going to be done using non probability sampling in general and purposive sampling in specific means (Doherty, 1994). For this purpose, the researcher is going to use the sample size of 500 respondents from the population born between 1982 and 2000 in New Zealand. The respondents will be selected using purposive sampling technique. Therefore, not every individual has the equal chance to be selected, but only those individuals will be selected that are accounted in the digital generation born in the specific years of duration. For conducting the survey, the researcher will design the questionnaire, expecting 80% response rate from the total sample size in terms of complete and accurate responses to all the questions provided in the questionnaire.
Instrumentation
The questionnaire is the best technique for conducting the survey. The questionnaire will be distributed using online means as in general; it can be distributed face to face, via emails, via fax, via direct mails,etc. (Beiske, 2007). The questionnaire for the research in hands will be distributed directly to the email addresses of the respondents, once they will be confirmed to participate contacting via social media and telephones.
For the questionnaire design, the researcher will first analyze the previous studies and literature and then develop a sample questionnaire for the pilot study. The questionnaire for pilot study will be distributed to 10 respondents to test the questions either suitable to get the expected data or not. The questionnaire will be based on the closed ended questions using Likert Scale for reducing the flexibility of the respondents in answers for accurate and measurable responses.
Method of Analysing Data
Once the researcher will be done with data collection, the next step is to analyze that data to extract the useful information. It is essential to make the research reach out to significant outcomes (Maylor & Blackman, 2005). The data will be analyzed using statistical techniques. Based on the responses on the Likert Scale, the researcher will measure the answer of the respondents to find the answers to the research questions. For this purpose, the researcher will use the MS Excel tool to process data statistically. For this purpose, the researcher will use graph and tables for the presentation of the data.
Significance of Study
The study is very significant for both academic and practical field to understand the scope of news among the Millennials. The research study will help the researchers in future to study in more detail about the digital generation. The researchers will help the news providers to understand the needs and requirements of the new generation and to understand the importance of technology, the internet, and social media in their lives for the information and news. The news providers such as newspapers, magazines, television channels,etc can understand the need of new mediums to provide the news and information about the world to the digital generation. Not only in New Zealand but the results can be used to study the Millennials further in new markets.
References
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