A Study on the effect of Mass Media Pattern on Healthy Lifestyle

This article aims to investigate the effect of mass media consumption pattern (including time used, content utilized and purposiveness of utilization) on healthy lifestyle and the quantitative measurement of media usage pattern in three different and innovative dimensions. For theoretical explanation of this problem, the theories of McQuail, Lasswell, Frankfurt School, and Gerbner (Cultivation theory) have been used. This study was conducted with a survey method and a sample of 356 public high school students in the 3rd district of Tabriz city, and the data was collected using a researcher-made/standard combined questionnaire and analyzed using SPSS software. According to the findings, the average score of students' healthy lifestyle on a scale of 1 to 6 points is 4.23. Also, the index of the whole healthy lifestyle has an inverse significant relationship with the amount of mass media use, but it shows a significant and direct relationship with the purposefulness of media use and the priority of scientific/documentary content. Female students, younger students, and students belonging to a lower socio-economic base have reported a healthier lifestyle. Purposeful use of media and priority of sports content have a positive and significant effect and age has a negative and significant effect on the dependent variable (healthy lifestyle) and women have a healthier lifestyle compared to men. These four factors, have been able to explain 20 percent of the variance of the dependent variable