The role of virtual social media in raising awareness of household waste separation (case study: Instagram users)
Subject Areas : wasteFouziyeh Baikpour 1 , Afsaneh Mozaffari 2 , soroush fathi 3
1 - MSc Faculty of Humanities, Islamic Azad University, Tehran West Branch, Tehran, Iran. *(Corresponding Author)
2 - Associate Professor, Department of Communication Sciences, Faculty of Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Science and Research Branch. Tehran, Iran.
3 - Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Humanities, Islamic Azad University, Tehran West Branch. Tehran, Iran.
Keywords: virtual social networks, household waste, social media, Instagram and environment.,
Abstract :
Background and Objective: The growth in population leads to industrialization, urbanization, and increase in the standard of living due to the rapid increase in the consumption of materials, so the increase in solid and liquid waste materials. Raising awareness among the communities has been one of the long-term goals of the media. This research aims to study the relationship between the virtual network (Instagram) and desire to participate in preserving the environment and raising awareness of household waste separation among Tehran citizens.
Material and Methodology: The type of research method is a descriptive survey, and because the research is a survey, in doing so a resaerch made questioner was used in this matter. The sampling method was a multi-stage cluster (simple random sampling). Therefore, 150 questionnaires were distributed randomly (in the form of messages) among Instagram users, and out of these150 questionnaires, 126questionnaires were collected completely. Environmental participation has been operationalized as dependent on environmental behaviour and cooperation. The statistical population of our research is estimated at 250 Instagram users.
Findings: The findings of the main hypothesis of the research show that, based on the results obtained from the analysis of the research data, the main hypothesis is confirmed, and the result obtained from the Pearson test of the hypothesis, the existence of a direct effect is accepted at the confidence level of 95%. Based on the obtained result, this effect is evaluated as strong.
Discussion and conclusion: Based on the results obtained from the analysis of the path of significance related to the investigation of the role of news dissemination (0.72), improving the level of information and awareness (0.60), social use (0.58) and trust in social media (1.00). It has been estimated that the awareness of household waste segregation (Instagram users) has a positive and significant relationship
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