MEDIA IN THE LIVES OF TEENS: A GROUNDED THEORY STUDY OF TEEN INFORMAL INFORMATION BEHAVIOR
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. The more library professionals understand about a process or a topic, the more likely they are to create effective systems for aligning professional goals with the goals of youth, therefore increasing the possibility of success for all. It is for these reasons that additional research is needed to understand the everyday life information-seeking practices of teens who rely on media for informal learning.
Overview of the Proposed Study. This exploratory study attempts to identify how teens use media for the informal information gathering of everyday life. The results will provide a detailed explanation of what digital media tools are used most often for the purpose of informal information gathering. This information will provide 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.
I am proposing the study of how teens gather information for everyday life information seeking from digital media. Using grounded theory methodology, I will interview teens to learn about what media tools they use most often and the motivations for doing so. As a qualitative study, the findings will not be generalizable to all teens. However, the development of substantive theory possible with grounded theory study can be used to develop effective library instruction and programming focused on digital learning skills. It is my hope that this new theoretical model can be used to develop activities that impact teen formal and informal learning skills. Relevant research and theoretical frameworks serve as the foundation for my research questions. These include 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.
Purpose and Research Questions. The purpose of this study is to explore the informal information behavior of teens. Specifically, information behavior is explored alongside the mass communication theory of Media Uses and Gratifications (Ungvarsky, 2020) in order to study how teens answer the questions of everyday life. Communication and information behavior studies traditionally focus on specific media formats or specific digital tools. However, as media formats evolve, so, too, should our studies of the media. In the course of this grounded theory study, a substantive theory of teen everyday life information seeking utilizing digital media will be created. The following research questions will guide this work:
RQ: How do teens gather information from digital media to answer the questions of everyday life?
Proposed Study Design. This research study will take place in a midwestern city with a population of approximately 125,000 citizens. Teens in this city come from diverse ethnic and sociocultural backgrounds and will have attended hybrid and/or online formal learning to some extent within the last three years due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, these teens will have interacted with media, to some extent, for learning. Interviews will be conducted face-to-face or via Zoom, based on participant preference, and recorded for transcription. During each interview, the participant will be informed that the interview will be recorded. Theoretical sampling, a method of data collection particular to grounded theory, will be utilized for this study (Corbin & Strauss, 2015). The population to be studied, teens in this case, and the setting have been identified, but the rest of the sample remains open (Corbin & Strauss, 2015). Twenty to thirty teens between the ages of thirteen and eighteen with varied backgrounds will be recruited for initial participation.
Data will be collected from participants in two formats: 1) elicited data in the form of media use surveys and participant-submitted audio journals, and 2) interview data collected in a two-part interview series: one interview focused on their life history and one interview focused on the use and meaning of media in their life (Charmaz, 2014). The following table summarizes the data to be collected in the proposed study.
Data Collected and Timeline. All interviews will take place between September 2022 - January 2023
The proposed subjects of this study are minors between the ages of thirteen and eighteen. Parents and/or guardians will agree to all procedures during the consent process. The parental consent form explains the purpose of this study and provides an overview of the questions teens will be asked. Participants completing both interviews and submitting audio journals will receive a Visa gift card ($150) for their time and energy. Teens requesting to leave the study will receive a gift card for a pro-rated amount based on sessions completed.
The goal of grounded theory methodology is to develop an explanatory framework that integrates the concepts into a substantive theory of information behavior based on uses and gratifications concepts. The theoretical frameworks used to inform research design include: everyday life information seeking, information encountering, and the mass media uses and gratifications theory. This two-interview methodological process will be used to explore how and why teens gather information from media and for what purposes. Data collected will help answer these questions.
References
Charmaz, K. (2014). Constructing grounded theory (2nd ed.). Sage.
Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (2015). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (4th ed.). Sage.
Erdelez, S. (1999). Information encountering: It’s more than just bumping into information. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science, 25(3), 26–29.
Franklin, L. (2012). Everyday life information seeking (ELIS) practices of suburban teens in a highly technical high school library: A case study. Emporia State University.
Kolaric, A., Cool, C., & Stričević, I. (2018). Adolescent information behaviour in everyday life decision making. Vjesnik Bibliotekara Hrvatske, 61, 83. https://doi.org/10.30754/vbh.61.1.648
Lincoln, Y., & Guba, E. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry (1st ed.). Sage Publications.
McQuail, D., & Deuze, M. (2020). McQuail’s Media and Mass Comm Theory (7th Edition).
Sage Publications.
Merriam, S. B., & Tisdell, E. J. (2016). Qualitative research: a guide to design and implementation (4th Edition). Jossey-Bass.
Rideout, V. (2017). The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Kids Age Zero to Eight. Common Sense Media.
Rideout, V., & Robb, M. B. (2019). The common sense census: Media use by tweens and teens. Common Sense Media.
Savolainen, R. (1995). Everyday life information seeking: Approaching information seeking in the context of “way of life.” Library & Information Science Research, 17, 259–294.
Ungvarsky, J. (2020). Uses and gratifications theory. In Salem Press Encyclopedia. Salem Press; Research Starters.
Overview of the Proposed Study. This exploratory study attempts to identify how teens use media for the informal information gathering of everyday life. The results will provide a detailed explanation of what digital media tools are used most often for the purpose of informal information gathering. This information will provide 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.
I am proposing the study of how teens gather information for everyday life information seeking from digital media. Using grounded theory methodology, I will interview teens to learn about what media tools they use most often and the motivations for doing so. As a qualitative study, the findings will not be generalizable to all teens. However, the development of substantive theory possible with grounded theory study can be used to develop effective library instruction and programming focused on digital learning skills. It is my hope that this new theoretical model can be used to develop activities that impact teen formal and informal learning skills. Relevant research and theoretical frameworks serve as the foundation for my research questions. These include 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.
Purpose and Research Questions. The purpose of this study is to explore the informal information behavior of teens. Specifically, information behavior is explored alongside the mass communication theory of Media Uses and Gratifications (Ungvarsky, 2020) in order to study how teens answer the questions of everyday life. Communication and information behavior studies traditionally focus on specific media formats or specific digital tools. However, as media formats evolve, so, too, should our studies of the media. In the course of this grounded theory study, a substantive theory of teen everyday life information seeking utilizing digital media will be created. The following research questions will guide this work:
RQ: How do teens gather information from digital media to answer the questions of everyday life?
- What sources of digital media do they use?
- How do teens find the digital media sources they use?
- What motivates teens to use specific digital media sources and in what formats?
- What do teens do with the information they find?
Proposed Study Design. This research study will take place in a midwestern city with a population of approximately 125,000 citizens. Teens in this city come from diverse ethnic and sociocultural backgrounds and will have attended hybrid and/or online formal learning to some extent within the last three years due to the global COVID-19 pandemic. Accordingly, these teens will have interacted with media, to some extent, for learning. Interviews will be conducted face-to-face or via Zoom, based on participant preference, and recorded for transcription. During each interview, the participant will be informed that the interview will be recorded. Theoretical sampling, a method of data collection particular to grounded theory, will be utilized for this study (Corbin & Strauss, 2015). The population to be studied, teens in this case, and the setting have been identified, but the rest of the sample remains open (Corbin & Strauss, 2015). Twenty to thirty teens between the ages of thirteen and eighteen with varied backgrounds will be recruited for initial participation.
Data will be collected from participants in two formats: 1) elicited data in the form of media use surveys and participant-submitted audio journals, and 2) interview data collected in a two-part interview series: one interview focused on their life history and one interview focused on the use and meaning of media in their life (Charmaz, 2014). The following table summarizes the data to be collected in the proposed study.
Data Collected and Timeline. All interviews will take place between September 2022 - January 2023
- Media Use Survey
- Interview 1: Focused life history
- Interview 2: The details of the experience, including the meaning
- Media audio journals
The proposed subjects of this study are minors between the ages of thirteen and eighteen. Parents and/or guardians will agree to all procedures during the consent process. The parental consent form explains the purpose of this study and provides an overview of the questions teens will be asked. Participants completing both interviews and submitting audio journals will receive a Visa gift card ($150) for their time and energy. Teens requesting to leave the study will receive a gift card for a pro-rated amount based on sessions completed.
The goal of grounded theory methodology is to develop an explanatory framework that integrates the concepts into a substantive theory of information behavior based on uses and gratifications concepts. The theoretical frameworks used to inform research design include: everyday life information seeking, information encountering, and the mass media uses and gratifications theory. This two-interview methodological process will be used to explore how and why teens gather information from media and for what purposes. Data collected will help answer these questions.
References
Charmaz, K. (2014). Constructing grounded theory (2nd ed.). Sage.
Corbin, J., & Strauss, A. (2015). Basics of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory (4th ed.). Sage.
Erdelez, S. (1999). Information encountering: It’s more than just bumping into information. Bulletin of the American Society for Information Science, 25(3), 26–29.
Franklin, L. (2012). Everyday life information seeking (ELIS) practices of suburban teens in a highly technical high school library: A case study. Emporia State University.
Kolaric, A., Cool, C., & Stričević, I. (2018). Adolescent information behaviour in everyday life decision making. Vjesnik Bibliotekara Hrvatske, 61, 83. https://doi.org/10.30754/vbh.61.1.648
Lincoln, Y., & Guba, E. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry (1st ed.). Sage Publications.
McQuail, D., & Deuze, M. (2020). McQuail’s Media and Mass Comm Theory (7th Edition).
Sage Publications.
Merriam, S. B., & Tisdell, E. J. (2016). Qualitative research: a guide to design and implementation (4th Edition). Jossey-Bass.
Rideout, V. (2017). The Common Sense Census: Media Use by Kids Age Zero to Eight. Common Sense Media.
Rideout, V., & Robb, M. B. (2019). The common sense census: Media use by tweens and teens. Common Sense Media.
Savolainen, R. (1995). Everyday life information seeking: Approaching information seeking in the context of “way of life.” Library & Information Science Research, 17, 259–294.
Ungvarsky, J. (2020). Uses and gratifications theory. In Salem Press Encyclopedia. Salem Press; Research Starters.