A Study of the Relationship between Media Consumption and Feeling of Justice among the Students of Mazandaran University

• Main Authors: Mohamadesmaeil Riahi, Samane Eskandari, Behzad Hakiminya
• Format: Article
• Language: fas
• Published: University of Isfahan 2018-09-01
• Series: جامعه شناسی کاربردی
• Subjects: Feeling of Justice; Mass Media; Media Consumption
• Online Access: http://jas.ui.ac.ir/article_22736_7808c5d46c29247087a6283608a3c622.pdf
• ISSN: 2008-5745; 2322-343X

<strong>Introduction</strong> The issue of justice has long been one of the main concerns of human thought and its nature and mode of realization are essential and fundamental questions of history. Like many philosophical, political, and social questions, the discussion of justice can be tracked in ancient Greece (Plato and Aristotle). Aristotle's view of justice is influenced by his general theory of the hierarchical nature of the world. In his view, since creatures differ in terms of ability and merit, therefore, justice means to treat each person as they deserve it (Tinder, 1995: 54). Justice in social life has two special effects: the implementation of justice and the sense of justice. The implementation of justice is the same as what is sometimes given in the definition of justice at the legislative level, that is, the construction, structure and system of judicial system. In this case, it is not only about the law of justice or the issuance of a just sentence, but rather the general perception and belief that the executive and the judiciary in the courts have adhered to. The present study, considering the importance of the sense of justice in different areas of social life, as well as the important role of mass media in shaping beliefs, ideas and patterns of thinking and collective action in contemporary societies, investigates the relationship between media consumption with the feeling of justice among students of Mazandaran University. Students are considered to be the most important human capital of any country. The historic record of nations had made it clear that any country with interest in human capital achieves high levels of welfare with speed and quality. On the contrary, countries that have suffered stagnation due to their structural weakness or any other reason in developing  their thoughts have not performed well in this area (Kalantari, 1993: 55). Accordingly, the questions that this article attempts to answer is: how media consumption can influence audience's feeling of justice? Is the relationship between the amount of media consumption and the feeling of justice differs with different types of media (newspaper, satellite / Internet TV)?   <strong>Material & Methods</strong> A survey method has been used to investigate the relationship between media consumption and feeling of justice among students of Mazandaran University. For this purpose, using the available literature, an appropriate questionnaire was first developed and then data was collected. After questionnaires were filled out, the data were analyzed using SPSS. The population of this study consists of undergraduate, graduate and postgraduate students of Mazandaran University in the first semester of the academic year 1391-92. The number of students enrolled in the campus of Mazandaran University was 9819 at that time. To determine the sample size, Cochran formula was used with 95% confidence level and 5% confidence interval. Based on this, using the Cochran formula, a sample of 370 was nominated, but more than 450 questionnaires were distributed in order to be sure that we could at least have 400 acceptable questionnaires to work on. Sampling was random and proportional in terms of the study major and gender. We divided the students into 10 classes according to their major .     <strong>Discussion of Results & Conclusions</strong> Out of a total of 400 individuals, 66.3% (265) were female and 33.7% (135) were male. The highest number of respondents (48%) was in the age group of 17-17 years and the lowest number of respondents (1%) were in the age group of 29 years and more. In terms of marital status, single respondents were much more, with 91.7% of them never married, while 7.7% were married and 0.6% had divorced or their spouse had died. Also, the number of undergraduate students was 85.5%, while 13% and 1.5% of the students were in postgraduate studies. Finally, regarding the socio-economic status of the family, more than half of the students (52.5%) belonged to lower class families, while the number of students belonging to families with middle and high socio-economic status were 40.3% and 7.2% respectively.The result show that there is a significant relationship between watching national TV and feeling of justice (P = 0/176, Sig = 0/001) and also the feeling of justice distribution (P = .137, Sig = 0/008). This is a positive relationship which means watching national TV increases the feeling of justice and justice distribution. In contrast, there is a meaningful but negative relationship between watching international TV (satellite) and  feeling of justice (P = -0.143, Sig = 0/006) and distributive justice (P = .151 / 0, Sig = 0/004). Also, the relationship between Internet use and feeling of justice is not significant (P = 0.127, Sig = 0.127). Also, the relationship between reading newspaper and feeling of justice is not significant (P = 0.122, P = 0.824). The results of this study show that the overall feeling of justice in 48.2% of students is low. Meanwhile, the average overall feeling of justice (35.40 out of 100) was also relatively low. These findings are consistent with the results of Ghasemi and others  (2010), Hazard Jirobi and Austin Fashan (2009) and Seddiq Sarvestani and Dhaghkele (2008). These results reflect the critical condition of the country in terms of the feeling of justice that is one of the essential components of social stability. The great feeling of injustice may also challenge the legitimacy of the system and increase social misery and unrest, social deviations and reduce the sense of social security (Ahmadi et al., 1393; Delna and Ghanbari, 2006; Rafi Pour, 1998). ). So in addition to the effect of media consumption on the feeling of justice directly, this variable can also affect the feeling of justice through feeling of security; the media consumption variable in a structural model has a direct and significant effect on the sense of justice (Khwaja Nouri And Kaveh, 1392). The results of this study also show that there is an inverse relation between the age of respondents and their sense of justice. These findings are consistent with previous research such as Sediq Sarvestani and Dhaghkele (2008).