THE YOUTH AND THE MEDIA Regional practices, empirical results from Szeklerland, Romania Biró A. Zoltán – Gergely Orsolya – Ozsváth Berényi Hajnal Sapientia University, Department of Social Sciences Budapest, September, 2012.

Complex research program in the Szeklerland region: The effects of media on children and youth. Sapientia University, Csíkszereda, inspired and supported by the International Children's Safety Service (Nemzetközi Gyermekmentő Szolgálat) earlier researches: occasional, small-scaled, not connected conference in Csíkszereda (Sapientia University, International Children's Safety Service) The effects of media on children and youth

The objectives of our program:  Facilitating researches (survey, the first empirical data collection was already made).  Completing the survey with small-scaled, thematic part-analyses  Developing a network of specialists dealing with this subject  Consultations with the local actors about the results  Increasing the positive effects

Szeklerland region – some characteristics  Rural region, with small-towns  After 1989: significant deficit in modernization  A phase-lag in the development of the IT sector  Reluctance from the part of the institutions (school, offices) and the middle age groups  The absence of information  The dominant strategy is individual learning, adaptation

Main questions: Decreasing role of the family and school, increasing role of IT equipment, contents How would this work in Szeklerland? In rural regions, children and teenagers are more “unprotected” against the effects of media In rural regions, children and teenagers are able to utilize the possibilities offered by the media in a lower level

First phase of our program: complex survey, first time in this topic in the Szeklerland region  The research group was organized in October,  The research method, the questionnaire were based on the researches of the International Children's Safety Service (Nemzetközi Gyermekmentő Szolgálat)  The survey was conducted between 26 March – 7 April 2012  Students from the Sapientia University, Department of Social Sciences took part in the research.  We asked children and teenagers from 7 th and 11 th grade (13-14 and years old) from this region  A research analysis was completed, further analyses are planned Research stuff: Biró A. Zoltán Gergely Orsolya Kiss Adél Ozsváth Berényi Hajnal

 We were contacting 63 schools  There were asked 2122 pupils  From 7 th grade: 1088 pupil  From 11 th grade: 1034 pupil  The questionnaire contained 49 questions  A lot of topics were included in the questionnaire: Internet – usage, knowledge, practice, PC-knowledge, social websites, TV, free time spending, the role of parents and family in media usage

About the research: +  The teachers were willing to help  The pupil were open, curious and helpful  The survey was realized in a very short period of time  We met a large interest, in a lot of levels: teachers, school management, pupils, parents  Almost everybody was very interested in our findings and research results -  Some parts of the database are incomplete due to the self-fill-in questionnaire

How many time do you spend, on a regular week-day, with…

The rank of daily activities Rank of activities – according to their means 7 th grade11 th grade 1 Using the Internet 2 Watching TVListening to music 3 LearningWatching TV 4 Listening to musicSpeaking on mobile phone 5 Learning 6 Watching video/DVD Using the calculator (but not the Internet) 7 Watching video/DVD 8 Reading 9 Listening to radio

Activities on the Internet

Has its own profile(%) Facebook93,5 Iwiw37 Private blog16,1 My VIP11,5 Twitter11,9 My Space10,3 Social network Except for making phone-calls, what are you using your mobile phone for?

When watching TV, how often are you watching the following programs?

UsefulInteresting RTL Klub7,93RTL Klub8,64 TV26,78TV27,41 DUNA TV5,17DUNA TV4,36 HÍR TV5,07Pro TV4,28 Pro TV5,02HÍR TV4,06 M14,49M13,98 M24,35 MTV Romania3,90 MTV Romania3,78M23,83 Prima TV3,53Prima TV3,28 Antena TV3,38Antena TV3,10 Acasă TV3,03Acasă TV2,94 The rank of TV channels

First mark (Total: 1986) Channel No. of marks% of marks RTL Klub101651,16 TV21799,01 Discovery Channel1457,30 Film+1397,00 Digi Sport1055,29 Viasat613,07 Favourite TV channels – frequency of marks

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