Influence of Mass Media on Students Academic Performance

Background of the Study

Man is a social being and hence; will find a way to satisfy his need for communication. Richmond and McCroskey (2009) state that "the importance of communication in human society has been recognized for thousands of years, far longer than we can demonstrate through recorded history. It is said that humans communicate to request help, to inform others, to share attitudes as a way of bonding and strengthen relationships.

Modern Technology in communication no doubt has turned the entire world into a “Global Village”. But as it is, technology like two sides of a coin, bring with it both the negative and positive sides. It helps people to be better informed, enlightened, and keeps him abreast of developments. Technology exposes mankind to a better way of doing things. The world’s first commercial space communication company created by the United State Congress in 1962 was the communication satellite corporation (COMSAT).sources In 1964, the United State Government and eleven (11) foreign Nations signed a space communication pact. The Partnership was known as “International Telecommunication Satellite Organization (INTELSAT). The internet known as the worlds “Information Super Highway” is a worldwide assemblage of Inter- Connected Computer Networks (Andrew, 2005). Paul (2010, p.301), notes that the internet is a massive “network of networks”,  a networking infrastructure which connects millions of computers together globally, forming a network in which any computer can communicate with each other as long as they are both connected to the internet. The network consists of Local Area Network (LAN), connecting computers in the same building while Wide Area Network (WANs) connects several LANs in different locations. It connects both private, commercial, government and academic networks including a grown number of home computers. (www.webopedia.com)

According to Andrew (2005, p.284), “Information travels over the internet through a variety of language known as “Protocols”. The term “internet” is actually a short form for “internet networks”, which implies that the internet is a network of computer networks. Computer accepts data, processes them, stores them and gives it out when required. It became possible for people to chat from ‘terminals’ which led to networking. A line is the part along which resources flow, while a node is the point where lines intersect transferring resources to new lines. (www.glreach.com/globalstates)

History of the Internet

There are conflicting versions about the origin of the internet but the common story is that the internet is a product of the cold war. (Hafner and Lyon, 1996, p.116). Its origin is traced back to 1957, when the Soviet Union launched ‘Sputnik 1 into space, as a reaction to this, in 1958, the United States founded the Advanced Research Project Agency (ARPA), a special agency under the department of defense whose mission was to develop a long term highly innovative and hazard research projects (Cartoni and Tarding, 2006, p.26).In 1962, the air force wanting to maintain the military’s ability to transfer information around the country even if a given area was destroyed in an enemy’s attack, commissioned leading computer scientist to do so. ARPANET, the first prototype of the internet, was developed by the ARPA department and saw the light in 1969 when four (4) of United States Universities (University of California Los Angeles, University of California Santa Barbara, Stanford Research  Institute Polo Atto, and University of Utah) were connected by network of computers (Lorenzo and Stefano,2010).

Leonard Klein rock of UCLA successfully developed the first computer network through “packet switching” to the concept of “distributed network”, two sources

Fundamental concurrent inventions in the field of computer science, packet switching is a process that allows division of messages into packets and sending them to their destination following different routes, once they arrive at their destination, they are all recomposed into the original message. Paul in 1960 developed the concept of distributed network funded by United States Air force at the research and development corporation (RAND) which is aimed at developing a telecommunication network which can stand a nuclear war. (Paul, 1964, p.220 223).  The growth of ARPANET accelerated in the second half of the 1980s, through computer protocol (Tcp/lp) Transmission control protocol/Internet protocol which was adopted by ARPANET (Vinton, 1969 UCLA) in 1983 and is still the core of internet. ‘The transition of Tcp/lp was perhaps the most important event that will take place in the invention of the internet.  After the installation of Tcp, the network could branch everyone’ (Hafner and Lyon, 1998, p.249).In the same year, after the end of ARPANETs experimental phase, the network was split into two; A civilian network for the computer research community (ARPA internet) and military network (MILNET). In 1980, ARPANET was replaced by NSFANET created by National Science Foundation and in 1990, ARPANET was officially decommissioned and the commercial use of the internet was allowed in 1991, (Berners-Lee, 2000, p.223). In 1995, the internet was just one networking system among many others such as Usenet, Fido net, Mintel, AT$T, but with advent of the web, the internet became by far the most important networking system. That led to what is now known as internet, a global network of interconnected computers that communicate freely, share and exchange information (Paul, 2010). The younger a person, the greater the likelihood he or she has access to the internet (Kim, 2004).

Social Network

Early 1990s, chat rooms and bulletin boards were forms of Social Networking in a way, they help people to connect with others and share interest. A little cater; dating sites hooked those looking for partners and class mates. Communication allows people to connect with people they had known in high school and colleges and enable them to meet others. 

In the early 20s, a site called Fraudster was set up where people invited their friends and their friends also invited others. The site was popular for a while, but suffered from technical difficulties and fake profiles and began to lose members. In 1999, MySpace took over but became popular in 2003. Its roots are a bit muddy because it received financial and logistical support from another company called the E-Universe and most of the early users were Employers of e-universe but Tom Anderson and Chris DE Wolfe are given credit for much of the innovation and success of the site, which built up to one hundred and fifteen million users worldwide. Members post BIOS, photos, blogs, video and other things that strike their fancy. (Retrieved November 7th2012) www.mudconnect.com. 

Some Television Programmers’ had started producing programmers’ to air on MySpace in 2005; Rupert Murdoclis News Corporation (parent of fox broadcasting) bought MySpace for five hundred and eighty million dollars ($580). A competitor to MySpace is face book which started in about 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg while he was a student at Harvard and grew rapidly in 2007.