Community Service Awareness Through the Use of Media

The purpose of this research project is to investigate how high school students go about finding community service opportunities. Service project involvement can have a major impact on college admissions and is required for many high school clubs. I hypothesised that there would be a 25% decrease in word of mouth communications and then inturn a 25% increase in online communications. Research was done through online surveys conducted with random students in the high school. Data was collected from the preliminary survey; 25 participants took the survey and their responses to the questions were recorded. The survey contains questions ranging from frequency of community service to how participants find out about community service. It looked at patterns in attendance and other factors dealing with community service. A second survey, with the same questions, was conducted after the websites creation. Then the data from both surveys was compared to test the hypothesis. The conclusion from the preliminary data was that community service has fallen behind in a modern world in terms of online communication and lacking the necessary media to promote its message effectively in the community. After the creation of the website, secondary data was collected. It was concluded that the hypothesis was rejected and there was infact no decrease from word of mouth communication and an insignificant increase in online media. The reason for this is found in the lurking variables, the time frame that the website was displayed and the lack of community service events during this time