Research on the Influence of Mass Communication on College Students’ Environmental Behavior from the Perspective of Media Convergence

Abstract

This article studies how mass communication affects the environmental protection on the behaviors of college students. With the intensification of global warming and the frequent occurrence of extreme weather, natural environmental issues have become one of the concerns of the entire human society. Mass media has infinite and vivid characteristics. Audiences obtain environmental information through various forms of mass communication activities, generate understanding, and then transform it into practical actions including pro-environmental behavior. Therefore, the purpose of this study will mainly explore whether mass communication in the age of media convergence will affect the environmental behavior of college students, and verify whether the level of education will affect the environmental behavior of college students. This study surveyed the environmental behavior of 614 college students. Independent sample t-tests were performed using SPSS statistical tools, and ANOVA was used for univariate analysis. The significance level is set to α = 0.05. The results are analyzed as follows: 1. In mass communication, there are significant differences in the pro-environmental behavior of college students in interpersonal communication. 2. In mass communication, there is no significant difference in the environmental protection behavior of college students in traditional media communication. 3. In digital media communication, there is a significant difference in the private sphere of college students’ pro-environment behavior, but there is no significant difference in the public sphere. The conclusion of this study indicates that mass communication and education have important effects on the environmental behavior of college students.