An Assessment Of Facebook And Radio Advertisements On The Purchasing Habits Of University Students.
[A CASE STUDY OF GODFREY OKOYE UNIVERSITY THINKERS CORNER ENUGU]

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 Introduction

               This chapter is concerned with the methodology used in this study. It comprises the research design, population of study, sample size, sampling technique and the unit of analysis adopted in the study.

3.2 Research Design

According to Asika (1991), the specific purpose of research design is to obtain data that will enable the researcher to test hypothesis or answer the research questions of the study. Business Dictionary (2016); defined Research Design as a detailed outline of how an investigation will take place. It typically includes how data is collected, what instruments will be employed, how the instruments will be used and the intended means of analyzing data collected.

The design considered most suitable for this study is the survey research method . It is considered most suitable largely due to the following; it has the most stated objective (focus).  It guides the researcher in the process of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting observations. It is a logical model of proof that enables the investigator to draw inferences concerning casual relations among the variables being investigated. According to Owuamalan (2012) survey enables the researcher to deal with the of characteristics of the chosen set of people whose opinion ,behavior and attitudes are essential for the collection of information required by the study ,The reason for choosing this method is because it aims not only at collecting data but also at discovering the meaning in the data collected in order to better understand ,interpret and explain them.

3.3 Population of Study

Population of study in Nwosu (2006, p.49) refers to a group of people, objects or events which the researcher deliberately decides to study primarily to obtain necessary data needed to solve a  given problem.

The population used in the course of this research is based on the number of students found in Godfrey Okoye University, Thinkers Corner Enugu. According to the data gotten from the Admission unit of the school, the school has a total number of 1,816 students. According to Owuamalam (2012) , it is difficult to with an entire population especially where the population is large. Therefore a manageable number of the subjects has to be selected to represent the entire population. This fraction of a population that represents it is known as a sample size.

3.4 Sampling Technique / sample size

For the purpose of this research the researcher would be using the multi stage cluster sampling method, for  the first stage , my population would be divided into five strata namely ,

1. Faculty of management and social sciences which has the following departments under it;

a. Mass communication – 174

b. Psychology and sociology - 113

c. Political science and International relations - 210

d. Economics -133

e. Business Management – 137

 f. Accountancy and Banking and finance - 78

All with the total population of 845.

2. Faculty of Arts which has the following departments under it;

a. English and literary studies – 14

b. History, international studies , diplomacy and philosophy – 17

c. Music – 3

d. Philosophy – 3

All with the total population of 37.

3. Faculty of Education and it has the following departments under it ;

a. Arts and social science education – 135

b. Science and vocational education – 90

Which brings the total population to 225.

4. Faculty of Natural and Applied science  which has the following departments under it ;

a. Architecture and Industrial design.

b. Biotechnology and Applied biology.

c. Chemical sciences.

d. Computer science and mathematics.

e. Microbiology.

f. Physical geosciences.

This brings the total population of this department to 645.

5. Faculty of law has one department which is the department of law with a population of 62.

For the second stage of the research ‘s multistage cluster sampling , the respondents that would be studied are those who are students under the university and students have access to these media channels which are facebook and radio ,so for this reason  the researcher decided to adopt the purposive sampling technique .

A sample is a subset of the population studied and from where results are gotten which could be referred to the entire  population and Anaekwe (2007) agrees with this statement as he said that a sample is simply a portion of the population which is studied with a view to generalizing there from , to the entire population .

The sample size was derived using  Wimmer and Domminick online calculator with an error margin of 5% , the sample size is 317. And to get the number of questionnaires that would go to each department the researcher divided the sample size by the number of departments which is

317÷

18

=17.4 meaning 17 questionnaires would go to each department.

3.5 Description of research instrument :

The instrument used in collecting data in this research is the questionnaire. Questionnaire is a research instrument which consist of a series of questions set to gather data from the intended respondents and this is better explained by the Encyclopedia of research methods (2008) the questionnaire is the main instrument for collecting data in survey research.

3.6 Validity and Reliability of data gathering instruments.

  Any measuring instrument designed for use in a research study should be able to be useful in obtaining the required data necessary for addressing the problems which the study is designed to deal with, Owuamalam (2012) .

According to Odo(1992:59) validity is the process of finding out the degree to which in a measure will yield similar results for the same subjects at different times or under different conditions on a consistent, dependable, stable, predictable and accruable way. The instrument was designed and given to research experts and the project supervisor for their input and validation.

The reliability of the instrument is in degree to which it can yield consistent findings when replicated. To establish the reliability of the already designed instrument, a pilot study was conducted and 10 questionnaires distributed, to ascertain respondents understanding of the question and to ensure that the questionnaire is devoid of all ambiguity, Owuamalam (2012) explained that a pilot study is a self correcting format which enables the researcher to produce a final copy of the questionnaire.

 Thirdly the researcher used a post testing technique where the same number of questions were issued to the same respondents to ascertain if similar results will be obtained.

3.7 Method of data collection

The survey was conducted during school hours to ensure undivided attention from the students. A total of 317 questionnaires were issued to the students, however the researcher received 267 questionnaires back out of the total questionnaires issued and 27 were reported invalid.

3.8 Method of data presentation and analysis.

The derived data were analyzed using tables with simple percentage and bar chart. The choice  of these tools are to present and analyze data in the simplest form possible.