The Relationship between Television Watching Habits and Leisure Time: A Research on Ugandan Students in Turkey
Abstract
Media technologies have become
actors in people's everyday life as they occupy a bigger portion of people’s
leisure time for purposes of self-development and entertainment. Despite the
invention of new media technologies of the Internet,
smartphones, and computers, society still spends time in front of the screen
watching television at a considerable rate. According to the World Youth Report (2003), young people in the
developed world spend an average of about two hours daily in front of the
television and their engagement in active leisure such as sports and the arts
is also greater during their leisure time. This study had hypothesis that
“Watching Television impacts on students’ leisure time activities”. The
objective was; to examine how TV watching influence students’ leisure time
activities. It also aimed at identifying
students’ leisure time activities. This study used a
random sampling technique to select respondents of Ugandan nationality studying
in Turkey. Selected respondents were invited to answer a designed online questionnaire.
A total of N=107 respondents from 8 cities in Turkey took part in the study.
This study’ findings are summarized in frequencies and percentages. The study
showed that on a daily basis the majority of the respondents 52.6% considered
3-4 hours as their leisure time for watching television. The results show that
74.5% of the respondents preferred watching Ugandan television channels during
their leisure time whereas only 25.5%, watched Turkish television channels.
It’s worth noting that 48.6% of the majority respondents agreed that watching
television stimulates their academic learning. Meanwhile 36.4% of the
participants in this study watched television during their leisure time for
entertainment and pleasure purposes and 32.7% watched television for information and news purposes. In the same line 43%
of the respondents agreed that television watching influences their leisure
time activities like book reading, shopping behavior, touring among
others.
Keywords
References
- Aydoğan, F. (2000). Medya ve Serbest Zaman, İstanbul: Om Yayınevi.
- Cizmeci, E. (2015). ‘Yeni Medya Ve Serbest Zaman’, İletişim Çalışmaları (ed. Filiz Aydoğan), İstanbul: Derin Yayınları.
- Haworth, J.T. & Veal A. J. (2004). Work and Leisure. New York: Routledge.
- Huegli, V. Ann. (2008) My Hobbies and Leisure Time. Quebec Literacy Working Group. Quebec.
- Mattingly,M. J., & Bianchi, S. M. (2003). Gender Differences In Quantity And Quality Of Free Time: The U.S. experience, Social Forces, (81), p.999–1030.
- Mugoya, Y. (2016). Annual Report for the Ugandan Students Association in Turkey. Istanbul. (Unpublished)
- Roberts, K. (1999) Leisure in Contemporary Society. Wallingford, UK: CAB International. U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics (2014). https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2015/time-spent-in-leisure-activities-in-2014-by-gender-age-and-educational-attainment.htm (Access Date: 14 April 2017).
- Veal, A. J. (1992) Definitions of Leisure and Recreation. Australian Journal of Leisure and Recreation, 2(4), 44-48, 52, Republished by School of Leisure, Sport and Tourism, University of Technology, Sydney, as Working Paper No. 4,
Details
Primary Language
English
Subjects
Communication and Media Studies
Journal Section
Research Article
Publication Date
June 30, 2018
Submission Date
May 23, 2018
Acceptance Date
June 29, 2018
Published in Issue
Year 2018 Volume: 4 Number: 1