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Making newsworthy news: The integral role of creativity and verification in the human information behavior that drives news story creation
Abstract
Creativity and verification are intrinsic to high‐quality journalism, but their role is often poorly visible in news story creation. Journalists face relentless commercial pressures that threaten to compromise story quality, in a digital era where their ethical obligation not to mislead the public has never been more important. It is therefore crucial to investigate how journalists can be supported to produce stories that are original, impactful, and factually accurate, under tight deadlines. We present findings from 14 semistructured interviews, where we asked journalists to discuss the creation of a recent news story to understand the process and associated human information behavior (HIB). Six overarching behaviors were identified: discovering, collecting, organizing, interrogating, contextualizing, and publishing. Creativity and verification were embedded throughout news story creation and integral to journalists' HIB, highlighting their ubiquity. They often manifested at a micro level; in small‐scale but vital activities that drove and facilitated story creation. Their ubiquitous role highlights the importance of creativity and verification support being woven into functionality that facilitates information acquisition and use in digital information tools for journalists.
... Goldhammer et al., 2019). Allerdings hängt diese Möglichkeit stark davon ab, ob in den regionalen Medienhäusern die dafür nötige Expertise vorhanden ist, ob der Zugang zu strukturierten Daten sichergestellt werden kann sowie ob die dafür notwendigen Veränderungen der journalistischen Produktion tatsächlich umgesetzt werden können (Gutierrez Lopez, et al. 2022;Porlezza & Ferri 2022 ...
Kleine Medienmärkte wie die Svizzera italiana sind mit besonderen Herausforderungen konfrontiert: Die Werbe- und Publikumsmärkte sind begrenzt und erschweren die Finanzierung der Medien. Die Medienlandschaft der Svizzera italiana hat sich in den vergangenen Jahren insbesondere aufgrund ökonomischen Drucks markant verändert. Neue, stärker reichweiteorientierte Pressetitel wurden lanciert und traditionsreiche wurden eingestellt, einige Online-Anbieter sind neu hinzugekommen. Die ökonomische Situation der Medientitel ist in der italienischen Schweiz weiterhin angespannt, und die Corona-Pandemie hat diesen Umstand noch weiter verschärft. Aus diesem Grund analysiert diese Vertiefungsstudie zunächst den Wandel der Medienstrukturen. Diese wird mit einer Inhaltsanalyse der Medienberichterstattung verbunden, um die Entwicklung der Medienqualität bzw. der journalistischen Leistungen vor dem Hintergrund der Strukturen zu evaluieren. Insgesamt zeigen die Resultate, dass die Gesamtqualität in der Langzeitanalyse im Durchschnitt relativ stabil bleibt und dass auch die kleine Sprachregion Medienangebote hervorbringt, die an die Qualität ähnlicher Angebote in den grösseren Sprachregionen herankommen. Zudem fehlen mit Ausnahme der Pendlermedien qualitätsschwache Boulevardmedien, was gleichzeitig darauf hinweist, dass in einem kleinen Markt rein reichweiteorientierte und werbefinanzierte Angebote schwerer zu finanzieren sind. Darüber hinaus zeigen sich Veränderungen der Qualität in Bezug auf einzelne Dimensionen, was wiederum auf veränderte strukturelle Rahmenbedingungen hinweist. So hat die Pandemie auf gewisse Sphären bzw. Themenlagen durchgeschlagen: Beispielsweise berichten Medien vermehrt über Politik zulasten von Sport und Human-Interest-Themen. Dabei rückt auf Kosten der Auslandsberichterstattung die lokale und kantonale Politik vermehrt in den Vordergrund, während die nationale Politikberichterstattung 2020 höchstwahrscheinlich aufgrund der Pandemie zwar stark zunimmt, insgesamt aber eher stabil bleibt. Positiv ist, dass die redaktionellen Eigenleistungen in der Svizzera italiana stetig zunehmen, Agenturbeiträge also weniger häufig verwendet werden. Trotz der prekären finanziellen Lage des Medienmarktes ist die Medienqualität noch als positiv zu bewerten, allerdings zeigen sich bei genauerem Hinschauen erste Risse. Daher dürften die Kantone nicht um eine medienpolitische Debatte zum Thema Medienfinanzierung herumkommen. Der Kanton Graubünden hat hier bereits erste Schritte unternommen, während die Debatte im Kanton Tessin noch in den Kinderschuhen steckt. Zwar können sich die Medienhäuser im Tessin momentan über Wasser halten, die Frage ist allerdings, für wie lange, ohne dass die Medienqualität tangiert wird.
... This balancing complicates journalism and makes journalists' information seeking rich in considerations that are central to their work. It also makes journalists' information seeking of interest to the research community on information behavior/information practices (e.g., Bird-Meyer et al., 2019;Lopez et al., 2022). However, most of the research in this community bypasses the studies of journalists' information seeking. ...
In producing news stories, journalists depend on information obtained from sources. This paper reviews the literature on journalists’ information seeking. The 90 studies included in the review cover how journalists identify sources, interact with sources, interpret information, and manage sources. In addition to quality and accessibility, balance in the group of sources selected is an important criterion in journalists’ identification of sources. However, the importance journalists assign to balance stands in contrast to the frequent finding of bias in their source selections. In interactions with sources, the sources frequently provide ideas for new stories in addition to information for current ones. This finding shows how multiple instances of information seeking coexist and combine into a mesh of intersecting information-seeking processes. In interpreting information, journalists are acutely aware that sources may have an agenda or be misinformed. While journalists praise information checking, they regularly bypass it or replace direct checks for information quality with indirect checks, such as whether the source appears trustworthy. In managing sources, journalists engage in boundary work to regulate their relationship with sources. They also cultivate long-term relationships with selected sources. The review findings are discussed with respect to how journalism shapes journalists’ information seeking and what implications the findings have for information-behavior research in other domains.
... News professionals use JKPs for news creation. This creative process involves different tasks such as discovering, collecting, organising, contextualising and publishing [56,57]. JKPs guide news professionals in writing up their stories [29], support them with contextual background knowledge [12,13,29], provide the means for comparing current events with other events [23] and facilitate access to previous work for creating similar content for a different audience, region or language [42]. ...
Increasing competition and loss of revenues force newsrooms to explore new digital solutions. The new solutions employ artificial intelligence and big data techniques such as machine learning and knowledge graphs to manage and support the knowledge work needed in all stages of news production. The result is an emerging type of intelligent information system we have called the Journalistic Knowledge Platform (JKP). In this paper, we analyse for the first time knowledge graph-based JKPs in research and practice. We focus on their current state, challenges, opportunities and future directions. Our analysis is based on 14 platforms reported in research carried out in collaboration with news organisations and industry partners and our experiences with developing knowledge graph-based JKPs along with an industry partner. We found that: (a) the most central contribution of JKPs so far is to automate metadata annotation and monitoring tasks; (b) they also increasingly contribute to improving background information and content analysis, speeding-up newsroom workflows and providing newsworthy insights; (c) future JKPs need better mechanisms to extract information from textual and multimedia news items; (d) JKPs can provide a digitalisation path towards reduced production costs and improved information quality while adapting the current workflows of newsrooms to new forms of journalism and readers’ demands.
... With this journalistic context in mind, we investigated the information exploration and verification behavior of journalists in UK newsrooms to establish the requirements for our tool [13]. We used ideas directed at engendering trust as a basis for our work. ...
Journalists are key information workers who have specific requirements from information systems to support the verification and exploration of information. We overview the DMINR tool that has been designed and developed to meet the needs of journalists through the examination of journalists information behaviour in a newsroom. We outline our co-design process as well as the design, implementation and deployment of the tool. We report a usability test on the tool and conclude with details of how to develop the tool further
The study aims to monitor the attitudes of Saudi journalists toward obstacles to creativity in the internal work environment of journalistic institutions. These obstacles can be classified as personal, economic, and administrative, as well as obstacles to creativity related to the external environment, which can be identified as social, organizational, and legislative obstacles. Furthermore, the study seeks to identify the prominent proposed solutions from the journalists' perspective in order to enhance creativity in Saudi journalistic institutions. The study relied on a questionnaire tool applied to a sample of 150 Saudi journalists. Among the study's key findings, statistically significant differences were found between the study groups (males and females) regarding the personal, economic, and administrative obstacles journalists face in the internal environment of newspapers, with a significance level of less than 0.05. It was also found that the obstacles to creativity faced by journalists in the internal environment of newspapers were represented by economic obstacles at a rate of 86.02% in the first place, followed by administrative obstacles at a rate of 77.32%. Finally, personal obstacles were represented at a rate of 53.64%. Similarly, statistically significant differences were found between the study groups (males and females) regarding the social, organizational, legislative, and technological obstacles faced by journalists in the external environment of newspapers, with a significance level of less than 0.05. It was revealed that the obstacles to creativity faced by journalists in the external environment were represented by social obstacles at a rate of 78.98% in the first place, followed by organizational and legislative obstacles at a rate of 77.80%. Lastly, technological obstacles were represented at a rate of 78.41%. Keywords: Obstacles to creativity - Saudi newspapers - journalists.
With the promise of AI, the use of emerging technologies in journalism has gained momentum. However, the question of how such technologies can be interwoven with newsroom practices, values, routines, and socio-cultural experiences is often neglected. This article investigates the ways in which AI-driven tools are permeating newswork and design strategies for blending technological capabilities with editorial requirements. We followed a multi-method approach to investigate the deployment of AI in news production at two London newsrooms: (1) a design ethnography at the BBC with journalists and technologists, and (2) interviews with journalists at The Times.
Our findings show that while journalists are generally open to try AI-driven technologies that benefit their work, technologists struggle to integrate them into journalistic workflows. The consensus was that human judgement is required to make complex decisions in journalism and that journalistic values should be prioritised in AI tool design. We claim that AI tools need to fit with professional practices and values in journalism in order to be fully accepted as an editorial tool. Embedding new technologies into journalistic workflows requires therefore a close collaboration between journalists and technologists, and a sociotechnical design that blends in work routines and values.
Information usage is a key aspect of creative cognition and has been shown to influence design outcomes. The goal of this study was to investigate the information seeking behavior of student designers while validating a previously developed “Typology of Design Information” framework. Participants were asked to use and evaluate pieces of information during the idea generation process. Results show a discrepancy between the information that participants naturally sought out and their perceived utility (helpfulness) of the information. However, individually significant relationships between perceived utility and behavior were found with features generated by participants, suggesting that even though participants' perception of the utility of information pieces and their actual behavior are not related, both constructs have an identifiable influence on design outcomes. This study advances the Typology of Design Information framework by empirically exploring the link between the types of information used by novice designers and the ideas generated, and it illustrates that participants employ complex cognitive behavior when engaging with design information to generate novel ideas.
Creativity in journalism studies includes the use of arts-based research, artistic methods, and other ways of theorising, researching, analysing and presenting data on journalism. Its purpose is to recognise and capture the many forms of journalism that are currently practiced, to develop new approaches to research (digital) journalism, and to enable the telling of the widest possible variety of stories about (digital) journalism. Creativity has a triple implication: as a concept that informs what we are looking for when studying journalism, a guide for the range of available research methods, and an inspiration for the stories we tell about our research.
CONCEPT DEFINITION: Creative Journalism
An interdisciplinary approach explores how journalists embrace the unexpected as part of their reporting routines using Erdelez’s framework of information encountering from the study of human information behavior and the concepts of news routines and story ideation from journalism studies. This paper provides a fresh perspective on the sociology of news in finding that the participating journalists embraced the unexpected by routinizing encountering of story leads and opening themselves to the opportunities they provide.
‘Post-truth’ was not a new concept when it was selected as the international word of the year (2016) by Oxford Dictionaries. In the context of communications research, scholars were discussing journalism in the ‘post-factual’ age some thirty years ago (Ettema 1987). In the digital era, journalistic practice itself has changed; stories are generated by a multiplicity of actors in a participative and interactive way. This paper contemplates the nature of journalists’ information practices in the 21st century and relates these to the roles of information and social media in civil society. The methodology draws on the findings of pilot research studies investigating journalists’ information practices in the digital realm (Martin 2014; 2015) and investigates the pressures of verification. The author posits that that we are ostensibly living in a ‘post-truth’ society largely due to the impact of changes in the news milieu in the digital age. With so many diverse voices in the mix, it is increasingly difficult for citizens to separate fact from fiction; journalists thus have a role as verifiers. It is crucial for information consumers (citizenry) to have the requisite skills and knowledge to critically evaluate media content and deal with information and communication overload.
Processing information into journalistic content in contemporary news media creates a
favorable environment for the distribution of misleading and fake information. This paper
analyzes the distribution of alternative facts and fake news as a phenomenon characterizing
post-fact society and how journalistic work processes may promote and legitimize the
distribution of misleading content. The study looks into the back- and front-stage performances
of journalistic information processing that are influenced by social time acceleration and the
insistence of ‘click-bait’ news criteria. We used three different methods for teaching news
reporting on three different groups of Estonian journalism students, and analyzed their
performance using self-reflection in focus group interviews. Two groups of students, whose
assignments were geared toward the outcome, focused more on front stage performances and
underestimated back stage performances, e.g. the evaluation of sources, background
information gathering, and fact checking. One group, which was taught news reporting as a
process of information filtering, perceived and reflected both front and back stage
performances. The results indicate that (online) newsroom practice, which is influenced by
time pressure and the continuous requirement of new content, may force journalists to skip the
stages of conventional journalistic information processing and due to that create favorable
environment for publishing and distributing misleading and fake news.
Social media and user-generated content (UGC) are increasingly important features of journalistic work in a number of different ways. However, their use presents major challenges, not least because information posted on social media is not always reliable and therefore its veracity needs to be checked before it can be considered as fit for use in the reporting of news. We report on the results of a series of in-depth ethnographic studies of journalist work practices undertaken as part of the requirements gathering for a prototype of a social media verification 'dashboard' and its subsequent evaluation. We conclude with some reflections upon the broader implications of our findings for the design of tools to support journalistic work.
The verification of factual accuracy is widely held as essential to journalists’ professional identity. Our rhetorical analysis of interviews with award-winning and semi-randomly selected newspaper reporters confirms this professional norm while revealing a preference for four types of image to describe verification methods. Spatial and temporal travel images paint verification as an embedded but adaptable heuristic process. Images of conflict suggest verification as a weapon and a shield against implied enemies. Journalists speak of vision both literally as the preeminent tool of verification, and figuratively as a metaphor for interpretation. Meanwhile, a fourth and seemingly predominant image—that of storytelling—functions to integrate the images of travel, battle, and observation and the different forms of professional identity that they connote. The quest for truth through storytelling likewise suggests a rich, if ambiguous, sense of good journalism as combining the instruments of fact with the craft of fiction.
Social media now plays a pivotal role in how broadcast media engages with their audiences. This paper contemplates the nature of our digital media culture, the diversity of actors involved and how the role of the journalist has evolved. The methodology includes examining the findings of a pilot research study investigating journalists’ information practices in the digital realm. Two theoretical frameworks from the discipline of Information Science are introduced to re-orient research practices. The findings reveal digital journalism facilitates richer and more expansive storytelling, with connectivity between experts, journalists and the public. The author posits that the citizen-informant is reconceptualised in the news milieu.
Sample sizes must be ascertained in qualitative studies like in quantitative studies but not by the same means. The prevailing concept for sample size in qualitative studies is "saturation." Saturation is closely tied to a specific methodology, and the term is inconsistently applied. We propose the concept "information power" to guide adequate sample size for qualitative studies. Information power indicates that the more information the sample holds, relevant for the actual study, the lower amount of participants is needed. We suggest that the size of a sample with sufficient information power depends on (a) the aim of the study, (b) sample specificity, (c) use of established theory, (d) quality of dialogue, and (e) analysis strategy. We present a model where these elements of information and their relevant dimensions are related to information power. Application of this model in the planning and during data collection of a qualitative study is discussed.
Information seeking does not occur in a vacuum but invariably is motivated by some wider task. It is well accepted that to understand information seeking we must understand the task context within which it takes place. Writing is amongst the most common tasks within which information seeking is embedded. This paper considers how writing can be understood in order to account for embedded information seeking. Following Sharples (1996), we treat writing as a design activity and explore parallels between the psychology of design and information seeking. Significant parallels can be found and ideas from the psychology of design offer explanations for a number of information seeking phenomena. Next, we develop a design oriented representation of writing tasks as a means of providing an account of phenomena such as information seeking uncertainty and focus refinement. We illustrate the representation with scenarios describing the work of newspaper journalists.
While a concerted quest for accuracy is seen by many journalists as central to their professional identity, informal rules of practice for achieving news accuracy are elusive and highly nuanced. We conducted post hoc qualitative interviews with 28 semi-randomly selected Canadian journalists working for French- and English-language newspapers; each journalist reconstructed in detail the process of verification used in reporting a single newspaper story. Findings suggest considerable diversity in verification strategies, at times mirroring social scientific methods (source triangulation, analysis of primary data sources or official documents, semi-participant observation), and different degrees of reflexivity or critical awareness of journalists' own blind spots and limitations. Most interviewees expressed passionate support for the norm of verification, but described a range of pragmatic compromises when selecting various types of facts for, and when conducting, verification. Proper names, numbers and some other concrete details were verified with greater care than some other types of factual statement. On the other hand, statements were frequently relayed, with or without attribution, based on a single subject's word. We also observed that verification cannot easily or consistently be identified as a distinct process within the normal course of reporting: rather, the relationship between the reporting and verification processes may often be circular, and some verification rests in knowledge derived from a reporter's earlier work.
Grounded theory is a qualitative research approach that uses inductive analysis as a principal technique. Yet, researchers who embrace this approach often use sensitizing concepts to guide their analysis. In this article, the author examines the relationship between sensitizing concepts and grounded theory. Furthermore, he illustrates the application of sensitizing concepts in a study of community-based antipoverty projects in Jamaica. The article contains commentary about trustworthiness techniques, the coding process, and the constant comparative method of analysis, as well as a synopsis of study findings.
Purpose
The aim of this study is to explore the information needs and behaviors of practicing theatre artists. Psychological research into creativity provides a framework for understanding both theatre artists' information‐seeking behavior and the role of information seeking and gathering in the creative process.
Design/methodology/approach
The exploratory study presents findings from an online questionnaire of 73 practicing theatre artists and qualitative data gathered from eight interviews with theatre professionals.
Findings
The study reveals that theatre artists seek information for six primary purposes: understanding a work's historical, cultural, and critical background; finding sources of inspiration; learning about contemporary or historical theatre productions, artists, and events; learning technical or process information; finding performance materials; and furthering career goals. Theatre artists view the information search process as being essential to their creative activities, and their first‐hand accounts of their artistic experiences illuminate the critical role that information seeking and gathering play in the creative process.
Research limitations/implications
Some theatre professions, such as lighting or sound design, were represented in the questionnaire but were not represented in the interviews.
Practical implications
The study has practical implications for the delivery of library and internet theatre art collections and information services.
Originality/value
Few studies have examined the information‐seeking behavior of practicing theatre artists. The paper demonstrates that studies of artists can be used to understand the role of information seeking and gathering in the creative processes of people working in various subject domains.
Purpose
This paper seeks to understand how users know when to stop searching for more information when the information space is so saturated that there is no certainty that the relevant information has been identified.
Design/methodology/approach
Faculty, undergraduate and graduate students participated in focus group interviews to investigate what leads them to satisfice their information needs.
Findings
Academic library users describe both qualitative and quantitative criteria, which lead them to make rational choices determining when “enough” information satisfices their need. The situational context of both the participants' specific information need and their role in academic society affects every stage of their search – from the selection of the first resource, to ongoing search strategies, to decisions on how much information is enough.
Originality/value
These findings broaden the scope of earlier user research, which tends to focus on the more static views of habitual information‐seeking and ‐searching behavior, by applying theoretical frameworks for a richer understanding of the users' experiences.
The information seeking patterns of a group of research physicists and research chemists were analysed and the key features of those patterns identified. The aim was to use a similar methodology to that employed in a previous study of the information seeking activities of a group of social scientists and to effect a comparison between the information seeking patterns of the scientists and the social scientists. The information seeking patterns were derived from interviews with physicists at Manchester University and chemists at the University of Sheffield. The methodology adopted for the interviews and analysis was qualitative and based on the grounded theory approach. The results were then compared with the findings of the previous study of the social scientists to try and identify similarities and differences between the two groups. Certain minor variations concerned with awareness levels of facilities, the extent of usage of a source and the research stage at which a strategy may be employed were identified. Nonetheless, fundamental differences in information seeking behaviour could not be determined. Finally, the extent to which developments in electronic communication have had any impact on the information or communication patterns of the scientists and social scientists is considered.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report research that sought to understand the requirements of information systems designed to support people engaged in creative intellectual activity. The research aimed to provide empirical evidence based on a case study of a particular arena of creativity, namely electro‐acoustic music composition. However, it also sought to identify issues that may apply more widely to other arenas of human creativity.
Design/methodology/approach
The research was based on a related series of three in‐depth studies of electro‐acoustic music composers at work. These studies entailed the collection of qualitative data from interviews, observations and “think aloud” protocols. These data were analysed inductively to reveal concepts and relationships that formed the basis for a model of interactions between the composers and the information systems with which they were working.
Findings
The paper presents a model of relationships between information system features and use, and the resulting effects in terms of the extent to which creativity was perceived by the composers to have been facilitated and inhibited. In particular, a number of tensions were identified which suggest that conventional “best practice” in the design of data‐intensive information systems may be fundamentally at odds with the requirements of such systems to support important aspects of creativity.
Research limitations/implications
The limitations associated with in‐depth qualitative research based on small samples is acknowledged, relating in particular to its lack of ability to generalise on the basis of statistical probability. However, such an approach arguably offers the complementary strength of being particularly suited to exploratory research aimed essentially at charting new territory and identifying rich and possibly unanticipated constructs rather than testing hypotheses based on existing theory. The resultant findings, however, must remain tentative and provisional pending further systematic investigation designed to establish the extent to which they are generalisable.
Practical implications
As well as identifying limitations in conventional approaches to designing data‐intensive information systems, an alternative architecture is proposed which seeks better to map onto the requirements of creativity support. It is hoped that both the criticisms of conventional approaches and the proposed novel architecture may be of practical use to those engaged in the design of data‐intensive creativity support systems.
Originality/value
The research reported here offers a novel perspective on the design of information systems in that it identifies a tension between conventional “best practice” in system design and the requirements of important aspects of creativity support. It has the advantage of being based on the in‐depth observation of real composers in action over protracted periods of time. It also proposes a novel system architecture which seeks to avoid reduce such tensions.
There is very little qualitative data on what impact the Internet is having on information seeking in the workplace. Using open-ended interviews, questionnaires and observation, the impact of the Internet on the British Media was assessed. The focus was largely on newspapers, with The Guardian being covered in some depth. Over 300 journalists and media librarians were surveyed. It was found that amongst traditional journalists use was light. Poor access to the Internet – and good access to other information resources – were largely the reasons for this. Of the journalists it was mainly the older and more senior journalists and the New Media journalists who used the Internet. Librarians were also significant users. Searching the World Wide Web was the principal Internet activity and use was generally conservative in character. Newspapers and official sites were favoured, and searches were mainly of a fact-checking nature. Email was used on a very limited scale and was not regarded as a serious journalistic tool. Non-users were partly put off by the Internet‘s potential for overloading them with information and its reputation for producing information of suspect quality. Users generally dismissed these concerns, dealing with potential overload and quality problems largely by using authoritative sites and exploiting the lower quality data where it was needed. Where the Internet has been used it has not been at the expense of other information sources or communication channels, but online hosts seem to be at most risk in the future.
A structure for analysing information needs is outlined. The purpose of the structure is to enable data on users to be collected in a systematic and routine manner. The form of analysis is demonstrated through a consideration of the information needs of newspaper journalists — a group for which user surveys are lacking. The aspects of information need considered are: subject, nature, function, viewpoint, authority, quantity, quality, place of origin, speed of delivery, and processing/packaging. Considered as well are the barriers to meeting information needs — training, time, resources, access and information overload. The library's role in meeting information needs is also assessed. The data used to illustrate the structure are taken from interviews with journalists. Journalists have a need for large volumes of information, for very current and authoritative information, and they require their information very quickly. They are generally very well provided for in terms of information systems, sources and channels; the key problem they face is a shortage of time. Shifts in newspaper coverage, the harsh economic climate newspapers find themselves in and the information flood unleashed by IT, are changing journalists' information requirements and information seeking behaviour.
Most investigations of creativity tend to take one of two directions: everyday creativity (also called "little-c"), which can be found in nearly all people, and eminent creativity (also called "Big-C"), which is reserved for the great. In this paper, the authors propose a Four C model of creativity that expands this dichotomy. Specifically, the authors add the idea of "mini-c," creativity inherent in the learning process, and Pro-c, the developmental and effortful progression beyond little-c that represents professional-level expertise in any creative area. The authors include different transitions and gradations of these four dimensions of creativity, and then discuss advantages and examples of the Four C Model.
Reports an interview study into information seeking and use by journalists at a national British newspaper. Describes work activity in the context of a series of behaviour shaping constraints and cognitive and external resources. Describes the journalist's information seeking as motivated by originality checking (of the angle), developing a personal understanding, discovering/confirming potential content and also describes information gathering and managing multiple information spaces. Shows how these are motivated by context, facilitated by resources, and how they enrich the journalist's resource space. Also shows that journalistic work is uncertain as a function of an uncertain context and their continually evolving plans. These result in provisional and unstable relevance judgments, and, during later stages, the reinitiating of preparatory information seeking activities, including the relocation and review of previously read documents. At the end presents a model to summarise the findings.
The Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Design provides a comprehensive guide to design, with entries on key topics in the history and theory of design, addressing a range of design forms including graphic, textile, furniture, metal, ceramic, fashion, stage and film, vehicle and product design.
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This qualitative study explores the information behavior of newspaper reporters regarding their serendipitous encounters with information that lead to story ideas, and how newspaper editors affect reporters’ ability to pursue such encountered ideas. As an interdisciplinary examination in human information behavior and journalism studies, behaviors and routines emerged that encouraged and potentially limited certain behaviors and routines. The findings also identify behaviors wherein newspaper editors match reporters with certain traits to certain story assignments.
People respond to illness in a range of ways, and take different approaches to engaging with health information throughout the course of their illness. This study describes and explains the variety of approaches to health information interactions made by patients on hemodialysis. Ethnographic observations (156 hours) were conducted in three hemodialysis clinics, and semistructured interviews about health information were held with 28 patients. Demographic data were collected. Data were analyzed qualitatively. We found a spectrum of five approaches to health information: avoiders, who close themselves off from health information; receivers, who encounter information in the dialysis clinic but do not seek it out; askers, who only pose questions about health to their healthcare providers but otherwise do not seek; seekers, who actively look for health information both in and out of the clinic; and verifiers, who seek information and triangulate it among multiple sources. Trust in healthcare providers and coping sociality differed across approaches. The findings indicate that health information should be provided to patients using strategies tailored to their preferences and existing approaches to information interaction.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to build upon the studies of journalism from an LIS perspective by exploring and differentiating the purposive behavior of newspaper reporters from their serendipitous encounters with information that lead to new story ideas. This paper also provides a path toward pedagogical improvements in training the modern journalism workforce in being more open to creative story ideas.
Design/methodology/approach
This study utilized semi-structured telephone interviews. Participants were recruited via e-mail after collecting contact information through the Cision database. The study sample was drawn from newspaper reporters who work at or freelance for the top 25 metropolitan newspapers in the USA, in terms of circulation size, based on data from the Alliance for Audited Media. A total of 15 participants were interviewed.
Findings
This paper provides insight into the story ideation process of journalists in that the study participants generally do not think about how they are coming up with story ideas as much as they are striving to place themselves in situations where, based on their experience and interests, they know they are more likely to encounter a good idea. Each encounter proved meaningful in some powerful fashion, which speaks to the historical importance of serendipity in achieving breakthroughs and discoveries in a wide variety of fields.
Research limitations/implications
The sampling frame for this study was relatively small, representing 8 percent of the total number of working newspaper journalists from the top 25 newspapers in the USA, in terms of circulation size. Therefore, the findings are not generalizable to the entire population of journalists in this country.
Practical implications
The findings point to the importance of a prepared mind in facilitating serendipitous episodes. In the case of journalism, that means developing a heightened news sense and cultivating routines where they place themselves in trigger-rich environments. Pedagogically, journalism education must include courses in creative storytelling to help train the modern newspaper workforce in an ever-expanding and competitive media landscape. These courses, ideally paired with techniques and models from the field of information science and learning technologies, could help train young journalists in methods that enhance their ability to identify, seek and pursue serendipitous stories.
Originality/value
This paper fulfills a need in journalism studies in finding variability in news routines by utilizing an interdisciplinary approach that combines journalism studies and library and information science models to probe how journalists encounter ideas incidentally. Previous research in this area has focused on how news consumers serendipitously encounter information. This paper takes a fresh approach to explore how creative ideas are encountered serendipitously in the construction of news.
Human Information Behavior (HIB) research commonly examines behavior in the context of why information is acquired and how it will be used, but usually at the level of the work or everyday‐life tasks the information will support. HIB has not been examined in detail at the broader contextual level of intellectual purpose (that is, the higher‐order conceptual tasks the information was acquired to support). Examination at this level can enhance holistic understanding of HIB as a “means to an intellectual end” and inform the design of digital information environments that support information interaction for specific intellectual purposes. We investigate information‐based ideation (IBI) as a specific intellectual information acquisition and use context by conducting Critical Incident‐style interviews with 10 game designers, focusing on how they interact with information to generate and develop creative design ideas. Our findings give rise to a framework of their ideation‐focused HIB, which systems designers can leverage to reason about how best to support certain behaviors to drive design ideation. These findings emphasize the importance of intellectual purpose as a driver for acquisition and desired outcome of use.
Fake news has recently garnered increased attention across the world. Digital collaboration technologies now enable individuals to share information at unprecedented rates to advance their own ideologies. Much of this sharing occurs via social networking sites (SNSs), whose members may choose to share information without consideration for its authenticity. This research advances our understanding of information verification behaviors among SNS users in the context of fake news. Grounded in literature on the epistemology of testimony and theoretical perspectives on trust, we develop a news verification behavior research model and test six hypotheses with a survey of active SNS users. The empirical results confirm the significance of all proposed hypotheses. Perceptions of news sharers' network (perceived cognitive homogeneity, social tie variety, and trust), perceptions of news authors (fake news awareness and perceived media credibility), and innate intentions to share all influence information verification behaviors among SNS members. Theoretical implications, as well as implications for SNS users and designers, are presented in the light of these findings.
“Elliott and Spence have produced a tight, teachable, and timely primer on media ethics for users and creators of information in the digital age. Pitched at just the right depth of detail to provide a big picture contextualization of changing media practices grounded in concerns for democracy and the public good, the book explores and reflects the implications of the convergence of the Fourth and Fifth Estates with an open-access, hyper-linked architecture which invites self-reflective practice on the part of its users” Philip Gordon, Utah Valley University The rapid and ongoing evolution of digital technologies has transformed the waythe world communicates and digests information. Fueled by a 24-hour news cycleand post-truth politics, media consumption and the technologies that drive ithave become more influential in shaping public opinion, and it has become more imperative than ever to examine their social and ethical consequences. Ethics for a Digital Era provides a penetrating analysis of the ethical issues that have emerged as the digital revolution progresses, including journalistic practices that impact on the truth, reliability, and trustworthiness of communicating information. The volume explores new methods and models for ethical inquiry in a digital world, and maps out guidelines for web-based news producers and users to conceptualize ethical issuesand analyze ethically questionable acts. In each of three thematic sections, Deni Elliott and Edward H. Spence reflect upon shifts in media ethics as contemporary mass communication combines traditional analog practices with new forms like blogs, vlogs, podcasts, and social media posts, and evolves into an interactive medium with users who both produce and consume the news. Later chapters apply a process of normative decision-making to some of the most important issues which arise in these interactions, and encourage users to bridge their own thinking between the virtual and physical worlds of information and its communication. Timely and thought-provoking, Ethics for a Digital Era is an invaluable resource for undergraduate and graduate students in media and mass communication, applied ethics, and journalism, as well as general readers interested in the ethical impact of their media consumption.
This paper reports the design and first evaluations of new digital support for journalists to discover and examine crea-tive angles on news stories under development. The support integrated creative news search algorithms, interactive crea-tive sparks and reusable concept cards into one daily work tool of journalists. The first evaluations of INJECT by jour-nalists in their places of work to write published news sto-ries revealed that the journalists generated new angles on existing stories rather than new stories, changed their writ-ing behaviour, and reported evidence that INJECT use had the potential to increase the objectivity and the boldness of journalism methods used.
The verification of factual accuracy is widely held as essential to journalists' professional identity. Our rhetorical analysis of interviews with award-winning and semi-ran-domly selected newspaper reporters confirms this professional norm while revealing a preference for four types of image to describe verification methods. Spatial and temporal travel images paint verification as an embedded but adaptable heuristic process. Images of conflict suggest verification as a weapon and a shield against implied enemies. Journalists speak of vision both literally as the preeminent tool of verification, and figuratively as a metaphor for interpretation. Meanwhile, a fourth and seemingly predominant image-that of storytelling-functions to integrate the images of travel, battle, and observation and the different forms of professional identity that they connote. The quest for truth through storytelling likewise suggests a rich, if ambiguous, sense of good journalism as combining the instruments of fact with the craft of fiction.
This article explores conceptions of creativity in the media industry, specifically among professionals of journalism working in the magazine industry. It contributes to the development of the theory of creativity from a media industry perspective and produces new conceptual knowledge about creative media work. The article finds that in the magazine industry, journalistic creativity is understood as a practical and multidimensional concept that can be interpreted and applied in many different ways. The different conceptions of creativity reflect both the traditions of the journalistic profession and the challenges now faced by the media and the magazine industry. It is concluded that creative work in the magazine industry is typically goal driven, commercially minded and collaboratively oriented. Also, creative work in the magazine industry is characterized by ongoing processes of gradual reinvention. Other major creative challenges include the development of new ways of working, new media products and new commercial solutions.
Introduction. This paper is about the challenges of working creatively and reflectively in the information-intensive environments characteristic of our digital age. Method. The paper builds upon earlier work about uncertainty in library and information science by incorporating work exploring risk cultures and uncertainty as everyday phenomena. It presents arguments emerging from an ongoing investigation of the background work involved in scholarly research practice. These threads are used to invite discussion about the particular strategic contribution that the ISIC community might make in answer to calls for more creativity and greater support for the human spirit in all that we do. Analysis. Ethnographic material about scholarly research practice is combined with varied research exploring creativity and uncertainty. Results. Analysis of conditions that can stimulate creativity suggests that working through and being in uncertainty provides a site of creativity stimulation that addresses Howkins's query about how and where we wish to do our thinking. Conclusions. As information researchers and practitioners, we can act as stewards within our communities and help shape the information services and infrastructures that support organisations and communities striving to be more creative and to engage with information in inventive ways. Doing so will require us to not only support the creativity and innovation of others, but to be creative and innovative ourselves.
Verifying information is one of the core activities of journalism, however recent research shows many stories derive from unchecked information from news agencies and PR material. That being said, reporters who do not use this pre-packaged material, but who instead produce original
stories based on independent research, might be journalists who stay devoted to the verification of information. Therefore, this study focuses on in-depth stories that originated inside the newsroom. We expected that these kinds of stories would be checked and double-checked, because time
constraints are less important and these stories are characteristic of independent, quality journalism. Contrary to this expectation, the results show that even these kinds of stories are not always vetted. The lack of time was seldom mentioned as an excuse. Our research points to avoidance
mechanisms which inhibit journalists from verifying their information.
Existing computer technologies poorly support the ideation phase common to graphic design practice. Finding and indexing visual material to assist the process of ideation often fall on the designer, leading to user experiences that are less than ideal. To inform development of computer systems to assist graphic designers in the ideation phase of the design process, we conducted interviews with 15 professional graphic designers about their design process and visual information needs. Based on the study, we propose a set of requirements for an ideation-support system for graphic design.
The nature of scientific creativity from the point of view of information provision is discussed, and the contributions of current information systems assessed. The changes necessary to enable 'formal' library/information channels to play a fuller part in stimulating creativity are discussed. They include: representation of information for detection of analogies, pat terns and exceptions; interdisciplinary information, and the role of reviews; creation of an information-rich environment, including peripheral material; extension of browsing capabili ties, in both printed and computerized systems; direct involve ment of information users; serendipitous use of literature; individually oriented information access; integration of infor mation systems into formal creativity stimulation techniques. The implications of new information technology, particularly for the convergence of formal and informal communication channels, are considered.
The necessity for research (theoretical and practical) on these topics is pointed out. A bibliography of 103 references attempts to draw together some of the scattered relevant literature. '
Describes the work carried out at doctoral level which investigated the ways in which journalists construct environmental news in Scotland. Focuses on the methods and tacit rules which reporters employ to locate, select and retrieve information for news stories. Journalists retrieve information from a complex range of sources. Addresses the information sources which are used in the news process. Examines the preference for human sources as opposed to library-based information and discusses the influence of pragmatic constraints like time and space on the production of news.
This article discusses two related techniques, critical incident technique (CIT) and explicitation, which are used in a variety of social science research settings, and critically reviews their application to studies of information behavior. The current application of both techniques is compared with Flanagan's early guidelines on the CIT and is discussed in relation to recent experience in the use of (1) the CIT in the JUSTEIS and VIVOS projects and (2) explicitation in projects concerned with text entering on interactive Web sites. The JUSTEIS project identifies trends, and reasons for those trends, in the uptake and use of electronic information services in higher education in the United Kingdom; this article examines experience gained over the first two cycles—1999 to 2000 and 2000 to 2001. The VIVOS project evaluated virtual health library services. Comparison of the experiences gained on the various projects suggests that critical incident methods could usefully be extended and enriched by some explicitation methods, to elicit the degree of evocation required for current and future studies of Internet use.
Architectural design projects are heavily reliant on electronic information seeking. However, there have been few studies on how architects look for and use information on the Web. We examined the electronic information behavior of 9 postgraduate architectural design and urban design students. We observed them undertake a self-chosen, naturalistic information task related to one of their design projects and found that although the architectural students performed many similar interactive information behaviors to academics and practitioners in other disciplines, they also performed behaviors reflective of the nature of their domain. The included exploring and encountering information (in addition to searching and browsing for it) and visualizing-appropriating information. The observations also highlighted the importance of information use behaviors (such as editing and recording) and communication behaviors (such as sharing and distributing) as well as the importance of multimedia materials, particularly images, for architectural design projects. A key overarching theme was that inspiration was found to be both an important driver for and potential outcome of information work in the architecture domain, suggesting the need to design electronic information tools for architects that encourage and foster creativity. We make suggestions for the design of such tools based on our findings. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
How can one verify the accuracy of recorded information (e.g., information found in books, newspapers, and on Web sites)? In this paper, I argue that work in the epistemology of testimony (especially that of philosophers David Hume and Alvin Goldman) can help with this important practical problem in library and information science. This work suggests that there are four important areas to consider when verifying the accuracy of information: (i) authority, (ii) independent corroboration, (iii) plausibility and support, and (iv) presentation. I show how philosophical research in these areas can improve how information professionals go about teaching people how to evaluate information. Finally, I discuss several further techniques that information professionals can and should use to make it easier for people to verify the accuracy of information. published or submitted for publication
No Abstract. Peer Reviewed http://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/61241/1/1440410114_ftp.pdf
Through the use of the critical incident technique one may collect specific and significant behavioral facts, providing " a sound basis for making inferences as to requirements " for measures of typical performance (criteria), measures of proficiency (standard samples), training, selection and classification, job design and purification, operating procedures, equipment design, motivation and leadership (attitudes), and counseling and psychotherapy. The development, fundamental principles, present status, and uses of the critical incident technique are discussed, along with a review of studies employing the technique and suggestions for further applications. 74-item bibliography.
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