The effect of online newspapers on shaping the public opinion of high school students Shorish, and frishta high school students as a case study
Authors: Ahmed Ramazan Omer 
Published: May 2022

Information and communication technology has helped to build communication between peoples of all different civilizations, bypassing the political, geographical, and cultural isolation that most human societies lived in. The online newspapers have played an effective role in providing people with a lot of information, attitudes and directions, contributing to this informing awareness and preparing it to be more able to influence and persuade others, And to witness a dynamic movement of development As a result of his transformation to text, visual and auditory media. Also helped to activate participation to fulfil the desire of each common category of interests, and it affected the interaction and the formation of public opinion. Nowadays online newspapers are among the means that play an important role in raising young people and giving them different habits and behaviors as a tool for social change and development since It provides them with opportunities to benefit from the new activities available to them to interact with other people, And therefore It reflects on forming a public opinion towards a social issue or phenomenon that is important to society, forms this point of view. This study came to know the effect of online newspapers on forming public opinion among high school students. The purpose of this study is to identify the impact of online newspapers on forming public opinion among high school students and the nature of the connection of high school students with the online newspapers, and how much benefit do they gain from this connection as well as know their usage rates, and reveal the students trust toward what online newspaper will publish. This study used Descriptive research; the researcher relied on the survey method, for the research tool the researcher designed a questionnaire form to survey students’ opinions, collect facts and information, and then analyse them. This study consists of three chapters: In the first chapter, we explained the methodology of the study; the second chapter is a literature review. The third chapter is the Field side of the study. Summarize the most prominent conclusions the study found are the following: The results of the study indicated that the use of the mobile device came first with 73.4%, while the use of the computer with 25% came in second place. The researcher believes that this is due to the availability of internet connection, and the time allocated for browsing inside and outside the high school campus, also it provides adequate privacy in the browsing process. While those reasons are not available in the use of computers, this on the one hand, and the other hand, clarified the youth’s addiction to mobile use significantly. And this needs more research and investigation. The results of the study show that a high percentage (63.3%) of the respondents believed positively about what was published by political party’s online newspapers; this confirms the influence and presence of political party’s among young people. The use of high school students for online newspapers for several reasons and motivated utilitarian, this is one of the most important factors influencing the formation of public opinion trends among high school students. The study proved the validity of the Alternative charging, that there is a statistically significant correlation between the demographic variables of high school students and the impact of online newspapers on forming their public opinion.

In light of the findings of the study, the researcher recommended several recommendations and suggestions as follows: Enriching the scientific and academic effort by conducting sequential studies on the impact of online newspapers in general, it includes the various segments of society this is due to its role and importance in shaping public opinion in the Kurdistan Region. Spreading awareness among young people about the role of online newspapers and their impact on developing their personalities and guiding them to make optimal use of online newspapers.