The relationship between the creation of financial awareness and mass media: A research on the university students

In the process of financial awareness, there are many factors affecting the individuals and society. One of these important factors, defined as the fourth power, is mass media. The main aim of this study is to determine whether there is a meaningful relationship between the process of financial awareness creation and the publications in the mass media. In this context, the relationship between the risk diversification skill, which is the main determinant of financial awareness, and the effect of the news on the mass media on the investment preference examined. Additionally, relationship between the inflation on the purchasing power and news in the media was also searched in order to understand the effects on the expenditures. Meanwhile, frequency of mass media follow-up related with the economy/financial news and adequacy of the mass media in increasing the financial knowledge were studied considering the relationship with the demographic characteristics (gender, department, job/internship status, monthly income, educational level of the parents). A questionnaire was used to measure this relationship in accordance with the purpose of the study. In the first part of the questionnaire, financial awareness, the second part is relationship of the financial awareness with the mass media, and the last part is about demographic information. The sample is composed of 201 students from 3rd and 4th grade of YTU Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, and Graduate School of Social Sciences in Economics, Business Administration, Political Science and International Relations programs. The results of the survey were analyzed by SPSS 18 program. Frequency analysis, cross tabulation analysis, Chi-square analysis and Fisher's exact test were applied in the analysis of the obtained data. As a result of this study, it has been seen that there is a relationship between the risk diversification skill of the students and the effect of the news on the mass media on the investment preference. A relationship between the effect of inflation on the purchasing power and students expenditures' with the news in the mass media was not found. While frequency of mass media follow-up related with the economy/financial news showed a variation according to the gender; there was no difference with department of the students, job/internship status, monthly income and educational level of the parents. Lastly, although the adequacy of the mass media in increasing the financial knowledge showed variation according to the department of the students, no difference was found with gender, job/internship status, monthly income and educational level of the parents.