Importance of Online Media as an Information Source

A Report On

IMPORTANCE OF ONLINE MEDIA AS AN

INFORMATION SOURCE

Submitted to
Dr. Sangeeta Sharma
Associate Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences

Prepared by
Saumya Gaikwad 2018A2PS0680P
Dev Malot 2018B2PS1040P
Ritvik Jain 2018ABPS0504P
Sainayan Mahto 2018B2PS0593P
Kavyesh Talwar 2018B5PS0911P

Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani Campus

Pilani, India

15 April 2019
Importance of Online Media as an Information Source

Technical Report Writing (BITS F112)

Assignment 2 Declaration
II Sem 2018-2019
This is to certify that, we, the following undersigned (Name and BITS ID Number) have worked
uniformly on the report attached herewith. Also, we assure that the report is original, with proper
citations wherever required, and the entire group is responsible for any kind of plagiarism
whatsoever.
Section Number: L5
Instructor's Name: Sangeeta Sharma (Associate Professor, Dept. of Humanities and Social
Sciences)
Group Number: Total Number of Members: 5
ID Name Contribution
2018A2PS0680P Saumya Gaikwad Abstract, Blogs and Forums(3.1.3),

Credibility(3.3),Recommendation,

editing

2018B2PS1040P Dev Malot Title Page, Introduction, Recency of

Updates (3.2), Section 4full(4.1 to 4.3),

editing

2018B2PS0593P SainayanMahto Acknowledgment, table of content,

Different sources of info(3)

2018B5PS0911P Kavyesh Talwar google form, questionnaire, social

media(3.1.2)

2018ABPS0504P Ritvik Jain Academic sources(3.1.1), conclusion,

references
Importance of Online Media as an Information Source

A Report On

IMPORTANCE OF ONLINE MEDIA AS AN

INFORMATION SOURCE

Prepared For
Satyansh Rai
President , Students Union BITS Pilani
Prepared by
Saumya Gaikwad 2018A2PS0680P
Dev Malot 2018B2PS1040P
Ritvik Jain 2018ABPS0504P
Sainayan Mahto 2018B2PS0593P
Kavyesh Talwar 2018B5PS0911P

Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani Campus

Pilani, India

15 April 2019
Importance of Online Media as an Information Source

Acknowledgement

We express our gratitude to Dr. Ashoke Kumar Sarkar, the Director of BITS PILANI, Pilani campus
who gave us the opportunity of drafting this report of Online Media as an Information source.
We would like to thank Dr. Sangeeta Sharma, our instructor of the course BITS F112 (Technical
Report Writing) for her assistance in completing this report from the start of this course, and we
extend our sincere thanks to Satyansh Rai, the President of Student Union for providing us the
task of writing this report. We are indebted to librarian Mr.Giridhar. M. Kunkur for allowing us to
use the facilities of library in an effective way.

Finally, we would to thank our friends from BITS who helped us with their honest inputs in filling
Google Survey Forms due to which we were able to finalize the report after data analysis in a
limited time frame. We thank Google (Docs, forms, Spreadsheets) and Microsoft (MS Office) as
these software companies provided us such convenient and handy methods of preparing our
report.

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Importance of Online Media as an Information Source

Abstract

The usage of online media has become an integral part of student life. The following report
presents an overview of Importance of Online media as information source , different sources of
information , their usage, recency and reliability. The report provides an analysis of usage of
online platform and public opinion on the same. This report interprets the present scenario of
credibility of information provided by these sources.

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 Importance of Online Media as an Information Source

Table of Contents

Acknowledgement……………………………………………………………………………………….. i

Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………………………ii

1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………………..1

2. Importance of Online Media as an Information Source : An Overview……………..2

3. Factors affecting an Information Source

3.1 Different sources of Information………………………………………………………………2
3.1.1 Academic Sources …………………………………………………………………………..3
3.1.2 Advertisements……………………………………………………………………………….4
3.1.3 Blogs and Forums…………………………………………………………………………….4
3.2 Recency of updates…………………………………………………………………………………..5
3.3 Credibility of Information…………………………………………………………………………. 6

4. Online Media: A game changer ?

4.1 The internet has become a significant local information source…………………7
4.2 Social Media: The Impact……………………………………………………………………………7
4.2.1 Impact on Students and acads…………………………………………………………7
4.2.2 Impact in shaping opinions on social issue………………………………………8
4.3 Limitations …………………………………………………………………………………………………8

5. Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………………………… 9

6. Recommendations…………………………………………………………………………………………. 9

7. Appendix ……………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 11

8. References………………………………………………………………………………………………………14

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Importance of Online Media as an Information Source

1. Introduction
In the earlier times, newspaper and letter or we can say the written form of media were the only
available source for exchange of information, but it was mostly limited upto a region or country.
People were generally unaware of the activities and advancements happening at any other part
of the globe.
But with the advancement in technology in the late 20th or early 21st century, more information
has become available to the public through a wide range of channels. Users can access
information not only through the traditional, printed sources, but also sources in various formats
via the Internet.
Recent studies shows that users, especially undergraduates, frequently rely on open resources
available online. This report, as authorized by (person)(designation), prepared by a group of 5
student volunteers, analyses the increasing popularity of online sources of information among
BITSians and also recommends a proper and safe usage of these online platforms for gathering
information. The primary data which is collected from (no.) of first degree and Ph.D. students in
Bits Pilani is supplemented by secondary data available in the internet.
A questionnaire was prepared on this regard. This questionnaire was circulated among the
first, second, third, fourth and Ph.D. students of various discipline with the help of social media.
Responses from (no.) students has been taken into consideration.
It is hoped that this report will help in understanding the role of the online platforms in
transferring information and news on a daily routine and also how to be safe while browsing as
the trustworthiness of information from such sources is often questionable and difficult to
assess. This report will also help in identifying challenges that users encounter when selecting
non-traditional online sources to use.
The report starts with analyzing what kind of online media are frequently used among BITSians
as information source and for what purposes (eg. Lectures or news) and also how they evaluate
the quality, recency and reliability of information from such sources.
The next section provides a conclusion and recommends on how much the BITSian community
should rely on online platforms and gives the advantages and disadvantages of the same. It is
hoped that this report will help the (designated person) to understand the current scenario and
bring out a proper solution to make online media as reliable and safe as ever.

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Importance of Online Media as an Information Source

2. Importance of Online Media as Information source: An Overview

This report aims at emphasising the importance of Online Media as an information

source. As Online Media incorporates such a variety of platforms, we will discuss about
the different sources of information and their utility in our day to day life. The report
would explore the use of online media in academics as supplement to the course books,
and its impact on students' lives, and its importance to companies who can advertise
their products and share information with potential customers through advertisements.
Online media also helps in starting important discussions and expressing personal and
public opinions via blogs and forums. With the increasing reliance on digital media, it is
critical that the facts are recent and updated, and the information is credible and reliable.
This report will discuss the effects : the pros and cons of online media, and with the help
of the responses to the questionnaire, we will draw a conclusion about the scope of
Online Media and suggest recommendations, which may prove fruitful in the future.

3. Sources of information and factors affecting them

3.1Different sources of Information

There is a phenomenal amount of information available online, via web-pages,

blogs, forums, social media, catalogues and so on. As there is so much information
available and because such information can be published quickly and easily by anybody
and at any time, it is important that you are vigilant in choosing reliable sources.

For many subjects the internet can be a very important place to research. In some
disciplines the internet may be the most appropriate - or only - way of gathering information.
This can be particularly true of subjects related to technology or current affairs. Whenever you
use the internet for research, remember that the authorship, credibility and authenticity of
internet documents is often difficult to establish. For this reason you need to be vigilant and
take care when using the online sources for academic research or other various purposes.

Figure 1 Different sources of information

Importance of Online Media as an Information Source

3.1.1 Academic Sources

With the rapidly increasing digitisation, it is no surprise that Online Media has
found its way in academics and research programs too. Collecting information has become so
smooth and effortless and everything is available at the click of a mouse. The internet is growing
daily and each day we come across informative articles and videos which feed our curiosity.
Animated and dynamic videos have made learning science so easy in so many creative ways.

There are an ever-increasing number of academic help websites like edX, KhanAcademy etc.
which have made it easier for students to reach out to find answers to tricky questions or for the
eradication of conceptual doubts. BITS Pilani has also availed its students of the benefits of
Nalanda - The on campus learning management system , which is essentialy a giant database
containing the various courses to be covered by a student as well as grades and important
announcements.
Nowadays students are heavily reliant on video lectures and lecture slides as it appears more
convenient and saves a lot of time and effort. Students can interact with professors even while
sitting at their homes and Online Media has the ability to turn any place into a virtual classroom.

Also, online encyclopedias like Wikipedia contain an ocean of information and it would be hard
to imagine life without them. There are a massive 17 million articles on Wikipedia, with the
number increasing everyday. Of the 17 million articles, 3.5 million of them are written in the
English language.
On 9 September 2007, the English version of Wikipedia surpassed two million articles. It made it
the largest encyclopaedia ever put together and took the record from the Yongle encyclopaedia,
which had held it for 600 years.
Wikipedia claims to have roughly 325 million readers, meaning there are 21 users to every article
on the website.

Our responses show that roughly 76% of the people surveyed use Video animations and slides
for academics, and 69% still rely on written material and personal notes. 30% people surveyed
think that in the future, video lecture sites will take over physical classrooms, while 29% beleive
this won't happen and the rest don't have a say on it. It is safe to say that Online Media has
played a huge role in improving the approach and attitude towards education, and is a critical
tool for the future.

Figure 2 Different Academic purposes

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Importance of Online Media as an Information Source

3.1.2 Social Media

Around one-third (31% to be precise) of American people admit the first thing they do in the
morning is use social media, according to a survey done by Report Linker in 2017. And there is not much
deviation in results from other developed countries. These facts prove the growing power of social
media in recent times. Our team conducted a survey to find the sources from which they generally
obtained information. 41 of the 90 respondents said that most of the time of their internet usage is

taken by social media. So we tried to find out which of these social media websites help BITSians in
keeping updated with recent events. We also asked them to what extent they relied on information
provided by these websites. Some results were well-predicted, while others were surprising. WhatsApp,
the regular texting app of many, provides the earliest updates of recent events, as believed by 34.4% of
the survey takers. This result was inevitable, considering the enormous popularity of this social media
giant. Facebook and Instagram were a close second and third , with 28.9% and 23.3% (respectively ) of
the users opting to count on them for latest news updates. 86.66% users combined find out about the
recent events from these Mark Zuckerberg owned applications. Some other applications used by
BITSians for this purpose are Reddit, LinkedIn and Twitter. Two users felt that none of these social media
applications update them with recent happenings.

When asked if they relied on the information provided by these applications, there was a negative
response. 42.2% respondents said that they rely moderately on the information provided. 31.2% said
that they trust this information, while 26.6% users claimed they didn’t have faith on these sources.

3.1.3 Blogs and Forums

As digital news is taking preference over many traditional news mediums , more and
more people are gaining access to information like never before. And many blogs and forums
end up being outlets of personal opinions and ideologies to be shared, the fact remains that they
also serve as legitimate sources of news and information from industry experts.
Many blogs are typically written by experts actually working within specific fields of interest.
They are providing their readers with firsthand knowledge that can heip guide the decision
making process.
The collected data shows that BITSian students majorly use bogs and forums’ websites out of
curiosity, for educational purposes ,to get public opinion and reviews and to gain daily life
updates. This is because blogs and forums are written without restrictions and are frequently
updated. They are few students who don’t use these websites. This is because blogs and forums
can be subjective as they have flexibility to include a personal slant or bias. Also, another reason
is that blogs can be inaccurate.
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Importance of Online Media as an Information Source

Figure 3 Statistics of purposes for which blogs and forums are used

3.2. Recency of Updates

The most beneficiary part of online media is that it serves as a very fast and comfortable
medium for transferring information to the masses, as a majority 57.8% of people (appendix)
voted for online websites and news apps for gathering recent updates. The other 30% rely on
social media for updates and the other 12.2% says that they would rather prefer television or
newspapers as it is always confirmed and so it is. Online methods may be the quickest but it is
not always that these platforms are always errorless, about which is discussed in the next section
3.3.
While popular newspapers like Times of India, The Hindu and Hindustan Times have their own
mobile app, this also elevated public’s interest in mobile media. As these are big media
companies, they have enough workforce to keep all the updates on their app as recent as
possible.
As for the academic purposes, a majority of students surveyed think that video lectures available
online are very useful as they can watch it many times, anytime and anywhere and these are
readily available as well. Every topic is available on educational websites and on YouTube as well,

so it is always preferred when someone missed his/her class. 30% of them (appendix) think video
lectures will takes over physical classrooms in future as these are always available.

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Importance of Online Media as an Information Source

3.3 Credibility of Information

Online media are increasingly being used as an information source, including information
related to risks and crises. The current study examines how pieces of information available in
online media impact perceptions of source credibility. Overall, when uncertainty represents
potential danger, people actively engage in information seeking. They will seek information from
a variety of sources, and will constantly update their information. Online media have been a
dominant source possibly because they are generally thought to provide credible, valuable, and
timely information . However, along with traditional forms of media, newer media are
increasingly available for information seeking. One channel that provides many opportunities for
this purpose is the Internet. Research suggests that people use the Internet in seeking
information about crises . More recently, online media have provided a new and potentially
powerful platform for people to use in seeking such information.
It is observed that 47.6% of BITSians find these information sources to be 40-60% credible.
Nearly 26.7% of the students find 60-80% of the information provided to be credible. Whereas
20% student find this credibility to be 20-40% and a very few of them find the credibility to be
between 80-100%. The lack of trust on these sources is due to reason that the web is relatively
new to the users. So, their established trust in the traditional sources is one of the reasons for
finding online media as less credible. A very few of the students find the information through
these sources as reliable . This is because many of these sources provide fake information to the
user and also due to high proportion of unnecessary content.

Figure 4 Statistics of credibility and number of students

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Importance of Online Media as an Information Source

4. Online Media: a game changer ?

Online media has certainly become popular and widely used after the internet revolution. It has
not only changed the way we receive and process information but has also created wide variety
of jobs and opportunities for the young in this field. But on the other hand, credibility of this
information is still unspeakable. Most of the social media platforms like Facebook or WhatsApp
have been said to have provided fake news to its users.
Section 4.1 to 4.2 throws light on some of the factors that effects daily life, from the data we
received from survey and some research papers.

4.1. The Internet has become a significant local information source

The internet has already surpassed newspapers as a source for national or international
news, but it has now also emerged as an important source for local information provider.
According to a study by Pew Research Center (sept 26, 2011) , among the majority of the people
who are online, the internet serves as a very important source for topics like restaurants, local
schools and education, local businesses, housing or real estate, etc. for getting reviews and
advice.
Table i The local topics for which the internet is a top source

4.2.Social Media: The Impact

4.2.1. Impact on Students and acads
According to the survey conducted through google form, majority 58.9% of students
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Importance of Online Media as an Information Source

spend 1-3 hours online, 27.8% of them spends 3-5 hours and other 10% more than 5 hours
which takes up a huge portion of their daily routine which affects their academic performance.
Most of the students surveyed think that the cause for poor grades is majorly due to distraction
from these SN sites.

4.2.2. Impact in shaping opinion on social issues

According to data collected from survey, while only 12.2% of students turn up most for
television and newspaper , the other 87.8% prefer various websites and social media for getting
any information about any social or political issue out of which 81.1% of them believes that
these online sources are trusted and credible. Which tells that social media has a very big role in
shaping public opinion.

4.3. Limitations
As online media serves as an independent medium for providing information, it still has some
backdrops.
A question was asked in the survey to mention what were the issues that are not taken up by
Indian media.(appendix)

Figure 5 Issues not taken up by Indian media

This illustrates that, Indian media does not give much focus to these issues which has to be
improved.

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Importance of Online Media as an Information Source

5. Conclusions
Media being the most popular followed by Academics and News sites and apps. Most of the
people (in BITS Pilani) use online platforms for exam preparation, while a few stated research,
projects and curiosity as their purpose behind using such media.

Almost 80% of the people beleive that the news sites play an important role in shaping public
opinion, but at the same time a major part feels that Scientific and Technological developments
are not being taken up considerably by the Indian Media. Also, more than half the people feel
that blogs and forums play a part in shaping public opinion and are suitable for educational
purposes.

However, people are not so satisfied by the credibility of the information. Many people agree
that fake news is corrupting the quality of information on news sites and social platforms like
Whatsapp and Facebook.
Majority of people use online media for information on a daily basis, with Social
Recency of information has turned out to be another critical factor. Most people claim that they
get aware about a certain incident earliest by social media, or via conversations. But consistency
of information is essential for sending out the right message, and has been stressed upon.

6. Recommendations
Based on the information collected , there are some recommendations :It is found that majority
of students seek social media over other sources. Rather they should switch to more reliable
platforms.
In particular Indian Media should take up more issues, regarding scientific and technical
developments and global affairs into account rather than focusing on trivial issues. The content
of these sources should be recently updated and should be more accurate. Lack of accuracy and
diversion from the topic is one of the issues which results in loss of interest of the users. Only
certified users should be allowed to answer questions on platforms like Quora so as to avoid
misguidance.
Fake content is another issue which should be rectified so as to ensure the credibility of
information. To ensure independency of sources , certification of sources should be done.

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Importance of Online Media as an Information Source

These sources should be faster , more reliable and updated so as to ensure the trust of the user.
The survey has shown that majority of people spend 2-5 hours daily on online media but
effectively gain less amount of valuable information . Moreover, it is noticed that students
search for academic sources during exams. Instead they should be in regular touch with these
sources .
Technical platforms should replace present way of learning and teaching. The teaching pattern
should be more scientific and technical than theoretical and impractical.

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Importance of Online Media as an Information Source

7. Appendix
Importance of Online Media as an Information Source

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Importance of Online Media as an Information Source
Importance of Online Media as an Information Source

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Importance of Online Media as an Information Source
Importance of Online Media as an Information Source

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8. References

Anand, Bharat, 2016 The Content Trap: A Strategist's Guide to Digital Change : Penguin Random
House India

Cabanes, Jason , 2014 Fake news and scandal

Cumberbach, Henry, 2010 Can you trust the News?

Fox , Scott , 2006 Internet Riches: The Simple Money-Making Secrets of Online Millionaires :
McGraw-Hill Education

Galloway, Scott , 2018 The Four: The Hidden DNA of Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google :
Corgi

Gupta, Manmohan , 2018 IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON YOUTH : Eureka Publication - Pune

Norton, Eric , 2016 Changing trends in academics in the 21st century

Singh, Dev Vrat , 2017 The Indian Media

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