Social Media Use by the Rohingya Refugees in Bangladesh: A Uses and Gratification Approach

Abstract

The refugee crisis is one of the greatest problems in the world right now. Countries from both developed and developing parts of the world have faced this crisis for many years. Usually, refugees lost their home-relatives, income source and all meaningful aspects of life. Living in another country with the help of the foreign government and NGOs, the refugees spend a challenging time under many difficulties. This study concentrates on social media uses of the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh under the light of uses and gratification theory. The purposive sampling technique used to collect the data. This study focuses on what are the main reasons for using social media, attitude toward social media, and lastingness on social media by the Rohingya refugees. Data has been collected from 37 Rohingya refugees ranging in age of 19 to 32 years, gendering both male and female. Results indicate that Facebook is the most preferred social media. The majority of them (37.8%) are using social media for one to two years, (43.2%) of them are most active on social media at 7-8 PM and spend four to five hours each day. 62.2% of the respondents have only one social media account. The majority (32.4%) of the Rohingya refugees are using social media for getting the latest news update, sharing an opinion (29.7%), communicating with family and friends (24.3%). 70.3% of respondents think social media is a positive thing, their favorite topics to see on social media are a personal story (51.4%), and political facts (32.4%).  Finally, findings support that many paradigms of uses and gratifications theory are met by the Rohingya social media users.