Article: Issues in information behaviour on social media
Khoo, C.S.G. (2014). Issues in information behaviour on social media. LIBRES, 24(2), 75-96. (Available at: http://libres-ejournal.info/1399/) Abstract Background. Social media present a rich environment to study information behaviour, as much of the user interaction is recorded and stored in publicly accessible repositories and on personal devices. Objectives. This paper surveys the literature of the past nine years on information behaviour related to social media, focusing especially on social networking sites and online discussion forums. It reviews the characteristics of social media users and use, the predominant types of information behaviour, and new types of information found in user-contributed content. Results. Studies have found clear age, gender and national differences, and differences between local citizens and foreigners, in the frequency and purpose of social media use, the choice of social media sites, number of online friends, and types of information posted. Social media users typically share experiential and practical knowledge...
Article: Relevance judgment when browsing a health discussion forum: Content analysis of eye fixations
Pian, W., Khoo, C.S.G., & Chang, Y.K. (2014). Relevance judgment when browsing a health discussion forum: Content analysis of eye fixations. LIBRES, 24(2), 132-147. (Available at: http://libres-ejournal.info/1408/) Abstract Introduction. People are increasingly searching and browsing for health information on social media sites. This is a small study of the relevance criteria used by laypersons when browsing a health discussion forum under three conditions—when seeking information for their own health issue, for a friend’s or relative’s health issue, and with no particular issue in mind. Method. An eye-tracker system was used to identify what text users’ eyes were fixated on when browsing post surrogates and post content on a health discussion forum. Eye-fixations indicated the text segments that the user’s attention was focused on when making relevance judgments. Analysis. Content analysis was performed on the text segments with eye-fixation, to identify the types of information they contain. These types of...