Verifying Web-based Information

Dr. Overbey has conducted a quantitative and
qualitative study of how adult professionals verify
web-based information. To date, research on web use
consists of descriptive reports and prescriptive
approaches. What''s missing are descriptive reports
that offer potential prescriptive value. This
project addresses this gap by way of a survey study
and three think-aloud protocols. Survey results
show statistical significance in correlations
between the kinds of strategies used for verifying
web-based information and participants'' demographic
characteristics. These results provide a
theoretical rationale for selecting think-aloud
protocol participants. Protocol results show that
participants'' approaches to verifying web-based
information match up with some combination of
prescriptive approaches, which demonstrates
how and in what contexts these approaches become
operational. Finally, data show that participants''
information recall as they review web-based
information plays a vital role in their ability to
make credibility assessments of this information, a
finding that illustrates the benefits of studying
web use in real time.

Autorentext

David W. Overbey is an Assistant Professor of English at Bellarmine University, U.S.A. His current research interests focus on how digital environments are adapted to social practice. He is also a fiction and screenplay writer, and makes the world's best gourmet pizza in his spare time.

Klappentext

Dr. Overbey has conducted a quantitative and qualitative study of how adult professionals verify web-based information. To date, research on web use consists of descriptive reports and prescriptive approaches. What's missing are descriptive reports that offer potential prescriptive value. This project addresses this gap by way of a survey study and three think-aloud protocols. Survey results show statistical significance in correlations between the kinds of strategies used for verifying web-based information and participants' demographic characteristics. These results provide a theoretical rationale for selecting think-aloud protocol participants. Protocol results show that participants' approaches to verifying web-based information match up with some combination of prescriptive approaches, which demonstrates how and in what contexts these approaches become operational. Finally, data show that participants' information recall as they review web-based information plays a vital role in their ability to make credibility assessments of this information, a finding that illustrates the benefits of studying web use in real time.