Online Behaviour as Predictive of Professional Online Work Readiness Among Mass Communication Students

Introduction

With vast opportunities of access to new media technologies, the youth, especially students are now considered active users of technology. For their intensive internet use, this population is celebrated as ‘digital natives’ who spontaneously develop digital competence as they learn to use the new media through exploration, collaboration with others, experimentation and play. By their quick adoption and engagement with every other new media tool, users have developed new online behavior which some scholars like Daniels (2012) and Buckingham (2007) argue may predict more sophisticated use of web tools.

With free and easy-to-use online media tools, youth can freely engage with and control their information behaviors across different media formats (Cohen, 2013). Consider popular social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram which have become popular channels for self-expression among college students. Empirical evidence suggests that the more social media tools one is exposed to, the more they are likely to gain confidence in adopting and using other new technologies (Daniels, 2012). This implies that one’s perception of their digital competence may be associated with the extent to which they use new media tools for personal or professional purposes. However, some scholars extend the argument by asserting that perceived technological preparedness is hugely a function of previous experiences, implying that positive previous experiences (e.g. ease of use, effective results, etc.) is expected to boost their readiness in their future use of the technology (Spyridou & Veglis, 2008; Correa, 2010).

With these arguments in mind, it can be interpreted that people with a ‘high digital capital’ evidenced by the time and energy invested in the social media networks can reap professional skills readiness dividends. This is true especially since they get socialized into the techno-culture thereby building important contacts for personal and possible professional growth (Tess, 2013; Selwyn, 2009).

Empirical Literature Review

It is often argued that the ‘tech-savvy’ youth regard online platforms as second nature to their lives and could leverage these platforms for their personal and professional gain (Flores, 2010). While evidence suggests that many journalism students demonstrate a ‘newsgathering’ instinct when armed with a mobile phone – they can take photos and videos and share them online (Switzer & Switzer, 2013), scholars like Buckingham (2007) caution about blanketing these future professionals as ‘digitally literate’ (p.14). He argues that their Internet use may just be characterized by ‘relatively mundane forms of communication and information retrieval’ rather than ‘spectacular forms of innovation and creativity’ (p.16).