Students of the PU for uses sources of political information and expectations of the new South Africa,

Abstract

The first new political dispensation in South Africa encouraged scholars to study political communication with a renewed interest. At the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 275 students were involved in a survey to determine their future expectations and their sources of political information. It was found that the most negative expectations, which the students identified, included the following: more unemployment and poverty, the introduction of reverse discrimination, unsafe living conditions, emigration of whites and far-reaching increases in taxation. Positive expectations that were raised included more foreign investments, better relations with overseas countries and increased entrepreneurship. Students used primarily television, radio and newspapers as sources of political information, whilst friends and family were not as information as popular a Source of was anticipated by Nimmo's study (1978) in the USA. The study indicated that there was difference in the usage of media individuals with more positive expectations against those who inclined to have more negative expectations.