School of Communication Student Channels Study: How Do College Students Communicate?

Abstract

College students use different channels of communication to stay in contact with friends and family as well as coworkers and classmates. The channels of communication vary between intimate, such as text messaging, and professional, such as email. This study examines the channels of communication that a medium-sized southern university’s school of communication students use to communicate in their different networks. To determine the methods of communication, the students were surveyed on their social media usage and interactions with the School of Communication. Students also participated in a focus group discussion to elaborate on the survey results. A comparison of the data shows that students prefer to use social media and other informal methods to communicate with their family and peers but would prefer to use more professional methods to communicate with professors and other faculty.