Online surfing promotes reading habit

WASHINGTON, USA: Online users seeking general information or accessing social networking sites often come across news which they start reading, just out of curiosity.

There has been a shift in the way people have begun to perceive online news, says study co-author Borchuluun Yadamsuren, post-doctoral fellow at the Reynolds Journalism Institute (RJI), University of Missouri.

Yadamsuren says that while some people still perceive news tied to traditional media, others now hold a much broader perception of how the process goes beyond what is reported by journalists, the Information Research journal reports.

"Incidental exposure to online news is becoming a major way for many people to receive information about news events," Yadamsuren said, according to a Missouri statement.

"However, many people don't realize how their news reading behaviour is shifting to more serendipitous discovery," added Yadamsuren.

Using mixed method approach, Yadamsuren surveyed nearly 150 respondents with further interviews of 20 of those respondents to understand their incidental exposure to online news.

She found that respondents experience incidental exposure to online news in three different contexts. The first group of respondents reported that they come across interesting news stories while they visit online news sites.

Others report incidental exposure to online news in the context of non-news related activities such as checking e-mail and visiting Facebook and other social networking sites.

The third group of respondents reported that they stumble upon "unusual", "weird", "interesting", "bizarre", "unexpected", "outrageous", or "off the wall" news stories while they are conducting their normal internet searches.

Currently, Yadamsuren is studying the relationship between incidental exposure to online news and different demographic and technology-access related factors.

These findings were presented at the American Society for Information Science and Technology (ASIST) 2011 Annual Meeting.