Introduction
In this modern era, every society in the world needed information for any day to day activity. As the need for information varies between different individuals, information has to be attained, processed, stored, retrieve and distributed for communication whether it is for business, education, research and development (Qureshi, S. 2006).1 The effectiveness in running these activities efficiently depends largely on the availability and amount of information gathered at the right time. Information becomes central to the advancement of knowledge and the development of the knowledge society and it is one of the most important elements to thrive in the modern era. The needs for such information are supported by the development of information behavior that is going on rapidly. Among these are advances in Internet facilities, development of information technology, improvements in communications multimedia and sophistication. (Ngulube, P. 2002).2
Their information needs vary from basic information on a given topic to information for cross verification of facts, supporting evidence in the form of photos, and public opinion. News apps, e-newspapers, digital archives of newspapers, television news channels and social networking sites are the most frequently consulted e-sources of information. Subject experts, local political leaders / government representatives, and friends and relatives are the major human sources of information consulted for gathering information. Non availability of the required information, lack of time, lack of information (Parvathamma N & Rajashekhar Mahadevagouda 2021).3 Journalists search, access, and make use of a variety of information sources, both in print and electronic media. Journalists have been increasingly reliant on internet tools in recent years (Parvathamma N & Rajashekhar Mahadevagouda, 2022).4
Objectives of the Study
To find out the frequency and purpose of information seeking and areas of working of the journalists;
To find out the vital areas of information needs among journalists
To understand the information search strategies adopted the journalists in seeking the information.
To know the strategy to locate information/references
To identify the difficulties faced in seeking the required information
Scope and Limitations of the study
This study is confined to knowing the information-seeking behavior of journalists working for newspapers both in Print and Electronic formats. A total of 37 newspapers were considered for the study. Care has also been taken to select the newspapers that have electronic versions of circulation. (Table 1) shows the distribution of selected newspapers available both in print and electronic formats. The study covered newspapers published in six languages viz., Kannada, English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, and Urdu.
Table 1
List of selected newspapers for the study
Methodology
The present study was confined to knowing the Information seeking behavior of journalists who have used the survey method. Keeping in mind the target group, this study adopted the survey method of research (Tasmim, S., & Atikuzzaman, M. 2023).5 The researcher surveyed the journalists working for 37 newspapers published in six different languages. Further, personal interview and observation methods are also adopted to enhance the rate of data collection. The study also followed the selection of sample to overcome the time and financial barriers. The analysis of data was done using the suitable statistical analysis. A total of 809 questionnaires were distributed among the media professionals in all over the Karnataka, of which 610 filled-up questionnaires were received back consisting of 75.40% responses, which can be considered as a good response from the media professionals.
Data analysis and interpretation
Table 2
Gender-wise distribution of respondents
|
Gender |
Number |
Percentage |
|
Male |
491 |
80.49 |
|
Female |
119 |
19.51 |
|
Age group |
Number |
Percentage |
|
20-25 |
71 |
11.64 |
|
26-30 |
155 |
25.41 |
|
31-35 |
134 |
21.97 |
|
36-40 |
119 |
19.51 |
|
41-45 |
74 |
12.13 |
|
46-50 |
38 |
6.23 |
|
>50 |
19 |
3.11 |
(Table 1) indicates that of the 610 respondents, 491 (80.49%) are male and the remaining 119 (19.51%) are female. The table shows that the male respondents are the highest to respond to the survey. The majority of respondents i.e. 25.41% belonged to the age group of 26-30 years followed by 31-35 years (21.97%), and 36-40 years (19.51%). The table also shows that 12.13% of respondents belonged to the age group of 41-45 years and 11.64% of respondents belonged to the age group of 20-25 years. Nearly 10% of the respondents are above 45 years. The data indicates that approximately 60% of the respondents are below 35 years.
Table 3
Frequency of usingprint resources for collecting the required information
A question has been asked to know the frequency of use of print resources by the respondents. (Table 2) depicts the respondents’ opinion on the frequency of use of print resources. Of the 610 respondents, 270 (44.26%) always use newspapers followed by magazines and government publications accounting for 37.87%. Press clippings and books were always used by 31.31% and 29.34% of respondents respectively.
48.03% of respondents stated that they use books most of the time followed by press clippings (41.64%), and pamphlets (40.33%). This shows that books, press clippings, and pamphlets are the highly preferred print resources by the respondents.
Overall more than 80% of respondents frequently use newspapers and more than 77% of respondents use magazines, books, and government publications. Undoubtedly, newspapers in print format have been used as rich sources of information by the majority of respondents.
Table 2.1:
Table 4
Hypothesis-1: The frequency of use of print resources varies with the year of experience of professionals
|
Print resources |
df |
F |
Sig. |
|
Newspaper (binding, clippings) |
4 |
16.858 |
.000 |
|
Magazines |
4 |
7.789 |
.000 |
|
Books |
4 |
18.015 |
.000 |
|
Govt Publications |
4 |
7.789 |
.000 |
|
Pamphlets |
4 |
3.721 |
.005 |
|
Press Clippings |
4 |
6.871 |
.000 |
The one-way ANOVA test was used to identify if any variations exist among the respondents with various levels of professional experience with regard to the use of print resources at the probability level of 0.05. The data presented in (Table 4) indicates that there is statistically significant difference exists among the respondents with different levels of professional experience in the use of Newspaper (f=16.858, p=.000), Magazines (f=7.789, p=.000), Books (f=18.015, p=.000), Govt Publications (f=7.789, p=.000), Pamphlets (f=3.721, p=.005), Press Clippings (f=6.871, p=.000). Hence, it is arguable that the use of print resources varies as the years of professional experience increases. In other words, the professional experience influences the extent of the use of print resources. Hypothesis-1 is accepted.
Table 5
Frequency of usingelectronic resources for collecting the required information
Table 6
Hypothesis-2:There is a positive correlation between the use of electronic sources and theprofessional experience of the respondents
Table 7
Vital areas of information needs
Table 8
Strategy to locate information/references
Table 9
Difficulties faced in seeking the requiredinformation
Electronic resources have been gaining momentum and the use of the Internet has become inevitable for the information seeker. Many previous studies have recorded the significance of the Internet in obtaining information (Chakroborty, Shuvashish, 2014;6 Thanuskodi, S 2010;7 Kaur, and Verma, 2009;).8 Keeping in mind this, a question has been posed to the respondents to indicate the frequency of use of e-resources to obtain the required information.
(Table 5) shows the frequency of using electronic resources by the respondents. The majority of respondents always use the Internet/websites/smartphones (48.52%) followed by television (39.02%). Radio is used by 34.10% of the respondents to gather the required information.
More than 90% of respondents have been depending on the internet to collect the required information. Arguably, the frequency of use of the Internet is very frequent compared to other electronic resources. Television, as well as Radio, is also used frequently to gather information. It is notable to know that more than 25% of the respondents used the library archives less frequently.
It was assumed that there is a positive correlation exists between the use of e-resources and the years of professional experience of the respondents. The data presented in (Table 6) indicates that the uses of e-resources are negatively correlated with the years of experience of the respondents. The results of the Pearson correlation for the Internet (t=-.085), television (t=-.145), audio-visual program (t=-.156), archives (t=-.073), and radio (t=-.156) show that the use of these sources is not correlated with the years of experience of the respondents. It indicates that the respondents with the higher number of professional experience use less e-resources than the respondents with a lesser number of years of professional experience. Meanwhile, the correlation is statistically significant for the use of the Internet (p=.035), television (p=.000), audio-visual programs (p=.000), and radio (p=.000). Hence, hypothesis-2 is rejected.
(Table 7) shows the level of significance in relation to the area of information needs. The majority of respondents opined that information requirements are of utmost significance in the areas such as feature writing (50.33%) followed by film criticism (47.21%), FIR reports, and information on anti-socials (45.74%), and report writing (45.74%). Information requirement is moderately significant in the areas such as ethics for journalists (68.20%), press accreditation (66.72%), Antecedents of corrupt officials / or corrupt politicians (65.74%), and VIPs tour schedule (62.79%).
The data presented in the above table indicates that the information requirements are significant for all journalists who work for different sectors of newspapers. More than 30% of respondents opined that the information required about all areas is of utmost significance whereas more than 50% of respondents felt that the information is required at the level of moderate significance related to all areas.
Various strategies are in practice to locate the information available in various information resources. In response to the question on the strategies used to locate the information, the majority of respondents stated that they search on websites which accounted for 61.48%. It is followed by a search through newspaper archiving databases (56.23%), discussion with professional colleagues (50.82%), and a search through the periodicals in the library (49.51%) are the other strategies used by the respondents to locate the required information.
Meanwhile, approaching the librarian is strategically followed by only 17.38% of the respondents. The data in the above (Table 8) indicates that searching through websites as well as newspaper archives is the major strategy used by the respondents.
(Table 9) indicates the difficulties faced by respondents while seeking the required information. The majority of respondents strongly agreed that inadequate library resources (24.75%) followed by inadequate library services (24.10%) have become difficulties while seeking the required information. The majority of respondents i.e. 41.97% agreed that inadequate library services followed by inadequate library services (37.70%) and information not readily available (23.11%) hinder the information-seeking process. Approximately 50% of the respondents have given a neutral response about the various difficulties in seeking required information and expected lack of library resources and services.
The above table indicates that the respondents opined that the high-level difficulty persisted with the library resources and services.
Findings and Conclusion
The study found that of the 610 respondents, 491 (80.49%) are male and the remaining 119 (19.51%) are female.
The study found that of the 610 respondents, 468 (76.72%) are working for Kannada newspapers, 96 (15.74%) respondents are working for English newspapers. Remaining respondents are working for Telugu, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam, and Urdu newspapers.
It is observed that more than 80% of respondents frequently use newspapers and it is followed by magazines, books, and government publications are highly preferred.
Search on websites and search through newspaper archiving databases are the major strategies followed by the respondents to locate information.
Discussion with professional colleagues and search through the periodicals in the library are also used as strategies to locate the required information.
The study found that the majority of respondents have a very strong level of skills in using social networking sites followed by graphic designing tools, and professional software(s).
The majority of respondents faced the problem of inadequate library resources and inadequate library services while seeking the required information.
The respondents with journalism degrees face difficulties related to information search skills and lack of times.
The respondents with other academic degrees face difficulties related to infrastructure and technology while accessing the information.
Lack of modern communication technology, professional risks while carrying out official duties, lack of searching skills, and lack of time are the major difficulties are faced by the professionals with different ages.
Conclusion
The professionals in journalism have to gather background information and to make news items. The reporters, editors, column writers, photographers collect different forms of information that could make the news at the end. The collected information and the news that they made is a responsible task which set the standard of the newspaper industry. They are answerable to the society. Hence, they collect and evaluate the information from various sources. To fulfill their information demands they have to identify the authentic sources of information. This study has made an attempt to identify the behavior of journalists in the process of information seeking.
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