The more information we have, the less we know

News overload has been a research focus in the information age. Abundant news media compete for user’s attention. Information is no more a scarce resource, on the contrary, user’s attention becomes scarce. Perhaps the more information users have, the less they know due to news fatigue.  Earlier studies examined the factors influencing news overload(Holton & Chyi, 2012). Other studies also looked into the effect of news overload(York, 2013). Those studies address the influence on perception and attitude. Few study look into the impact of news overload on behavior (news consumption). As a result, I want to focus on how has news overload affected news consumption/media selection.

 Previous study indicates that the more exposure to news, the more people feel overload(York, 2013). It is important to see that will the feeling of new overload lead to selective exposure. If the relationship between news overload and selective exposure is positive, the implication would be that the more information news organization provide, the less readers will get.

On the other hand, readers are assumed to be “Consumer sovereignty”, which means readers can search the information based on their interest(Chyi,2009), in other words, readers should be more informed among overabundance information. Thus, based on the assumption of “consumer sovereignty”, readers tend to select the information they are interested or the information they need, rather than being overwhelmed. Thus here comes the hypothesis that

H1: the feeling of news overload is positive associated with selective perception

H2: the feeling of news overload is positive associated with selective exposure.

Previous study has proved that the positive relationship between news overload and news exposure, it is also important to know what would the news overload influence media use. Some study mentioned news segment and nichfication(Nordenson, 2008), but they didn’t points out the relationship between news overload and news segment or nichfication. It might be critical to examine the relationship between news overload and news segment or nichfication, which means, news overload may not be that bad. Readers know how to find what they need among overabundance information. Thus the media use under news overload is worthy to examine.

RQ1: What is the relationship between news overload and multiplatform news use.

RQ2: What kind of news media (news paper, TV news, online news, mobile news) will users tend to use under the feeling of news overload

RQ3: Will the users who feel less news overload tend to use more news media than the users who feel more news overload 

    Based on the previous research, more news exposure leads to the feeling of news overload. However, users may avoid too much information. Since there are the most information on the Internet. Comparing to the Internet, there are less information on the traditional media, so here come another hypothesis that

H3: the more feeling of news overload, users tend not to use Internet to get the news in order to avoid too much information.

H4: the more feeling of news overload, users tend to read newspaper to get the news rather than using Internet.

Chyi, Hsiang Iris. 2009. “Information Surplus in the Digital Age: Impact and    

          Implications.” In Journalism and Citizenship: New Agendas, edited by Zizi   

          Papacharissi, 91–107. New York: Taylor & Francis.

Davenport, Thomas H., and John C. Beck. 2002. The Attention Economy:     Understanding the New             Currency of Business. Watertown, MA: Harvard  

 Doyle, G. (2010). From Television to Multi-Platform: Less from More or More for Less? Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies, 16(4), 431–449. doi:10.1177/1354856510375145

Holton, A. E., & Chyi, H. I. (2012). News and the overloaded consumer: factors influencing information overload among news consumers. Cyberpsychology, behavior and social networking, 15(11), 619–24. doi:10.1089/cyber.2011.0610

Nordenson, B. (2008). Overload ! Columbia Journalism Review, (December), 30–42.

York, C. (2013). Overloaded By the News: Effects of News Exposure and Enjoyment on Reporting Information Overload. Communication Research Reports, 30(4), 282–292. doi:10.1080/08824096.2013.836628

Preliminary Research Topic

     My research interested lies in that how mobile phone/tablet change the media structure, dynamic of competition between traditional news media, online news media and news on mobile phone/tablet.

  

     According to an annual report on American Journal (The state of the news media 2013), people with mobile phone/tablet spend more time consuming news than they did before. That is to say, mobile phone/tablet are becoming the major media for people getting news. Our habit of consuming news is changing rapidly with the launch of mobile phone/tablet. According to the same report (The state of the news media 2013), “Most mobile news users are not replacing one platform with another; they are consuming more news than they had in the past.” It also raises my interest that will there be “cannibalization effect” of mobile phone/tablet on online media and traditional media? 

  

     In addition, since the current trend of getting news is toward mobile phone/tablet, can media companies make profit on the advertising in mobile phone/tablet?  In order to answer these questions, we may need to know that, how to define media structure, how is the competition relationship between traditional, online, and mobile media?  Based on previous study on online news, it is modality, not content that influences reader’s usage of media (Thurman & Myllylahti, 2009), here comes to my concern that how about mobile phone/tablet, will it be the same as people consuming online news?

    Traditional media is struggling, online media was thought to be the future of traditional media. Here comes the rapid growth of mobile phone/tablet, ultimately, I want to figure out that will the mobile phone/tablet be the solution of the demise of traditional media?

     The scope of my research topic is still broad. Either newspaper on mobile device or cable TV on mobile is considered to be the objects of the research.

Some related article:

Chyi, H.I.,& Huang, J. S. (2012). Demystifying the demand relationship between online and print products under one newspaper brand: the case of Taiwan and the emergence of a universal pattern. Asian Journal of Communication. 21(3), 243-261.

Chyi, H. I.,& Sylvia, G. (2010). Are Long-Distance Users an Inconvenient Truth? Profiling U.S. Newspapers’ Online Readership in the Dual-Geographic Market. The International Journal on Media Management, 12:93–112.

Cha, J.,& Chan-Olmsted, S. M. (2012). Substitutability between Online Video Platforms and Television. Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly.89: 261-278.

Thurman, N., & Myllylahti, M. (2009). Taking the paper out of news. Journalism Studies, 10(1), 1-18.

The state of the news media 2013. Retrieved from: http://stateofthemedia.org/2013/digital-as-mobile-grows-rapidly-the-pressures-on-news-intensify/

journals and articles

Journal of Media Economics

The Journal of Media Economics publishes original research on the economics and policy of mediated communication, focusing on firms, markets, and institutions. Reflecting the increasing diversity of analytical approaches employed in economics and recognizing that policies promoting social and political objectives may have significant economic impacts on media, the Journal encourages submissions reflecting the insights of diverse disciplinary perspectives and research methodologies, both empirical and theoretical. 

the article from journal of media economics

Armando J.& Garcia P(2013) Media Plurality and the Intensity of Readers' Political Preferences.26(1),41-55

Abstract

In this article, the author studied the effect of the intensity of readers' political preferences on the news firms' incentives to choose between a single- and a multi-ideology strategy (i.e., media uniformity vs. media plurality). The author shows that alternative formalizations of the intensity of readers' preferences alter the equilibrium level of media plurality, given that they affect demand for news. In particular, when the readers' disutility of consuming news that differs from their ideal variety is relatively high for politically close news, the media firms choose a multi-ideology strategy, because the increase in demand is large. On the contrary, when the readers' disutility of consuming news that differs from their ideal variety is relatively low for politically close news, media firms choose a single-ideology strategy because a multi-ideology strategy does not significantly increase demand.

article online:http://www.tandfonline.com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/doi/pdf/10.1080/08997764.2012.755984 

Asian Journal of Communication

Asian Journal of Communication accepted for inclusion in Thomson Reuters and New Online Submission System.

Launched in 1990, Asian Journal of Communication (AJC) is a refereed international publication that provides a venue for high-quality communication scholarship. It focuses on the systems and processes of communication in the Asia-Pacific region and among Asian communities around the world. AJC brings to its readers the latest, broadest and most important findings in the field of Asian communication studies. It publishes articles that report empirical studies, develop communication theory, and enhance research methodology.

AJC follows a rigorous procedure of double-blind peer review to maintain its high standard of scholarship. It is accepted and listed in the Thomson Reuters SSCI. The journal is housed editorially at the Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, jointly with the Asian Media Information and Communication Centre (AMIC). Currently a quarterly, AJC will publish six issues a year from 2011.

Chyi,H.I& Huang,J.S(2011).Demystifying the demand relationship between online and print products under one newspaper brand: the case of Taiwan and the emergence of a universal pattern.21,(3), 243-261

Abstract:

This study uncovers a universal pattern regarding the oft-misunderstood demand relationship between online and print products under one newspaper brand.
Growing from the portfolio management perspective and building on previous research conducted in the US and Hong Kong, this study examines the newspaper market in Taiwan. Secondary analysis of survey data collected from 7706 Web users confirmed that: (1) the print edition attains a much higher penetration relative to its online counterpart, suggesting that more people would rather consume the print edition over free Web offerings; and (2) compared with the general public, readers of the online edition were more, not less, likely to read the same newspaper’s print edition. Such counter-intuitive findings carry important theoretical and managerial implications regarding the management of multiple product offerings under one newspaper brand.
 

article online:http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.lib.utexas.edu/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=97fbbb3b-0d22-4b65-a793-d345d19c8580%40sessionmgr114&vid=4&hid=114