Subjective Norms as a Driver of Mass Communication Students’ Intentions to Adopt New Media Production Technologies:

AbstractIn this study, the impact of subjective norms on mass communication students' intentions to adopt new media production technologies was explored. The results indicated that subjective norms play an instrumental role in explaining behavioral intentions to adopt new media technologies. Moreover, the data indicated that public relations students scored slightly lower on the behavioral intentions scale than their advertising and journalism colleagues. However, no evidence was found that the relationship between subjective norms and behavioral intentions differs on the basis of major classification. This study concludes by discussing practical implications for educators tasked with providing instruction on new media production tools.Keywordsnew media, subjective norms, technological adoption, advertising, journalism, public relationsPostsecondary mass communication programs are in the midst of an ongoing struggle to identify best practices as they relate to instruction on the uses and applications of new media production tools.1 Clearly, equipping advertising, journalism, and public relations students with basic new media production competencies has become an important focus for most, if not all, professional mass communication programs in the United States.2 That said, and despite massive and often financially burdensome changes to their schools' curriculum, those charged with course design are still grappling with a host of questions related to how to best educate large numbers of students interested in careers that are, themselves, in a state of flux. Marron summa- rized this issue by saying that mass communication educators are "coping with digital technologies that have revolutionized the discipline and with the challenge of how to best prepare students for a professional and entrepreneurial world" that cannot be accurately predicted.3In an effort to provide some clarity to the issue, this study discusses data collected from students attending a large, state-funded university4 that requires all advertising, journalism, and public relations majors to take a twelve-credit, three-course sequence covering both traditional and new media production techniques. The course, called Gateway to Media, is the first course taken once major status has been declared and is generally taken in the sophomore or junior year.5Specifically, to maximize the relevancy of the present study, data were collected at the very beginning of the Gateway to Media course, which, in effect, represented the very beginning of each student's in-major coursework. Understanding that different course configurations and instructor approaches (related to instruction on new media technologies) may result in differing student outcomes, the purpose of this work was to measure perceptions of factors related to the adoption of new media production tech- nologies before students had received formal, hands-on training as part of their degree coursework. By providing a cross-sectional snapshot of students' perceptions at the beginning of their in-major coursework, the hope is that the information presented in this work will help inform educators currently tasked with identifying best practices for teaching both old and new media skills to mass communication students.Literature ReviewWhile scholarly efforts have been devoted to better understanding technological adop- tion on the part of postsecondary instructors,6 comparatively little is known about the factors that influence students' technological adoption. In fact, a thorough review of the literature failed to find any study that appraised and compared the factors underly- ing the career-driven technological adoption intentions of advertising, journalism, or public relations students from a social-psychological perspective.7 Given the prevail- ing notion that social influences are a key driver of behavioral intentions and that user acceptance of technology is crucial to the successful implementation of any techno- logical initiative,8 gaining a better understanding of the internal factors that influence student technological adoption will likely be helpful to educators seeking to imple- ment and/or refine curricula that involve instruction on new media production tech- nologies. …