The Influence of the Internet Surfing on the Reading Culture of Secondary School Teachers: A Case Study of Newspaper Readership in Kigumo Sub County, Kenya

Reading in the 21st century networked society is no longer confined to the print reading. The scope of the reading has extended to the Internet sources that changed the traditional reading culture of the readers. The present study was conducted to identify the impact of the Internet surfing on the reading culture of secondary school teachers in Kigumo Sub County. The objectives of the study were to find out the influence of the internet on the reading culture of secondary school teachers in Kigumo Sub County, to determine the level of accessibility of the internet among secondary school teachers in Kigumo Sub County, to establish the level of utilization of the internet among secondary school teachers in Kigumo Sub County and to assess the preference of digital reading to print reading among secondary school teachers in Kigumo Sub County. Questionnaires that were designed purposefully to provide answers to the research questions were administered to teachers randomly selected in Kigumo Sub County. The study population comprised all the 328 teachers in the 36 secondary schools in Kigumo Sub County. A pilot test was conducted to detect weaknesses in design and instrumentation. Data analysis was done by use of descriptive statistics namely; mean mode, percentages, tables and bar graphs. Results reveal that the reading behavior of the online readers is in transition as the Internet surfing has increased non-sequential reading, interactive reading, superficial reading, and extensive reading and at the same rates is responsible for decreasing concentrated and in-depth reading. Marshall McLuhan theory among others was used as the theoretical framework to explain the variables used in the research. From the findings recommendations were made that Readings should be promoted through partnership collaboration between the public and private sectors such as publishers, booksellers, librarians to encourage readership campaign, proper training of internet use should be provided to the teaching staffs to accelerate access to different electronic sources of information and support their teaching activities and that online readers need to be cautious and focused while Internet surfing so that the Internet can be used as an enhancement reading tool.