Toward a description framework of information encountering experiences

Abstract

PurposeOne of the primary challenges of conducting information encountering (IE) research is the difficulty in capturing people's IE experiences. The purpose of this paper is to develop a general description framework of IE experiences as guidance for participants to record diary entries in diary studies of IE.Design/methodology/approach340 descriptions of IE incidents were collected from 18 previous IE studies as secondary data. A thematic analysis of the secondary data engendered a general description framework of IE experiences composed of 9 main themes and 31 sub-themes. The framework was then applied in a diary study to investigate Generation Z's online IE behavior.FindingsThe nine main themes of the framework, including “environment”, “foreground activity”, “stimulus noticed”, “reaction to stimulus”, “content examined”, “interaction with encountered information”, “value of experience”, “pre-encountering emotional state”, and “post-encountering emotional state”, were used to create a diary questionnaire for collecting IE incidents. The sub-themes were refined and organized into a coding scheme for the content analysis of the incidents collected. The diary study collected 255 valid IE incidents which were analyzed based on three phases, that is, pre-encountering, encountering, and post-encountering.Originality/valueThe value of this study consists in its methodological contributions. First, it makes creative use of secondary data accumulated in the literature and derives from the thematic analysis a general framework which people follow to describe their IE experiences. Second, it demonstrates the great potential of diaries for data collection in IE research through the successful application of the general description framework of IE experiences in a diary study. Third, the diary questionnaire created based on the framework provides sufficient guidance in eliciting complete and detailed IE incidents.

A bibliometric review on serendipity literature available in Web of Science database using HistCite and Biblioshiny

“…IE is analyzed based on three phases, which are pre-encountering, encountering and postencountering (Jiang et al ., 2020). IE involves the process of engaging with information after noticing it; the process can be disrupted, resulting in missed opportunities for knowledge and insight creation.…”

Effects of Incidental Brief Exposure to News on News Knowledge While Scrolling Through Videos

“…This study can contribute to understand the incidental exposure to news screens on other platforms, such as broadcast televisions, video hosting services [41], [42], and social media (news thumbnails on social media [43]).…”