Data Visualization Story
How do UH students get their news?
College students have a multitude of responsibilities during their time at school. Often being in college shifts your schedule and finding the time to educate yourself on the news gets lost in the process of day-to-day events. A poll was taken of a hundred students, and they were asked to provide their source of news. The students provided a total of seven different options ranging from TikTok to the Washington Post.
Out of 100 students these were the responses:
Total students: 100
TikTok - 35
Instagram - 15
Facebook - 15
CNN.com 10
MSNBC 5
NY Times 10
Washington Post 5
After talking to students on campus many responded by saying that they went to MSNBC to get a lot of their news. Many said the site was credible and reliable in terms of finding unbiased information. By contrast, the remaining majority detailed getting their news from both Instagram and TikTok. The reasoning behind getting news from those outlets many said, is due to convenience. Often time it's hard to make time to read up on the news. Going on sites like TikTok and Instagram is already a part of many college kids' daily routine, therefore it makes getting news easier in comparison to other external sites.
When analyzing the data responses you can see the stark differences in the data per year. Among freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors, it's easy to see which classes prefer each different type of news outlet. Most of the freshman and sophomore candidates preferred TikTok and Instagram to find their news information. One student I spoke with described how her hectic schedule conflicts with finding time to read up on the news. The freshman stated that, "Between juggling my classes a job and hanging out with my friends it gets hard to find the time". This type of response was dominant among the underclassmen. Although, the main difference can be seen in the junior and senior classes. Compared to their younger peers, junior and senior students note that they find their sources from online news outlets like the Chronicle and the Washington Post. One junior student I spoke with explained that as he's "gotten older, it's become more important to be informed on the state of the country". This seems to be a shared idea among his age group as it reflects the data collected. You can find the varying responses in the bar chart below.
Bar Chart Link: Sources by YR - Instagram Post (canva.com)
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