Young Adults' Perception of Media's Role in Drug Abuse Awareness

This study will do investigation on the perception of young adults about the role of media in creating awareness about drug abuse. In this modern age the use of drug is increasing day by day. Drug abuse is very common in mostly young people and they are not properly aware about what they are using and what could be the result of drug abuse. Mass media has become a key player in socialization and social change and people rely on mass media news. In this modern era of technology media is playing a huge role in our society so this is very important for the media to play its role in creating awareness about drug abuse.

A co-relation survey method based on quantitative research approach will be designed to identify the objectives of this study. This study will examine how much coverage main stream media is giving in order to aware people about drug abuse. This study will aware people that media should play its role about creating awareness about drug abuse in young adults. There will be a study that how much students are aware about the drug abuse and its effects. In this research questionnaire survey will be conducted by doing purposive sampling.

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Introduction/Background of the Study

Drug abuse is a drug in amounts or through practices that damage an individual or others. Drug abuse is when you use drugs in a way that you should not. You can use medication to make you feel good, stress-relieving or reality avoidance. Drugs are chemicals which influence the brain and body. Similar medications can have different effects on a body. Many medicines have long term effects and they can effect on the health badly. For example, when the drug injected in a bloodstream directly then it effects immediately while ingestion in body is delayed. Ultimately, drug can effect the ability of the brain and stops the ability of a person to choose which results in intense fear and compulsory use of drugs. This habit can over time grow into dependency on a substance or drug dependence. Drug usage problems are related to a variety of health effects which can be both short and long term. It may vary depending on the type of medicine and how many time it is taken, and the overall health condition of a person. By doing drug abuse there can be deadliest effects on the body and every part or organ of a body can be effected.

People of every age have their problem with the use of drugs and it vary in every person. Some people use recreational drugs just to experience them or in their curiosity to check them. However, it can lead them to drug abuse and addiction, not only illegal drugs like cocaine or heroin. There are many medications like painkillers, sleeping pills etc. which may cause similar issues with prescription medications. Obviously, drug use whether it is illegal or prescribed doesn’t take someone to drug abuse automatically. Some people can take recreational or prescription drugs without any adverse effect, while others believe that the use of medications affects their health and well-being. (Dejong, 2002).

There is no particular issue when use of drugs moves from daily routine to problem in life. If the use of drug is creating problem in someone’s life and like school, home or in a relationship then they have a problem of drug abuse or they are addicted to drugs. If drug is fulfilling some important need then you can rely on it. Then you will take medicines or illegal drugs to calm yourself or to make yourself energetic. You will risk your life more when you start abusing the medicines and some illegal drugs to fill a gap in your life or to complete your work at school or to make yourself busy just to focus on something (Alford, 1983).

In educational institutions throughout Pakistan, drug abuse is increasing day by day. Students in the universities or schools are using drugs at higher rate and they are putting their lives in danger and they are risking the lives of people who are around them like their parents and friends. There are several reasons why students are drug addicted. In such families where parents do not give time to their families then adults of those families start abusing drugs. In this modern age people use drugs just to look cool and that’s why they get addicted to drugs and this is the one of the main reason of getting addict to drugs. Then there are a lot of friends who force them to use drugs. If there are some people who are safe from drugs then people don’t accept them in their groups.

In this modern age the use of drug is increasing day by day. Drug abuse is very common in mostly young people and they are not properly aware about what they are using and what could be the result of drug abuse. In this modern era of technology media is playing a huge role in our society so this is very important for the media to play its role in creating awareness about drug abuse. Mass media is now a big agent in socialization and in this era people started believing what they are watching on news and they are relying on media news. Media has a potential to solve many social issues of the society. When people watch a lot of advertisements about any product or service on tv then they would like to use that product or service. Under conventional wisdom, mass communications could be used to get people to act for their own good, health or to do right things. (DeJong & Winsten, 2000).

Media plays an important role in development of a country because people watch media for information and they rely on it. Mass media is a channel where any message on media can reach to a lot of people at one time. Mass media transfer its ideas and information to target people of the society to achieve its goal. Media is a powerful source where we can get any type of information and media can reach to every part of the society. Media can inject any idea in a society or awareness about some serious issue of by using different tools (Nelson, 2013).

Literature Review

Zaman, Razzaq and Hassan (2015) conducted a study on Drug abuse among the university students of Lahore to explore that what were the main cause of drug abuse in Medical students depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, as well as a personality disorder like antisocial personality disorder.

Dejong (2002) conducted a study on The role of mass media campaigns in reducing high-risk drinking among college students to explore the current media initiatives aimed at reducing drinking by college students, reviews key campaign design principles and provides suggestions for future campaigns.

DeJong and Winsten (1990), in particular among American young people, conducted a research on the use of mass media in the transmission of messages about preventing drugs abuse. They found that public health advocates still have a great deal to learn from the business successes by utilizing the power of the mass media to convince people to change behaviour, while producing increasingly sophisticated media campaigns.

Gillis, H. Mubbashar (1995) conducted a study to examine those psychosocial characteristics which differentiated 60 heroin addicts from 60 nondrug-using controls in Pakistan. Most of the drug-abuse factors identified earlier were significant in Pakistan as well. The relation between the condition and number of risk factors was also analyzed.

Bandy and Alford (1983) carried out a study on recent literature on the promotion of drug abuse prevention, concentrating on four target audiences: teenagers, parents, women and the elderly. They also discussed effectiveness of media, advantages and disadvantages of each medium according to target audience. Women were the goals of awareness campaigns, usually on the implications of drugs to reassure, while elderly people were tackled on the issue of the appropriate legal use of drugs.

Allara and Ferri (2015), has conducted a study to see whether mass media campaigns would help reduce illegal drug use and the purpose of use.

The rationale of the Study

In this modern age the use of drug is increasing day by day. Drug abuse is very common in mostly young people and they are not properly aware about what they are using and what could be the result of drug abuse. In this modern era of technology media is playing a huge role in our society so this is very important for the media to play its role in creating awareness about drug abuse. By conducting this study the drug users mostly students will get to know about the deadliest effects of drug abuse. From this study people will get to know that does media is creating awareness about drug abuse in young people. From this study people will understand how much role media is playing in creating awareness about drug abuse in young adults.

Objectives of Study

The objective of this study is to see the perception of young adults about the role of media in creating awareness about drug abuse. To see what campaigns are running and already been held on media about drug abuse. To aware students about the disadvantages of drug abuse. To see whether media is playing any role in creating awareness about the drug abuse in young adults.

Research Question

• Do u think Media is creating awareness about drug abuse in Pakistan?
• Do young adults are getting awareness from media about drug abuse?

Method

Research Design:

This research will be designed to find out the perception of young adults about the role of media in creating awareness about drug abuse. There will be a quantitative research approach by using co-relation survey method. A questionnaire survey would be conducted in two universities of Lahore.

Sample and Sample Strategy:

There will be a sample of 100 students from two universities of Lahore, 50 from each university containing 25 boys and 25 girls. The students will be of age between 18-25 years. It will be a purposive sampling.

Assessment Measure/ Procedure:

To study the perception of young adults, questionnaire will be distributed among 100 students in two universities of Lahore. Questionnaire will be designed according to research questions of the study. The data will be gathered and analyzed to study what young adults think about the role of media in creating awareness about drug abuse.

References

1. Zaman, Muhammad & Razzaq, Sobia & Hassan, Rabia & Qureshi, Junaid & Ijaz, Hira & Hanif, Muhammad & Chughtai, Fazal. (2015). Drug abuse among the students. Pakistan Journal of Pharmaceutical Research. 1. 10.22200/pjpr.2015141-47.
2. DeJong, W. (2002). The role of mass media campaigns in reducing high-risk drinking among college students. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, Supplement, (14), 182-192.
3. [bookmark: _Hlk29505555] Gillis, J. S., & Mubbashar, M. H. (1995). Risk Factors for Drug Abuse in Pakistan: A Replication. Psychological Reports, 76(1), 99–108. https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1995.76.1.99
4. DeJong, W., & Winsten, J. A. (1990). The use of mass media in substance abuse prevention. Health Affairs, 9(2), 30-46.
5. Allara, E., Ferri, M., Bo, A., Gasparrini, A., & Faggiano, F. (2015). Are mass-media campaigns effective in preventing drug use? A Cochrane systematic review and meta-analysis. BMJ open, 5(9), e007449.
6. [bookmark: _Hlk29506174]Bandy, P., & President, P. A. (1983). Recent literature on drug abuse prevention and mass media: focusing on youth, parents, women and the elderly. Journal of Drug Education, 13(3), 255-271.
7. Asghar, sana. (2018, February 9). Drug abuse in Pakistan reaches alarming level. Retrieved January 10, 2020, from https://nation.com.pk/10-Feb-2018/drug-abuse-in-pakistan-reaches-alarming-level.
8. Addiction and Negative Effects of Drug Abuse on the Human Body & Brain. (n.d.). Retrieved January 10, 2020, from https://www.gatewayfoundation.org/faqs/effects-of-drug-abuse/.
9. Robinson, L., Smith, M., & Segal, J. (2019, October 30). Drug Abuse and Addiction. Retrieved January 10, 2020, from https://www.helpguide.org/articles/addictions/drug-abuse-and-addiction.htm.