A Study of College Student Business Media Habits Andperceptions of the Wall Street Journal

A Study of College Student Business Media Habits andPerceptions of the Wall Street Journal: Part 2

Christopher M. Brockman, Ph.D., CPA

Assistant Professor of Finance

Beverly K. Brockman, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Marketing

Bento Lobo, Ph.D.

Associate Professor of Finance

Debbie Archambeault, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Accounting

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

College of Business Administration

615 McCallie Avenue

Chattanooga, TN 37403

A Study of College Student Business Media Habits and

Perceptions of the Wall Street Journal: Part 2

ABSTRACT

This study is an extension of previous research in which upper level (juniors and seniors) principles of finance students and upper level advanced finance students are surveyed concerning their business media habits and their perceptions of the Wall Street Journal (Lobo, Brockman, and Brockman 2006). The results of that earlier work show significant differences in the media habits of these beginning and advanced finance students and indicate that both finance coursework and a separate WSJ project influence student perceptions of theWSJ.

In this current study, beginning and advanced business students (consisting of finance, accounting, marketing, management, and entrepreneurshipmajors) are surveyed concerning similar issues pertaining to their business media habits and perceptions of the Wall Street Journal. Furthermore, issues such as the students’ age, gender, major, and GPA are examined for potential influential factors.

Beginning business students are represented by students in Business Management 100 (BMGT 100), Computers in Business. This class is designed for business majors and is offered to students at any rank (freshman, sophomore, junior, senior), but students are encouraged to take this class during the first semester of their freshman years. Thus, BMGT 100 is generally the first “business” class that a business major would take.

Advanced business students are represented by students in Business Management 441 (BMGT 441), Senior Seminar. This course is required for all business majors and can only be taken during the students’ senior year. Thus, this class is generally one of the last classes a student will take in the College of Business.

The hypotheses in this study are summarized as follows:

H1 : Beginning and advanced business students show no differences in their perceptions of the WSJ

H1a: Beginning and advanced business students consider the WSJ equally easy to understand

H1b: Beginning and advanced business students consider the WSJ to be equally intimidating

H1c: Beginning and advanced business students consider the WSJ to be equally important

H1d: Beginning and advanced business students consider the WSJ to be equally useful

H2 : There is no difference in the business media habits of beginning and advanced business students

H2a: There is no difference in the business media reading habits of beginning and advanced business students

H2b: There is no difference in the business media viewing habits of beginning and advanced business students

H3 : Academic specialization (major) has no impact on student perceptions of the WSJ

PRELIMINARY RESULTS

Student Business Media Habits

The survey results in Table 1 indicate that there are differences in the business media habits of beginning (BMGT 100) and advanced (BMGT 441) business students. On a weekly basis, beginning business students listen to fewer business programs on the radio, read the business section of the local newspaper less often,read the WSJ less often, read other business periodicals less often, and go to the Internet for business news and information less often than advanced business students.

General Perceptions of the WSJ

Results from the survey shown in Table 1 indicate that advanced business students (BMGT 441) have very different perceptions of the WSJ than the beginning business students (BMGT 100) The BMGT 441 students find the WSJ easier to understand as their mean response to the survey item pertaining to their understanding of the topics in the WSJis 4.4 compared to 3.9 for the BMGT 100 students. The advanced students also feel that the WSJ is a more useful tool in making business decisions than do the beginning students. This result can be seen in the means of 5.1 for the BMGT 441 students and of 4.8 for the BMGT 100 students. With regard to how important it is for a college student to read the WSJ, BMGT 441 students feel that it is more important (mean of 4.8) than do BMGT 100 students (mean of 4.3). BMGT 441 students also feel that it is important for college students to keep up with current events and with personal finance matters to a greater extent than beginning BGMT 100 students do. All of these findings are consistent with what one would expect from the effects of continued business coursework on students’ understanding and overall perceptions of the WSJ.

Table 1 also reveals that the BMGT 100 students find the WSJ to be slightly less intimidating to read on a regular basis as their mean response to this survey item is 3.8 compared to 3.7 for the BMGT 441 students. Beginning business students also feel more strongly than the advanced student that a class project involving the WSJ would greatly help their understanding of business concepts. These last two results could be explained by the idea that perhaps the beginning business students have not been required to read the WSJ to the extent that advanced students have or been required to understand and utilize the more technical aspects and articles in the WSJ.

Perceptions of the WSJ

When examining the survey results across the individual business majors for the students’ perception of the WSJ, the results are what one would expect. In general, the finance majors at all levels have a better perception of the WSJ and in the importance of reading the WSJ. Finance majors are then followed by Accounting majors, Finance/Accounting double majors, Entrepreneurship majors, Marketing majors, other majors, and lastly Management majors.

Student Business Media Habits across Majors

When examining the survey results across the individual business majors for the students’ business media habits, the results here are also what one would expect. In general, the finance majors at all levels access the various business media more times per week than other majors. They are followed by Entrepreneurship, Accounting, and then Finance/Accounting double majors.