Want to know more about IM?
Information Needs
Information needs can be driven by different things around us such as family, work or school, which require users to seek for new ideas. For example, editors may need some information to inspire and create ideas for his/ her articles. Advertisers need information to create their new advertisements. Elderly needs information for entertainment. All these example show that different user groups have different information needs.
According to Taylor’s theory (1968), the development of information need can be divided into 4 steps:
When users come across questions or problems that they do not know the solutions (e.g. the latest news about economic change), their mental awareness will first encourage them to find the answers in a quick and direct way (e.g. ask experts who are familiar with the topic, or go to newspaper websites to retrieve articles about it). These ways are identified as the 'bridge' to fulfill the information gap and reach the user's outcome.
According to Paisley, information needs can be affected by many factors, namely:
In news media, information needs can be affected by the following factors:
-
The range of information sources of news media is too board that users do not know which piece of information is suitable for them
-
Users may not know how to retrieve news that they need by using online news catalogue system
-
The general public is reluctant to read or listen to the whole set of newspper or magazine when searching information
-
Communication or language problems between users and reporters of broadcast media.
-
Company policies and environmental constraints for business sectors
-
Social, political, economic, legal issues affect users to search for particular needs.
-
Bad experience may affect the motivation of information seeking next time