Off-campus UNL users: To download campus access dissertations, please use the following link to log into our proxy server with your NU ID and password. When you are done browsing please remember to return to this page and log out.
Non-UNL users: Please talk to your librarian about requesting this dissertation through interlibrary loan.
The newspaper in literacy education: A Q sort analysis of adult learners' attitudes toward newspapers
Abstract
Since the mid-1980s newspapers increasingly have been used as part of the curriculum for adult learners in literacy programs. The primary reasons for this: (1) newspapers are considered effective at improving adult learning skills; (2) newspaper content is deemed useful for adults; (3) newspapers serve the democratic process. It is also the hope within the newspaper industry that, through the use of newspapers in literacy classes, new adult readers will cultivate the newsreading habit. While much has been written about the positive affects of newspaper use in adult literacy education, there has not been much attention given to what the adult learner has to say--especially in terms of whether the newspaper fulfills the kinds of uses and needs which the experts say it should. The purpose of this study was to examine attitudes about newspapers held by adult learners in literacy programs. The researcher performed a principle components factor analysis on data obtained from the Q sorts of 47 subjects from select Adult Basic Education programs in Central Nebraska. Thirty-two subjects loaded significantly $(p<0.01)$ and independently on the emerging four factor solution. The four factors, which represent four structures of persons sharing similar attitudes about newspapers, were labeled (a) Good Citizens, (b) Gregarians, (c) Pragmatics, and (d) Pragmatic Skeptics. The investigator also sought to determine if the a priori categories of newspapers needs/uses were reflected in attitudes about newspapers among subjects participating in this study. And while most subjects found some dimensions of the Utilitarian needs/uses category as important to them, this category was not strongly represented. Nor did the subjects find the Self-Enhancing or Escapist qualities of newspapers to be of value to them. Two of the factors, however, related strongly to the Socio-Political and Integrative needs/uses categories. Demographic data was used to describe subjects who loaded significantly on each factor. Implications for practical application were also discussed.
Subject Area
Adult education|Continuing education|Curricula|Teaching|Journalism
Recommended Citation
Lomicky, Carol S, "The newspaper in literacy education: A Q sort analysis of adult learners' attitudes toward newspapers" (1996). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9712516.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9712516