A comparative study of online and offline newspapers’ preference among university academics in Kwara State, Nigeria

Abstract The study focuses on the readership preference between the online and offline newspapers among university academics in Kwara State. The Uses and Gratification and the Technological Determinism Theory serve as the main pillars to the study. Survey research method is adopted through the distribution of questionnaires as the research instrument. Three hundred and fifty academics from the University of Ilorin, Kwara State University, Malete and Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin were chosen at random to serve as the study’s population. The total population of the study comprised one thousand (1000) University academics in Kwara State. The results of the study showed that, although offline news version content is the same as the online, the offline newspaper is preferred to online newspaper because they are more credible than the offline versions. The finding also revealed that online newspaper is cheaper to access compared to the offline version. Similarly, online newspaper seems to promote hate speech as it lacks regulations according to the finding of this study. The study, however, recommends that newspaper publishers in the country, and Kwara State in particular, should establish newsstands either in or closer to the university environment so as to encourage the readership of offline versions of newspapers. Key Words: Newspaper Readership, Online and Offline Newspaper, News Version, News Version Preference and University Academic. About the Author * Abubakar Sidiq Suleman, Ph.D., is the acting Head of Department of Mass Communication, Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin, Kwara State, Nigeria. His areas of research interest are: Journalism, Health Communication and Public Relations. JCMR Journal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 15, No. 2, October 2023, pp. 167-175. © Association of Media and Communication Researchers of Nigeria (AMCRON). Article Citation Suleman, A. S. (2023). A comparative study of online and offline newspapers’ preference among university academics in Kwara State, Nigeria. Journal of Communication and Media Research, 15 (2): 167-175. Full Article Words: 5,863 Pages: 9 To access full article, click on download.