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Abstract: Media in The Lives of Teens: A Grounded Theory Study of Teen Informal Information Behavior, A Work in Progress
Youth services librarians, including school librarians, must be prepared to help students learn inside and outside of schools and libraries. In 2006, Agosto and Hughes-Hassell noted that much of the everyday life information-seeking research conducted focused on the habits of adults and children, leaving out the habits of teens. This lack of research on the information-seeking habits of teens was confirmed again in 2012 and 2018 (Franklin, 2012; Kolaric et al., 2018). Academic research informs effective professional practice. Additional research is needed to understand the everyday life information-seeking practices of teens who rely on media for informal learning.
This exploratory study identified how teens use media for the informal information gathering of everyday life. The results provide a detailed explanation of what digital media tools are used most often for the purpose of informal information gathering. This information provides a perspective not found in other studies, most of which have focused on the amount of media usage as a metric of impact (Rideout & Robb, 2019; Rideout, 2017). Of particular value is the voice of the teens, themselves, in this reporting.
Twenty-five teens were interviewed to learn about what media tools they use most often and the motivations for doing so. Relevant research and theoretical frameworks serve as the foundation for the research questions, including the human information behavior theories of everyday life information seeking (Savolainen, 1995), information encountering (Erdelez, 1999), and the mass communication theory of media uses and gratifications (McQuail & Deuze, 2020). This study is framed as a practitioner-researcher conducting a grounded theory study.
This exploratory study identified how teens use media for the informal information gathering of everyday life. The results provide a detailed explanation of what digital media tools are used most often for the purpose of informal information gathering. This information provides a perspective not found in other studies, most of which have focused on the amount of media usage as a metric of impact (Rideout & Robb, 2019; Rideout, 2017). Of particular value is the voice of the teens, themselves, in this reporting.
Twenty-five teens were interviewed to learn about what media tools they use most often and the motivations for doing so. Relevant research and theoretical frameworks serve as the foundation for the research questions, including the human information behavior theories of everyday life information seeking (Savolainen, 1995), information encountering (Erdelez, 1999), and the mass communication theory of media uses and gratifications (McQuail & Deuze, 2020). This study is framed as a practitioner-researcher conducting a grounded theory study.