Page 24 - Peoples_Journal_Sri_Lanka

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ISSN 3121-3049
People's Journal Sri Lanka Volume 01, Issue 01

6.2 Obtaining Information

When considering these respondents‘ awareness of recent environmental
issues, only 3.3% of them answered negatively. The majority (39.3%) said
that they were aware of these recent environmental issues, while another
32.8% were well aware of them. 24.6% of the respondents mentioned that
they were aware of these problems to some extent.

The majority of the respondents (60%) agreed on the fact that Facebook has
helped in improving their awareness of these environmental issues. 35% of
the respondents said sometimes it helped for the above-mentioned purpose.
Only 5% disagreed with the fact. One respondent stated,

“I learn a lot of information from Facebook. I’m sure of that. Even TV
spreads false news sometimes. Important issues, like animal killings and
deforestation, often go unreported on government-controlled media. But
Facebook is an open platform where everyone can share the truth. TI02”
Their awareness was raised in many ways. Most of the time, it was through
‗share‘ (82.5%) and post (78.9%). Posting ‗comments‘ was also another
popular method among these respondents (50.9%). Another 40.4%
mentioned ‗creating/joining groups‘ as their method of being aware of
current environmental issues on Facebook. 26.3% mentioned
creating/joining pages about these environmental issues, and 22.8% were
aware of these problems because they were ‗Tagged‘ for such posts.

However, those who claimed not to gain any awareness of current
environmental issues on Facebook have selected several important reasons.
57.1% of these respondents said that there is not enough information about
the environmental issue. 14.3% of the group have mentioned that
information is biased, not up to date, contains fake information, and has
language problems, most probably because English is the language of
communication in these Facebook pages. 28.6% of respondents mentioned
other unspecified reasons. According to a respondent,
“I love nature. the animals, the trees, the forests. They’re precious, and
I want to protect them. That’s why I use my Facebook to raise
awareness, sharing posts about the environment whenever I can. It
breaks my heart to see the destruction people are causing. This has to