J. David Johnson

On contexts of information seeking

While surprisingly little has been written about context at a meaningful level, context is central to most theoretical approaches to information seeking. In this essay I explore in more detail three senses of context. First, I look at context as equivalent to the situation in which a process is immersed. Second, I discuss contingency approaches that detail active ingredients of the situation that have specific, predictable effects. Third, I examine major frameworks for meaning systems. Then, I discuss how a deeper appreciation of context can enhance our understanding of the process of information seeking by examining two vastly different contexts in which it occurs: organizational and cancer-related, an exemplar of everyday life information seeking. This essay concludes with a discussion of the value that can be added to information seeking research and theory as a result of a deeper appreciation of context, particularly in terms of our current multi-contextual environment and individuals taking an active role in contextualizing.

Differences Between Formal and Informal Communication Channels

This research compares formal and informal organizational communication structures, specifically focusing on salience, channel factors, and channel usage. The major hypotheses of this research were partially supported with data collected from a large, technically oriented governmental agency (n = 380).

A model for understanding and affecting cancer genetics information seeking

Abstract Health-related topics are relevant to a diverse array of people, which makes health information seeking a rich area in which to study how people look for information and to create interventions to aid in their searches. Cancer genetics is an important health context because information acquisition can positively impact an individuals morbidity and mortality while also affecting an individuals family network. However, this new field of research has created a complex information environment that is constantly evolving. Traditional methods of providing content through mass communication campaigns cannot keep pace. What is needed is a strategy that does not rely on perishable content, but instead helps people gain lifelong skills to find and assess cancer genetic information on their own. This article reviews the tenets of cancer information seeking—highlighting the growing public interest in genetics—and discusses how the burden of seeking health information has shifted to the patient. The authors introduce GENIS 2 (Genetic Information-Seeking Skills), which is an intervention framework for helping people build cancer genetic information-seeking skills that will be useful throughout their lives. GENIS 2 is based on the Comprehensive Model of Information Seeking (CMIS), which explores peoples information-seeking actions by looking at the role played by demographics, experience, salience, and beliefs, as well as the information fields in which people exist. The CMIS is outlined and its stages are used to elucidate what kinds of cancer genetic information people are looking for in different situational contexts. The CMIS is also used as the framework for creating intervention strategies that information professionals can use to help coach people toward being more self-efficacious information seekers.

A Comprehensive Model of Information Seeking Tests Focusing on a Technical Organization

Individual information seeking has become increasingly a critical determinant of the success of individual organizational members and of an organization as a whole. This study tests a Comprehensive Model of Information Seeking (CMIS) that contains three primary classes of variables: Antecedents, which provide the underlying imperatives to seek information; Information Carrier Characteristics, which shape the nature of specific intentions to seek information from particular carriers; and Information Seeking Actions, which reflect the nature of the search itself and are the outcomes of the preceding classes. The CMIS was tested and refined in tests related to the informal channel in a large, technically oriented governmental agency (N = 380), then the refined model was confirmed by tests on the formal channel. Both tests of the revised model were supportive, suggesting that the most important variables were those related to an individuals existing information base, those associated with an individuals need for programmed information seeking, and those dealing with information carrier characteristics.

Genomics—the perfect information–seeking research problem

ABSTRACT The intersection of the genetics era and information age poses unique and daunting challenges for health consumers who may not have the health literacy to keep pace. While rapid advances in genetics research promise enhanced care, the inherent complexities and individualistic nature of genetic information have resulted in a challenging information environment. The technical possibilities for acquiring genomic information are increasing at an exponential pace, as are the scientific advances relating to it. Furthermore, societal reactions to genomics, and possible privacy and discrimination issues, may constitute significant constraints. The health care infrastructure also has its limits, given the severe shortage of qualified cancer genetic counselors and general practitioners who are unprepared to address genetics, creating a demand for creative approaches to service delivery. The combination of individual salience, low health literacy, the consumer movement, and important policy problems, then makes genomics the perfect information seeking research problem.

An impressionistic mapping of information behavior with special attention to contexts, rationality, and ignorance

Recent years have seen an explosion of interest in human information behavior in part attributable to the rapid development of the Internet and associated information technologies. Concomitantly there has been substantial growth in theoretic frames, research, and substantive models. However, these approaches have often been fragmentary, dependent on the goals of disparate disciplines that are interested in differing aspects of information behavior. They often have been rooted in the most rational of contexts, libraries, where individuals come with a defined problem, or information technology systems, that have their own inherent logic. Attempts to extend this work to everyday life contexts often run into disquieting findings related to the benefits of ignorance and the seeming irrationality of human information behavior. A broader view of our social world leads us to richer policy implications for our work. We live in exciting times, in an increasingly flattened world, where the ability for people to assimilate information they find into coherent personal strategies is perhaps the critical modern survival skill.

Internal and External Communication, Boundary Spanning, and Innovation Adoption: An Over-Time Comparison of Three Explanations of Internal and External Innovation Communication in a New Organizational Form.

This research report compares three differing explanations of the dynamic interre lationships between internal and external innovation-related communication in a new organizational form. In the functional specialization explanation, individuals are said to focus on the mix of internal and/or external communication dictated by their formal positions. The communication stars explanation suggests that indi viduals maintain similar levels of communication in both networks. The cyclical model posits a more dynamic pattern that shifts back and forth between internal and external communication, depending on the consequences of their prior commu nication behavior. The new organizational form examined for three years was the Cancer Information Service, a geographically dispersed federal government health information program. Our results indicated that there was a lagged effect for the communication stars explanation.

Women's preferences for cancer‐related information from specific types of mass media

We examined womens preferences for specific types of cancer-related information from three different mass media: television, newspapers, and magazines. Statistical analyses revealed significant content differences across the three media. These results raise important issues for health marketing campaigns, suggesting that women prefer to receive specific information about cancer, prevention information, and information relating to dealing emotionally with cancer from certain types of mass media.

Formal and informal group communication structures: An examination of their relationship to role ambiguity

Abstract This study systematically explores the relative impacts of formal and emergent group communication structures on social contagion processes related to role ambiguity. This study was conducted in an Eastern, state-wide, non-profit lobbying organization. The results suggest that communication network groupings have a clearer association with role ambiguity than an entire network of relationships. However, contrary to our hypothesis, no clear distinction could be made concerning the relative impact of formal and informal groups on these processes.

Effects of Communicative Factors on Participation in Innovations

This study develops and tests a structural equation model of the effects of persuasive ness, salience, and uncertainty on participation in innovations. It focuses on a com munication process crucial to the eventual innovativeness of large companies: the process by which an innovative manager secures support in the early stages of an in novation from other managers. The model was tested on data gathered from a large financial institution (N = 210). In general, the results were supportive of the model with an acceptable overall goodness of fit and measurement model. The results suggest that the classic communicative variable of persuasion had a paramount impact on par ticipation, reinforcing the notion that communication is central to innovative processes within organizations.