Abstract:
Access and use of electronic media is fast expanding in Developing countries, Tanzania
included. The current study was designed with a general objective of determining the
effects of electronic media on children’s self/private reading behavior. The study
specifically aimed at identifying the common electronic media accessed by children and
adolescents; to determine the average number of hours spent by children on electronic
media consumption; to assess the influence of electronic media to children private/self
reading behaviour; and to determine the perception of parents towards access and use of
electronic media by children self/private reading behaviour. The study was conducted in
Morogoro municipality and in Mgeta division in Mvomero district. A cross-sectional
research design was used, whereby a total of 80 respondents were interviewed, these
included school children, parents, guardians, and school teachers. A pre-structured
questionnaire was used in collecting the primary data. In addition to this focused group
discussions and in-depth interviews with key informants was conducted. Quantitative data
were analysed using a Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) program. Generally,
descriptive and inferential statistics were determined to enable an understanding of the
influence of electronic media on children’s self/private study. Structural and content
analysis was used to analyse data from FDGs and the in-depth interviews. Observations
from the study show that although there are numerous effects associated with children
consumption of electronic media, there were no significant effects between consumption
of electronic media and children self/private reading behaviour. Furthermore, the study
revealed that the common electronic media accessed by children and adolescents is
television and that both children and their parents have a positive perception towards
consumption of electronic media. In addition parents/guardians had some control
measures in place on children consumption of electronic media and there was generally a
high awareness level on the importance of self/private reading to children.
