ABSTRACT

In the early 1990’s, newspaper communication technologies was introduced to the public   as online newspaper (Peter & Valkenburg, 2009). Many authors, such as Dr. Norman Nie of Stanford University, predicted that these forms of technology would negatively impact on undergraduates social lives, and reduce their sense of well-being (Peter & Valkenburg, 2009).. It was also assumed that these undergraduates would use newspaper for the purposes of making use of it to build a good readership habit. (Peter & Valkenburg, 2009). It was also assumed by some professionals that undergraduates would also spend too much time on computers surfing the internet reading through online newspaper or buying and reading the contents of newspapers, and this would negatively or positively affect their “real- life” friendships and relationships with others (Peter & Valkenburg, 2009). While several authors during the early 2000’s, hypothesized that that many undergraduates become less social while reading through newspapers,  and proving that reading through newspaper may also be difficult, as many  undergraduates may not have Internet access or have the money to buy newspaper. In 1995, it was estimated that only 11% of American teenagers were actively participating on reading newspaper (Peter & Valkenburg, 2009). Since the early years of newspaper popularity, research has been done in order to find out how this was affecting youth (Bryant, Sanders-Jackson, & Smallwood, 2006). Though the early trend was to believe that these would negatively affect  undergraduates communication and how they handle positions given to them, other researchers believed that it would benefit many undergraduates who had trouble expressing their thoughts and feelings face-to-face and are not fluent I their reading habit (Bryant, Sanders-Jackson, & Smallwood, 2006). Though the argument continues to be studied and analyzed, it is still a question that many researchers want to answer.