EXPOSURE TO SOCIAL MEDIA AND GENDER PURCHASING BEHAVIOUR

Yensey Correa Belza1 and Danilo S. Vargas2

Central Luzon State University1 Central Luzon State University2

Email for correspondence: yenseybelza@yahoo.com/yenseybelza04@gmail.com:

dsvargas@clsu.edu.ph

ABSTRACT Specifically, this shows the relationship of

In this paper, the researcher explored the
communication characteristics, exposure to social
media and gender purchasing behaviour of the
residents in a rural and an urban barangay. Twenty
five males and twenty five females were chosen in
each barangay to answer a survey questionnaire.
exposure to social media and gender purchasing
behaviour. Correlations with the two variables were
made. Results shows that respondents has a high
exposure in social media yet it doesn’t influences
their purchasing behaviour, also genders has no
difference in terms of their purchasing behaviour and
exposure to social media.

Keywords :Exposure, Social Media, Gender,

Purchasing Power

INTRODUCTION
According to a recent infographic by
WhoIsHostingThis, social media are capable of
turning us into psychopaths, affecting our habits in a
negative way. The influences of social media to our
behavior are: (a) First is Untruthfulness & Insecurity,25%
of Facebook users said they falsified some of their
account information (b) Second is, Connection,
Communication has changed forever and thus, it also
affected our behaviour when looking for the best way
to connect with our family and friends, (c) Third is
Disconnection, 24% of people missed important
moments in real life because they were too busy trying
to share them on social channels, (d) Fourth is
Egocentricity, social media may turn us into a
narcissist, due to the easy of posting pictures and
sharing status updates about our daily life. (e) Fifth is

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 Being a part of a community, social networks
offer the right medium to do it (f) Lastly, Poor
Behavioural Controls, 42% of young people report that
they have been victims of cyber bullying (Tereza
2015).
Social media has different influences to its
users either negative or positive. Males and females
are exposed in social media thus they have their
different ways on using their respective social media
accounts. In line with this, the researcher aims to
know if there is a relationship between the age and
the exposure of social media on purchasing behaviour
of both genders in a rural and an urban Barangay in
Zaragoza, Nueva Ecija,Province,Philippines.
Objectives of the
Study
The study addressed the following
objectives:
1. Describe the socio-demographic
characteristics of the respondents.
2. Determine the communication
characteristics of the respondents.
3. Determine the extent of exposure of the
respondents in social media in relation to their
gender.
4. Determine the gender purchasing behavior
of the respondents.
5. Determine the relationship between the
respondents’ age and the exposure of social
media on purchasing
behavior.
Hypothesi
s our lives, but researchers who study communication
1. There is no relationship between the
respondents’ age, exposure to social
media and gender purchasing behaviour.
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
AND STUDIES
Socio-demographic
Characteristics
Previous studies indicate that women are more
satisfied than men (Bryant & Cha, 1996 and Mittal &
Kamakura, 2001). Valle, Silva, Mendes & Guerreiro
(2006) in their study found that there is no significant
difference in behavioural intention between groups
as
a result of differences in
gender.
Moreover, consumer behavior is deeply affected
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by age (Panni 2006). Further, study reveals that
exposure; lifestyle and education influence the
purchase decision of an individual. Individual between
the age group 18-39 years are more exposed technology
oriented and hence are being influenced greatly by
online purchase of products from the retail
(ChanchalChawla 2015).
In relation to this, a study on “Online consumer
behavior and its relationship with socio-
demographics, shopping orientations, need for
emotion, and fashion leadership”, Found a negative
relationship between age and both online information
behavior and shopping. Thus, in tendency, the
younger the individual, the more the internet is used
for both information search and shopping. As expected,
there was a positive relationship between employment,
education, and online information behavior and
shopping, indicating that employed and highly educated
participants tend to shop online rather than offline.
However, no significant relationship was found for
income and online shopping behavior (Burkolter and
Kluge 2012).
Communication Characteristics
According to Grimsley (2015), communication is
sending and receiving information between two or
more people. The person sending the message is
referred to as the sender, while the person receiving
the information is called the receiver. The information
conveyed can include facts, ideas, concepts, opinions,
beliefs, attitudes, instructions and even emotions.
Also, we communicate a lot of things throughout
have identified a few common characteristics. For one,
interpersonal communication involves independent
individuals. This may seem obvious, but really what
this means is that each person has their own
motivations, expectations, and interpretations of
communication (Muscato 2003).
Moreover, the other fundamental characteristic of
interpersonal communication is that it is inherently
rational. In short, it's meant to be understood.
Whatever we communicate, however we communicate
it, we do so because we are intelligent beings capable
of expressing and communicating our thoughts and
feelings. And when we communicate,
we do so because we expect something to be
communicated (Muscato 2003).
In line with this, Muscato (2003) explained that
beyond the fact that humans communicate rationally,
researchers also characterize communication as
being inescapable. What this means is that you are
always communicating, always presenting
information about yourself and interpreting
information from other people. By saying
something, you are communicating. But by refusing
to say something, you also communicate something.
Communication is constant. But it also involves
personal choice. That's the fourth main characteristic
of interpersonal communication. You can choose
how you communicate information because you are
a rational individual.
Social Media
Exposure
According to Linleigh (2015), social media
has become the center of our universe; where we post
our thoughts, socialize with our friends, check the
news, and more. In fact, social media use accounts
for over half of daily of our daily media
exposure (54% to be exact) and is steadily on the
rise.The average number of social networking
applications on a single smart phone is 7.4. And the
daily use of these applications are out of this world:
(a) 18% (259 million) of social media users can’t go
longer than a couple hours without checking
Facebook, (b) 5 million pictures are uploaded to
Instagram, (c) 500 million Tweets are sent out. (d)
LinkedIn signs up 2 new members every second, (e)
and At least 15 minutes a day is spent on YouTube
per visitor, (f) and 2 million+ pins are shared.
In line with this, the idea of “Social
Networking” has existed for several decades as a way
for people to communicate in society and build
relationships with others (Coyle & Vaughn, 2008).
With the increase of technology used for
communicating with others and the popularity of the
Internet, “Social Networking” has become an activity
that is done primarily on the Internet, with sites like
MySpace, Facebook, Bebo, Friendster, and Xanga
(Coyle & Vaughn, 2008). Social networking sites
(SNS) may be defined as: Web-based services that
allow individuals to (1) construct a public or semi-
public profile within a bounded system, (2) articulate
a list of other users with whom they share a
connection, and (3) view and traverse their list of
connections and those made by others within the
system (Boyd & Ellison, 2007, 1).
Purchasing Behaviour and Social Media
According to ChanchalChawla (2015),
Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3785265
consumer behavior is defined as the selection,
purchase, consumption and disposition of goods and
services. There are different processes which are
involved in the consumer behavior. Firstly there is
need for the product, and then based on that the
individual identifies which could be the best product
which could satisfy his need (selection of products
out of various alternatives). Selection is based on the
most promising product which an individual seems to be
under his budget. Selection of a product is a
psychological process which involves a complex
matrix upon which a product is fetched and evaluated.
The product which tends more towards the marginal
value and utility will be chosen. A purchase decision
is the outcome of many factors associated with an
individual who includes his association to culture,
subculture, social class, membership groups, family,
personality, psychology, age, income etc.
Gender exposure to Social Media
Teens mainly use social networks to keep in
touch with their friends, although they prefer a face-
to-face contact for important communication. Even
the average number of contact is quite similar,
together with the age of the first approach with a
Social Networking Site (SNS). Girls choose to stay in
touch with their schoolmates (53.5%) more than boys
(43.9%). Another stereotypical “girly” aspect is
gossip: 24.7 % of girls found this is an important
feature, while only 14.6% of boys used social media to
keep up on the lives of others. 61,2% of girls post their
personal picture, vs. 45.9% of boys. Boys are more
the collecting type, posting and reposting images from
external sources (28% boys vs 14% of girls for posting
a random web picture on their account). Posting
videos seems a male prerogative with the 31.3% of
boys doing it, compared to 21.4% girls. These
differences show that there is not a big gap between
the two genders, but they are quite similar in their
approach, and the way they manage a social networking
account (Tressoldi 2014).
METHODOLOGY
The study employed dependency theory as a
basis for the analysis of the study. This theory states
that the more an individual is dependent to the media, to
fulfill his/ her needs, the more it became important.
Moreover, the media has more power and influence of their gender they preferred to talk in Tagalog.
to the individual. The study used descriptive type of The table below also displays the respondents’
way of communication in interpersonal. In urban
research in describing the relationship of exposure to
social media and gender purchasing behavior of the barangay, most of the male respondents preferred to
speak only than to speak with action. While greater
respondents. Quota Sampling was used in choosing
respondents. Twenty five males and twenty five
females were chosen in an urban barangay as well as
in a rural barangay. The researcher used
questionnaires in obtaining the primary data of the
study. Statistical analysis, such as the frequencies,
ranks, mean, standard deviation, range and
percentages was utilized to organize and efficiently
analyze the collected data. On the other hand, the
Pearson Product Moment of Correlation (r) was used
in determining the relationship between age of the
respondents, the exposure of social media and
purchasing behavior of the respondents.

RESULTS AND
DISCUSSIONS

I. Socio-demographic
Characteristics
Findings show the respondents socio-
demographic characteristics such as age, civil status,
educational attainment, religion, and occupation.
The respondents came from urban barangay and
rural barangay with 25 males and 25 females each.
Results indicate that majority of the male and
female respondents from urban barangay ages from
15-25 and they are mostly catholic. Male respondents
are mostly unemployed while female respondents are
employed.
Meanwhile the respondents from rural
barangay have male who are mostly 15-25 years old
while female respondents ages mostly from 26-36.
As observed they are typical catholic. Greater
numbers of male respondents are high school
graduate while female are college graduate and
most of them are unemployed, indicating that
female respondents are more serious in completing
their tertiary education.

II. Communication
Characteristics
Interpersonal
Communication
Findings present the language or dialect, way of
communicating, place and topic in interpersonal
communication. Majority of the female and male
respondents in rural and urban barangay use Tagalog
in communication. Results revealed that regardless

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part of female respondents wants to speak with action Continuation of Table 2
than to speak only, indicating that female respondents Frequency
have more ways to communicate. (N=25)
In rural barangay, majority of male and female Urban Rural
respondents likes to speak only than to speak with M F M F
action. Topic
Looking into table 2, presents the place of News 14 13 12 12
communication of the respondents. This shows that Programs in TV/Radio 12 9 8 4
greater part of male and female respondents in urban Problems of Society 8 12 8 11
and rural barangay usually communicate at home.
Economic Issues/ 9 9 11 14
Findings show that regardless of the location and
Livelihood
gender they preferred to communicate at home.
Life of Others 5 1 1 2
On the other hand, this shows the topics or the
messages that the respondents preferred to Other answers:
communicate. This includes news, programs in Family Issues - 2 - 1
TV/Radio, problems of society, economic Sports 2 - - -
issues/livelihood, life of others, family issues and
sports. Advantage and Disadvantage of Interpersonal
In urban barangay, majority of male Communication
respondents talked about news which is ranked 1 On the data in table 3, it displays the following
while sports is at the last spot. Mostly, female advantages and disadvantages of interpersonal
respondents communicate about news also, yet life of communication. Results revealed that majority of
others is least talked about. male with the highest mean value and female
In rural barangay, most of male respondents respondents in urban barangay strongly agree that
usually communicate messages about news which message in interpersonal communication can easily
comes first while life of others comes last. Female understand while in rural barangay, males agree and
respondents mostly talked about livelihood or females strongly agree.
economic issues, and last is family issues. This also presents that most of the males and
females in urban and rural barangay strongly agree
Table 2 Interpersonal Communication that there is an exchange of opinion in interpersonal
communication.
Frequency
Moreover, in urban and rural barangay,
(N=25)
Urban Rural majority of male and female respondents chose
M F M F neutral that message of information in interpersonal
Language or Dialect communication changes.
Tagalog 14 17 18 17 On the other hand, majority of the male
English - 4 1 3 respondents select neutral while females agree that
Tagalog-English 11 11 9 8 message is reduces and added as a disadvantage of
Ilocano 1 - 1 1 interpersonal communication. However, in rural
Way of Communicating barangay male and female agree too.
In urban barangay male respondents chose
Speaking only 16 13 19 16 neutral while females agree that message in
Speaking with 9 14 7 10 interpersonal communication has low credibility. In
Action addition, male and female respondents in rural selects
Place neutral also.
Home 17 20 18 19
Neighbourhood - 3 3 2
School 9 5 2 8
Store 2 - 5 1
Street 1 - 2 4
Office/Workplace 7 8 2 7
Mall - 1 - 2

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Table 3 Advantage and Disadvantage of Interpersonal
Communication
Statement Weighted mean Interpretation
Urban Rural Urban Rural
M F M F M F M F Table 4 Broadcast Communication
Advantage Frequency
Can easily 4.72 4.4 4.16 4.48 SA SA A SA (N=25)
understand Urban Rural
Exchange 4.48 4.24 4.36 4.52 SA SA SA SA
of M F M F
opinions Media frequently use
Disadvantage Radio 5 2 1 2
Message 2.92 2.24 2.8 2.68 N N N N Television 24 23 24 24
of Language/Dialect
informatio Tagalog 14 13 9 20
n changes English - 1 1 4
Message 2.84 2.04 2.56 2.28 N A A A Tagalog-English 16 13 16 8
is reduces Program Type
and added
N A N N
Educational 12 8 12 7
Message 3.36 2.56 2.8 2.64
has low Entertainment 13 11 6 5
credibility Drama 7 7 3 12
Talk Show 7 4 1 11
Broadcast Communication News 18 17 13 19
Table 4 presents the respondents preferred Informational 7 3 2 2
broadcast communication. This includes the media Instructional 4 1 - 1
use, language/dialect use, program type, timeslot and Developmental 3 2 3 2
days of airing. Timeslot
Majority of the respondents in rural and urban Morning
barangay preferred to get information in television 6:00-7:00 4 4 5 6
than radio. 7:00-8:00 5 4 2 -
In language or dialect, most of the male 8:00-9:00 4 2 - 3
respondents in urban barangay preferred Tagalog- 9:00-10:00 3 2 2 -
English than English only. While majority of female 11:00-12:00 9 3 2 7
respondents chose Tagalog and Tagalog-English. Afternoon
Male respondents in rural barangay usually preferred 12:00-1:00 4 1 3 2
Tagalog-English. Yet greater part of female 1:00-2:00 2 2 1 1
respondents chose Tagalog as first. 2:00-3:00 3 2 3 1
In program type, male and female respondents 3:00-4:00 3 3 - 1
in urban and rural barangay mostly listen or watch 4:00-5:00 3 - 1 -
news. 5:00-6:00 5 1 3 2
Respondents from urban and rural barangay Before sleep 17 19 10 20
preferred before sleep/7pm onwards as timeslot for
Days of Airing
broadcast communication. Also, days of airing are
M-F 3 3 1 1
every day or Mondays to Sundays. This shows that
M,W,F 3 2 1 -
males and females have the same preference in
broadcast communication. T, Th, Sat - 2 - 1
Sat, Sun 7 7 6 6
Sun - 2 - 2
M-Sun 13 12 16 16

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Advantage and Disadvantage of Broadcast Table 6 Printed Materials
Communication Frequency
Findings show that in urban and rural barangay (N=25)
male and female respondents strongly agree that they
Urban Rural
became updated because of the immediate broadcast
of information. M F M F
On the other hand, male and female respondents Printed Materials
in urban barangay agree that it doesn’t need internet
Newspaper 15 6 16 10
access to get information as an advantage of
broadcast communication. While in rural barangay, Leaflet 1 6 2 4
males strongly agree and females agree. Magazine 12 13 9 10
Looking into table 5 are the disadvantages of Pamphlet - 3 - 5
broadcast communication. Male respondents in urban Flyer - 5 - 5
barangay disagree with the highest mean of 3.76 while
Posters 2 4 4 3
females chose neutral. On the other hand,
males and females in rural barangay disagree that it is Booklet 7 2 3 3
difficult to get information because television and Language/Dialect
radio is expensive. Tagalog 8 8 12 10
Moreover in urban, males select neutral with the English 4 7 1 3
highest mean of 3.24, females agree with the lowest
Pamphlet - 3 - 5
mean of 2.44 yet in rural, males and females chose
neutral that entertainment programs became more Flyer - 5 - 5
interesting than informational programs. Posters 2 4 4 3
Further, majority of males and females in urban Booklet 7 2 3 3
barangay chose neutral. Males in rural barangay Language/Dialect
chose neutral while females with the highest mean of
Tagalog 8 8 12 10
3.64 disagree that information in broadcast
communication is difficult to get because of weak English 4 7 1 3
signal. Tagalog-English 16 15 14 17
Content
Printed Materials Text only 4 - 7 5
The table below shows printed materials as source
of information of the respondents. This includes the Texts and Pictures 21 25 18 20
type of printed material, the language or dialect and
the content they preferred to read. Advantages and Disadvantages of Printed
On the type of printed material, majority of male Materials
respondents in urban barangay read newspaper while Table 7 presents the advantages of printed
few preferred leaflet. Female respondents mostly like materials as a source of information. Mostly, male
magazines than booklet. In rural barangay, greater and females in urban barangay strongly agree that
part of male respondents often read newspapers print materials can be kept and read anytime. While
which is first in ranking yet leaflet comes last. Most in rural barangay majority of males agree and
of female respondents frequently read newspapers females strongly agree with the highest mean of 4.68.
and magazines while least of them chose posters and Further in urban and rural barangay, males agree
booklet. yet female strongly agree that print materials doesn’t
In language/dialect, male and female respondents need signal to get information.
in urban and rural barangay preferred Tagalog- Indicating in Table 7 are the disadvantages of print
English in reading, second is Tagalog and last is materials. This includes cannot read and small font
English. size. In urban, males with the highest mean of 3.28
In the content of printed materials, respondents in chose neutral and females select neutral also that
urban and rural barangay want text and pictures than cannot read is a disadvantage of printed material.
text only. While males in rural agree and females select neutral
also.

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However, males in urban barangay disagree with the Quotes 8 10 5 12
highest mean of 3.44 and females chose neutral that
print materials has small font size as a disadvantage Other answers:
of print materials. Male and female respondents in Trend/latest topics 2
rural barangay also chose neutral.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Internet
Internet As indicated in table 9, males and females in
Findings show the respondents’ use of the
urban barangay strongly agree that it can use anytime
internet. This contains their social media, the while males in rural agree and females strongly
language/dialect they use or see, and the information agree.
on the internet. Males in rural and urban barangay agree while
Majority of the male and female respondents in females strongly agree that it can learn new
urban and rural barangay usually use facebook which
information through share of friends on the internet,
is rank 1. also it can learn new things that you are not familiar
In language or dialect, males and females in
with through search engines and can know the
urban and rural barangay preferred Tagalog-English. reaction of people on specific issues.
On the information that is seen on the internet,
Majority of male and female respondents in
male and female respondents in urban barangay
urban and rural barangay agree that details of
usually see post of their friends. In rural barangay, products sold online can be known easily.
male respondents often see or read news yet females Lastly, most of the respondents strongly agree
frequently see posts of friends. As observed, that more information can be obtained on the internet
regardless of the respondents’ gender and location like pictures, videos, quotes, and news.
they have the same preference on their use of the
Findings shows that most of the male
internet.
respondents agree that information can be edited
while majority of females strongly agree. In urban
barangay male and female respondents agree that it
Table 8 Internet can easily spread information that is not true also
Frequency males in rural barangay agree while females strongly
(N=25) agree.
Urban Rural On the other hand, greater part of male
respondents agrees yet females strongly agree that
M F M F
many trick people in social media. Majority of the
Social media respondents agree that it cannot get information when
Facebook 22 23 24 23 there is no internet access.
Twitter 3 7 - 5 Further, males agree while females disagree that
Instagram 4 8 - 6 it became a result of miscommunication because of
Google 18 13 13 12 different versions of story.
Youtube 16 10 15 12
Other answers: III. Extent of exposure to Social Media
Yahoo - - 1 - Days and Time Allotment for Social Media
Skype - - - 1 On the data presented in table 12, are the
Gmail - - - 1 respondents’ days and time allotment for social
Language/Dialect media. This shows that majority of male and female
Tagalog 4 5 8 9 respondents in urban and rural barangay use social
English 13 11 2 8 media every day. Also, both genders have a high
Tagalog-English 14 15 20 14 exposure in social media.
Ilocano - 1 - 3 Moreover, in terms of the time allotment of the
Usually seen/ read respondents in social media in urban barangay, male
information respondents mostly use social media for 2 hours and
News 19 14 21 14 more while most females allotted 1 hour only.
Posts of Friends 21 22 17 22 In rural barangay, most males allocated 1 hour yet
most females use social media for 2 hours and above.

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Days and Time Allotment for Social Media Three times a week 2 3 2 3
Frequency Once a month - 1 - -
(N=25) Every other day - 1 - 2
Urban Rural Rarely/Seldom - - 2 -
M F M F Time allotment
Days Allotment 15-30 minutes 8 4 9 7
Every day 17 19 20 17 1 hour 6 11 9 7
Once a week 4 - 1 2 2 hours and more 11 10 7 11
Two times a week 2 1 - 1

Exposure to Social media Majority of the male and female respondents in

Table 15 displays the issues or topics that the
respondents tend to participate in social media. This
includes topics about crime, rape, pictures of sick
person, environmental, developmental, political and
new/latest issues.
urban barangay wants to participate on new/latest
issues however males least participate on issues about
rape while female least participate on issues about
crime.

Pictures of sick 4 3 - 2
In rural barangay, males mostly participate on person
new/latest issues while most females participate on Environmental 6 2 5 5
political issues. Male least participates on issues about issues
rape and female least participates on issues about Developmental 6 10 4 7
crime. issues
Also, table below presents the reasons why Political issues 12 11 5 10
respondents are encourage to use their social media New/latest issues 17 14 14 9
accounts. In urban barangay, male respondents use
social media mainly because of the number of Reasons why respondents use social
notifications while female respondent mostly use media
social media because of the number of messages. Number of 14 11 7 12
Male respondents in rural barangay primarily notifications
use social media because of the number of messages Number of 6 - 4 2
they received while female respondents usually use likes/likers
social media because of the number of messages/chat. Number of 13 17 11 16
Result shows that majority of the male and messages/chat
female respondents in urban and rural barangay gains Number of 6 3 2 6
happiness in using social media. comments
Number of views 4 - 2 1
Table 15 Respondents’ Exposure to Social Media Number of 3 1 2 5
Frequency followers
(N=25) Number of social 6 4 1 1
media friends
Urban Rural
Benefits received to social media
M F M F friends
Issues respondents’ tend to participate Acceptance 8 11 7 9
in social media Be recognized 3 9 - 7
Crime 8 1 5 1 Happiness 19 13 16 15
Rape 3 - 1 - Popularity 6 - 4 3

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IV. Gender Purchasing Behaviour personal satisfaction, innovation, practicality,
Features when buying a product popularity and familiarity.
On the data presented in Table 16 are features Greater part of male and female respondents in
the respondents’ look for when buying a product. rural and urban barangay strongly agrees to look for
This includes overall quality, economic value, the overall quality when buying while popularity and
innovation is least considered.
Table 16 Features when buying a product value
1. When buying a product, I look for the following features: Personal 4.08 4.52 3.84 4.2 A SA A A
Satisfaction
Statement Weighted mean Interpretation Innovation 3.8 4.32 3.64 3.08 A SA A N
Urban Rural Urban Rural Practicality 4.2 4.52 3.72 4.48 A SA A SA
M F M F M F M F Popularity 3.52 4.04 3.6 3.68 A A A A
Familiarity 4.12 4.52 3.72 4.72 A SA A SA
Overall 4.44 4.8 4.6 4.8 SA SA S SA
quality A
Economic 4.4 4.48 4 4.64 SA SA A SA
Legend:
4.21-5.0 = Strongly Agree
3.41-4.20 = Agree
2.61-3.40 = Neutral
1.81-2.60 = Disagree
1.0-1.80 = Strongly Disagree

Purchasing Behaviour
Results indicated that males in urban and rural
turn out to be the late majority of purchasers while
females come to be the last purchasers. Therefore,
males and females think first before
uying.Additionally, the table below displays the
consideration of the respondents’ in purchasing items
like dress/clothes, shoes, pants, and food.
In buying dress, males and females in urban
barangay consider the quality most. On the other
hand, males in rural considers the quality and
price most while females considers price. Male
least consider the trend while females least
consider the brand. In purchasing shoes, price
is mostly considered and in pants comfort is
mostly considered. In purchasing food, the
quality, if it’s healthy, needs and price is always
considered.

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 respondents in urban and rural barangay read
V. Correlation between Age and Exposure newspaper while female respondents mostly
of Social Media to Purchasing Behaviour like magazines and newspapers. Male and
Findings revealed that regardless of the female respondents in urban and rural
respondents’ age and location it does not barangay preferred Tagalog-English as a
influence their purchasing behaviour even they language or dialect in reading and wants text
were exposed to and pictures than text only on its content.
social media. On the internet, greater part of male and female
Table 18 Correlation between Age and Exposure of Social Media to respondents in urban and rural barangay usually uses
Purchasing Behaviour Facebook and preferred Tagalog-English as language or
Age Social Social Purchasing dialect. Male and female respondents in urban barangay
Media Media Behaviour
Exposure Exposure in
usually see post of their friends while in rural
in Days Time barangay, male respondents often see or read news
Allotment Allotment yet females frequently see posts of friends.
Rural-Male 1 -.113 .069 .079 Additionally, males and females on their extent to
Rural-Female 1 .167 .149 .319 social media, doesn’t have much difference.
Urban-Male 1 -.006 .121 -.246 Smartphones are the most available gadgets of the
Urban-Female 1 .198 -.050 .146 respondents. Greater part of male and female
respondents in urban barangay has internet connection
while in rural, majority of them doesn’t have.
Facebook was the most used social media.
Summary Respondents tend to use social media every day and
The study was conducted in Zaragoza, Nueva
for entertainment purposes only. Information about
Ecija, Province, Philippines wherein
news are frequently seen and new/ latest issues are
respondents came from urban and rural
the topics the respondents tend to participate. Majority
barangay with 25 males and 25 females each.
of male and female respondents in urban and rural
The study analyzed variables such as the
barangay gains happiness in using social media.
socio- demographic characteristics,
Further, in terms of their purchasing behaviour,
communication characteristics, social media
males and females in urban and rural barangay mostly
exposure and gender purchasing behaviour of
look for overall quality when purchasing product.
the respondents. Results indicate that
Males in urban and rural turn out to be the late
majority of the male and female
majority of purchasers while females come to be the
respondents ages from 15-25 and mostly last purchasers. In buying dress, males and females in
catholic.
urban barangay considers the quality most. On the other
Meanwhile, the communication
hand, males in rural considers the quality and price
characteristics of the respondents are
most while females considers price. Male consider the
subdivided into four which is the
trend least while females least consider the brand. In
interpersonal, broadcast, print materials and
purchasing shoes, price is mostly considered and in
internet. In interpersonal communication,
pants comfort is mostly considered. In purchasing food,
males and females mostly use Tagalog and
quality, if it’s healthy, needs and price is always
speaking only in communication. Greater
considered.
part of them communicates about news and
Lastly, age of the respondents has no
at home.
relationship in their purchasing behaviour even they
In broadcast communication, majority
have a greater exposure in social media.
of the respondents preferred to get
information in television than radio. Most of
Conclusion
the male and female respondents in rural and
Based on the findings of this study, the following
urban barangay preferred Tagalog- English
conclusions were drawn:
and Tagalog. Greater part of them listens or
1. Social media doesn’t have influence in gender
watches news and preferred before
purchasing behaviour.
sleep/7pm onwards as timeslot for broadcast
2. Males and females have high exposure in social
communication. Also, days of airing are
media thus it doesn’t have an influence on their
every day or Mondays to Sundays.
purchasing behaviour.
In printed materials, majority of male

Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3785265

3. There is no difference between genders in terms of
purchasing behaviour.
4. There is no difference between genders in terms of
their extent of exposure to social media.
Electronic copy available at: https://ssrn.com/abstract=3785265
5. Age has no relationship in purchasing behaviour of
the respondents even they have a greater exposure in
social media.
Recommendation
1. Experimental study is recommended, so that in-
depth data may be acquired.
2. Use other method to measure the extent of
exposure in social media more.
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