The Adoption of Online Survey Tools and their Effect on Survey Errors in Media and Communication Studies

Abstract

Media and communication research can occasionally suffer from the inability of researchers to access their study populations due to prohibitive costs or other factors that make it difficult to incentivize audiences to participate in studies. With the significant uptick in the adoption of digital tools to achieve tasks online, media and communication researchers are able to transfer their research methods to online environments, a reality which could have important implications in the practice of carrying out research. There is an increasing array of options available online for such methods as the survey and in-depth interview method, which allow for the administration of the researcher’s methodology in an environment that has been described in literature as being convenient, verifiable and low on delivery cost. This study investigates the adoption of these tools in media and communication research in Nigeria as well as the impact of these digital tools on improving response rates and coverage errors in survey research. The study was carried out using the survey method to conduct a case study of final year and post graduate mass communication students in Ajayi Crowther University. The study found a significant rate of adoption of survey tools for media and communication studies.