Information seeking and use by newspaper journalists

Abstract

Reports an interview study into information seeking and use by journalists at a national British newspaper. Describes work activity in the context of a series of behaviour shaping constraints and cognitive and external resources. Describes the journalist's information seeking as motivated by originality checking (of the angle), developing a personal understanding, discovering/confirming potential content and also describes information gathering and managing multiple information spaces. Shows how these are motivated by context, facilitated by resources, and how they enrich the journalist's resource space. Also shows that journalistic work is uncertain as a function of an uncertain context and their continually evolving plans. These result in provisional and unstable relevance judgments, and, during later stages, the reinitiating of preparatory information seeking activities, including the relocation and review of previously read documents. At the end presents a model to summarise the findings.

Citation

Attfield, S. and Dowell, J. (2003), "Information seeking and use by newspaper journalists", Journal of Documentation, Vol. 59 No. 2, pp. 187-204. https://doi.org/10.1108/00220410310463860