Aesthetic Appeal and Uyo-Based Graduate Residents’ Patronage of Online Newspapers

Abstract: The study examined influence of newspaper aesthetics on Uyo-based graduates’ patronage of online newspapers. The objectives were to: examine the extent to which Uyo-based graduates were aware of newspaper aesthetic elements; identify the specific aesthetic element that influenced the patronage of newspapers among them; identify the aesthetic element that they found to be the most prominently used by newspapers that they read; and examine any other aesthetic related elements that positively influenced readers’ patronage of newspapers. While the survey research design was adopted for the study, using the questionnaire as the instrument for data collection; the population of the study was 1,393,000 respondents. The sample size was 368. The major findings were that: graduate readers of newspaper in Uyo were not aware of newspaper aesthetic elements used by online newspapers; graduate readers of newspapers in Uyo were not positively influenced by any aesthetic elements used by the select newspapers; they had no idea of the most prominently used aesthetic elements in newspapers; and they patronized newspapers mostly because of simplicity in the use of language. While concluding that there is a knowledge gap between graduate readers of newspaper resident in Uyo and the newspaper aesthetics, it was mainly recommended that experts and teachers of print media aesthetics should do more in the area of propagating the principles of print media aesthetics.