Research On Mobile Phone Media Dependence:A Case Of Shanghai University Students

Since the transition from the traditional media era which is mainly dominated by the press, broadcast and television media to the new media era which is represented by the internet and smart phone based on the digital, internet and communication technology, the relationship between the audience and the media has changed a lot.Under the new media environment, people are increasingly dependent on the media especially on the mobile phone media in daily life from the shopping and leisure,entertainment and gaming, to the public education, and the political elections. The contemporary university students are also increasingly dependent on their mobile phone in their daily life and the mobile phone overuse phenomenon becomes more and more apparent among university students, all of which have shown that the media dependency in new media era is different from the past and the change of media dependency is worthy of our attention and consideration.In this background, this study attempts to explore the mobile phone media dependence of Shanghai university students in the new media era on the basis of media dependency theory, which is brought up by Sandra Ball-Rokeach and Melvin Defleur 1976 in 1976. It is hoped that this study will help to understand the unhealthy phenomenon of mobile phone overuse among the university students and learn about the features of the mobile phone media dependency in an attempt to find out feasible solutions.In this study, an online questionnaire about mobile phone using behaviors and attitudes were investigated among the Shanghai university students and 201 samples were gathered at a total. According to the data analysis of the 201 questionnaires, it is found that the main media needs of modern university students in the use of mobile phone media can be concluded by passing time, information seeking, interpersonal utility convenience and the entertainment needs. Among which, information seeking and the convenience needs are still the most important needs of university students to use the mobile phone. However, in the mobile phone dependence behavior, the interpersonal utility need and the entertainment need have stronger correlations with the media dependence and have greater influence on the media dependence, which will in turn deepen these needs.Therefore, the university students should be guided in their use of mobile phones to facilitate the information and convenience needs and appropriately reduce the media use of interpersonal utility, entertainment and control needs with mobile phone.Based on the results, in the end, the study points out several flaws of the research and also gives suggestions on the future improvement of studies on the mobile phone media dependence of university students.