The relative importance of home, school, and traditional mass media sources in elevating youth energy awareness

Elevating public knowledge and awareness is positively correlated to public support to renewable energy (RE) development and elicit support to achieve measures to reduce energy consumption at the domestic level. Since information about particular issue might be obtained from various sources and according to students' preferences, therefore, the main objective of this study is to explore the role of social interactions, mass media, and school profile on youth knowledge and awareness. In this vein, we conducted a survey-based study during which we collected 617 responses from 16-year old school students from two contrasting geographical regions in Jordan. The study found noteworthy differences in responses between gender, place of residence, and school type variables. Interestingly, parents scored the highest mean value and thus perceived as the most important source of information for the students. A Principle Component Analysis revealed three dimensions with statistical differences among the study variables. The internet is found to be a preferable source to obtain information in future and for all the respondents. However, females and private-mixed schools seem to also prefer TV and school activities to obtain information in future while males preferred school teachers and parents. The policy implications of this study imply devising proper outreach and energy saving campaigns targeting parents through mass media and community-based initiative. The education authorities are encouraged to develop and implement energy saving campaign at the public schools and finding room for introducing RE related issues within the domain of school curricula and school activities.