The Contribution of University Media to Reducing the Phenomenon of Drug Addiction in Iraq: A Field Study

This research aims to reveal the contribution of university media, as a preventive tool, to reducing the phenomenon of drug addiction among university youth in Iraq, in light of the country's shift from a transit corridor for drugs to a consumer market, and students' growing reliance on digital platforms as a source of information. The research is descriptive in nature and adopts the survey method, drawing on the uses and gratifications theory. A questionnaire was used to collect data from a simple random sample of (400) male and female students at the University of Baghdad who follow the university's pages on social media platforms, and the results were interpreted in light of the dimensions of university media and the dimensions of the addiction phenomenon. The research found that students rely primarily on the digital dimension of university media: (58%) of them follow the university's pages on social networking sites, and (93%) follow it daily. Meanwhile, awareness methods are dominated by traditional in-person approaches such as seminars and lectures (47%), while interactive digital formats are absent. (91%) of students considered the quality of university media in this field to be below a good level, and its contribution to reducing addiction was moderate (3.38), highest in the social dimension and lowest in the cognitive dimension. The gratifications obtained were also found to be affected by age alone, not by gender or marital status. The research recommends moving awareness campaigns to digital platforms with interactive content, strengthening the cognitive dimension and students' refusal skills, expanding partnerships with health institutions and anti-drug authorities, and establishing permanent health media units in Iraqi universities, thereby enhancing the university's role in protecting its students from the dangers of this scourge.