The Influence of TV News on Youth: Trust, Perception and Mental Health Impact

Television is considered a powerful mass medium, which is not only meant for dissemination and analyzing the news but also the credibility and worth of news line being broadcasted. The influence of TV news channels has been massive from 21st century. The aim of this research is to take the opinion of youth to check the credibility of TV news in Pakistan as compare to the news shared on social media. (Zuzana Rojková, 2015) explores, television has got acceptance as compared to the other media on the issue of prime importance. Everyone wants to know about the happenings around the world and put trust in news channels and the masses without critical thinking accepts all the information. People use internet frequently but still questions the credibility as compare to the traditional media. (Johnson, 1998) further concluded the study that people do have credibility issues with traditional media but they are neglected because they are very less as compare to digital media. This quantitative research is based on survey methodology. By applying purposive sampling technique on 116 students selected from private universities; UMT and USKT of Sialkot Pakistan. The data was collected from media department students of private university by using 5 Likert close ended questionnaire. 46.6% of respondents agree that political parties influence TV news, and 22.4% strongly agree. 40.5% of respondents agree that they trust Pakistani news channels over international ones, while 24.1% remain neutral. This suggests a moderate level of trust. 50.9% of respondents still prefer TV news over social media, suggesting a foundation for rebuilding trust through better reporting.