Information-rich, but time-poor

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to analyse how elite politicians in opposition in the Norwegian parliament use information when responding to government propositions and investigate if Chatman’s small world conception can explain the socially and economically highly privileged groups’ approach to information. Design/methodology/approach The qualitative analysis of the data consisting of eight interviews with seven members of parliament (MPs) and one political advisor is based on a selective coding grounded to Chatman’s six propositions on life in the round. Findings The overall findings indicate that elite politicians’ information practices concentrate in mastering the flow of information and admitting attention selectively, but on broad topics. Whereas MPs information practices within an intentional approach (i.e. to be used in political responses and debates) aligned with the small world idea, the nebulous approach (i.e. keeping updated on societal issues) breaks the boundaries of their “small worlds”. Originality/value The study provides a glimpse into information practises of a little studied group, elite politicians. Moreover, it applies Chatman’s conception of small world in a novel manner.

A dual lens approach to exploring informal communication's influence on learning in a political party

“…They did add observations that if a question was asked the wrong way, people might hold back on giving their true opinions and concerns. Information overload, as identified in the literature (Marcella et al, 2007;Walgrave and Dejaegher, 2017;Galtrud and Byström, 2020) and the dangers of the restrictions of echo chambers, corresponding to Walgrave and Dejaegher's (2017) heuristics strategies and Galtrud and Byström's (2020) findings about seeking information that was beneficial to politicians' ideologies, were mentioned several times in both interviews. One of the participants with concerns in this area, bearing in mind Marcella et al's (2007) observations of lack of information skills among elite politicians and their staffers, did have qualifications in library and information skills.…”

“…Efficacy in the sense of working with P a g e | 6 information that will give the politicians a good chance of success was identified as one of the heuristic factors for selecting information (Walgrave and Dejaeghere, 2017). A key heuristic though was that of ideology, where politicians would select information that benefits the party's ideology (Galtrud and Byström, 2020;Walgrave and Dejaeghere, 2017). Galtrud and Byström (2020) in their application of Chatman's 1999 work on her theory of life in the round, found that their research subjects information use was primarily determined by 'insiders', those who define which information is "worth paying attention to" (Galtrud and Byström, 2020, p. 411).…”

“…They are key opportunities for sensemaking, where knowledge gaps reveal themselves through direct questions or expressions of confusion and uncertainty, or through affective states of stress and anxiety (Dervin, 2005). While informal and unofficial contacts were found to be popular among parliamentarians (Marcella et al, 1999;Orton et al, 2000), Galtrud and Bystr€ om (2020) found that elite politicians had less access to informal sources at their level of performance, than they did when working at local and constituency levels. Such elite politicians including party leaders (Walgrave and Dejaeghere, 2017) and ministers (Marcella et al, 1999(Marcella et al, , 2007 find themselves in the position of having little prior knowledge of the areas in which they need to make decisions, while remaining under close public scrutiny.…”

“…It plays a vital role in situated learning, being based on "shared understanding and language, trust, occupational membership as well as situational opportunity and privacy" (Waring and Bishop, 2010). Information seeking behaviour by parliamentarians does feature in the research literature (Baxter et al, 2016;Galtrud and Bystr€ om, 2020;Marcella, et al, 1999;Marcella et al, 2007;Mostert and Ocholla, 2005;Orton et al, 2000;Walgrave and Dejaeghere, 2017) and often included reference to the need for more studies in this arena. Further research has been conducted by Baxter and Marcella (2017) into voter online behaviour during the Scottish referendum.…”

“…Such elite politicians including party leaders (Walgrave and Dejaeghere, 2017) and ministers (Marcella et al, 1999(Marcella et al, , 2007 find themselves in the position of having little prior knowledge of the areas in which they need to make decisions, while remaining under close public scrutiny. They rely on intermediaries, including research assistants and gatekeepers, as preliminary analysers, but also, as a checking process, go to the original sources, which are now reduced in quantity (Galtrud and Bystr€ om, 2020).…”