Journalists' information needs, seeking behavior, and its determinants on social media

We describe the results of a qualitative study on journalists’ information seeking behavior on social media. Based on interviews with eleven journalists along with a study of a set of university level journalism modules, we determined the categories of information need types that lead journalists to social media. We also determined the ways that social media is exploited as a tool to satisfy information needs and to define influential factors, which impacted on journalists’ information seeking behavior. We find that not only is social media used as an information source, but it can also be a supplier of stories found serendipitously. We find seven information need types that expand the types found in previous work. We also find five categories of influential factors that affect the way journalists seek information. Introduction The impact of social media on journalism has been widely studied ((Brautović et al., 2013; Hermida, 2012; Herrera-Damas and Hermida, 2014; Lasorsa et al., 2012; Murthy, 2011; Oh et al., 2010; Opgenhaffen and Scheerlinck, 2014; Parmelee, 2013). Social media is not only used as an information source, but also for various professional journalistic objectives, such as real-time reporting (Hermida et al., 2014; Papacharissi and de Fatima Oliveira, 2012), networking, branding, and collaboration (Hedman and Djerf-Pierre, 2013). Social media also helps the public be part of the journalism and news process (Brautović et al., 2013; Bruns and Highfield, 2012; Newman, 2009), which has made it an integral and growing part of journalistic work (Djerf-Pierre et al., 2016; Opgenhaffen and Scheerlinck, 2014). An examination of past research reveals that while studies of journalist’s use of social media have been conducted, and it was reported that journalists use social media as an information source to satisfy their information needs, ones that consider journalists’ information seeking behavior on social media are less prevalent. The objective of this paper, therefore, is to explore journalists’ information seeking behavior on social media with a particular focus on journalists’ information need types, their respective information seeking, and the factors that influence them. The work addresses the following research questions:  What type of journalists’ information needs can be satisfied on social media?  How do journalists exploit social media as a versatile tool to satisfy their information needs?  What factors do influence on journalists’ social media uses and their information seeking behavior on social media? The paper starts with a literature review, followed by a description of the methodology. The results of the study are detailed and discussed before the paper concludes. Literature review As satisfying information needs occurs in the context of using social media, we first describe past work on journalists’ use of social media followed by journalists’ information seeking behavior. Social media uses We sub-divided use of social media research into verification, communication/promotion, and satisfying information needs. Verification is the essence of journalism (Kovach and Rosenstiel, 2007). Use of social media has changed journalistic verification conventions (Canter, 2015). Studies of verification strategies on social media are wide ranging (Brandtzaeg et al., 2016; Carrera Álvarez et al., 2012; Hermida, 2012; Shapiro et al., 2013; Wiegand and Middleton, 2016). Shapiro suggests that verification and information-gathering are interweaved (Shapiro et 2 al., 2013). Other studies imply that journalists use social media for verification (Hasanain et al., 2016; Vis, 2013) such as contacting trusted sources, accessing eyewitnesses (Brandtzaeg et al., 2016), and examining users’ timelines and those of their followers (Carrera Álvarez et al., 2012). Guidelines on verification have been created (Silverman, 2014), verification teams formed (Turner, 2012), and automated verification tools built (Diakopoulos et al., 2012; Schifferes et al., 2014). For example, SocialSense use different metrics (e.g. number and frequency of tweets and re-tweets, ratio of followers to followings, etc.) to give an initial credibility score to social media contributors (Thurman et al., 2016). Communication is inherent to journalism (Brautović et al., 2013; Carrera Álvarez et al., 2012; Hasanain et al., 2016; Hedman and Djerf-Pierre, 2013; Tandoc Jr. and Vos, 2015). Past studies show that social media is used for many such purposes: professional accountability and transparency (Lasorsa et al., 2012), to enhance inclusion (Nel and Westlund, 2013), to curate information (Bruns and Burgess, 2012), or to make content more visible (Meraz and Papacharissi, 2013). Studies of promotion find journalists using social media to drive traffic to their articles (Messner et al., 2011), to self-promote themselves (Brautović et al., 2013) or their employer (Hedman and Djerf-Pierre, 2013). Note, Weaver and Willnat consider promotion as an effect of using social media on journalists (Weaver and Willnat, 2016). Almost all studies on journalists’ use of social media indicate its value in satisfying information needs through asking questions, searching queries, using social media as an RSS, etc. (Brautović et al., 2013; Cozma and Chen, 2013; Hasanain et al., 2016; Hedman and Djerf-Pierre, 2013; Hermida et al., 2014; Herrera-Damas and Hermida, 2014; Lariscy et al., 2009; Lasorsa et al., 2012; Newman, 2009; Tandoc Jr. and Vos, 2015; Weaver and Willnat, 2016). As shown in this section, many individual aspects of journalistic work and social media have been examined and can be subsumed under three categories of verification, communication/promotion, and satisfying information needs. Moreover, almost all studies on journalists’ use of social media indicate its value in satisfying information needs, however, they do not report on journalists’ information seeking behavior on social media. Next section discusses the past literature on journalists’ information seeking behavior and shows that when it comes to the context of social media, there is a gap in the past literature. Information seeking behavior (ISB) Interaction with information systems occurs when individuals feel a need for information. They address their need by engaging in information seeking behavior (Belkin, 2010). Taylor described that a user’s actual information need is different from the query they pose (Taylor, 1968). Consequently, an information system must take the query and serve results that satisfy the user’s actual need. Therefore, information seeking behavior (ISB) studies focus on users’ information needs, seeking, behaviors, and experiences to have better understanding of user’s actual information need and its subsequent information seeking behavior. Case (Case, 2012) defines “information seeking” as “a conscious effort to acquire information in response to a need or gap in your knowledge.” In the case of journalists, their information needs and seeking behavior along with the context of their information needs must be understood. Campbell (Fiona Campbell, 1997) considers news as something that is actively constructed within the constraints of time, space, intended audience, and the news organization. She argues that journalists’ information seeking is not sophisticated due to the nature of the news process. Campbell points out that the intended readership influences the angle of a story and consequently the ways journalists look for information. Nicholas and Martin (Nicholas and Martin, 1997) showed that journalists need large volumes of information that is authoritative, current, and quickly delivered. Fabritius (Fabritius, 1999a) using observation, interviews, and diary studies found that information seeking should be considered in a broader context and investigated by means of a hierarchical framework: journalistic culture, culture of the medium, culture of the topic, work practices, news item processing, information seeking, and information retrieval. Fabritius’s view of how journalists seek information is different from Nicholas and Martin who consider information needs as a part of the journalistic work culture. Attfield and Dowell (Simon Attfield and John Dowell, 2003) indicate that journalistic research starts with the assignment of work and consists of three stages: initiation, preparation, and production. Initiation establishes an angle, deadline, and required word-count. During preparation, originality checking, developing a personal understanding, and discovering potential content all lead to information seeking. Attfield and Dowell highlighted the role of uncertainty in what a journalist wants and what they are going to produce.