Attitude towards the Usage of Electronic Information Resources by Television Media Professionals in Bengaluru

Prasanna Kumara BM¹ and Divyananda K^2*

¹Bharathiar University and Librarian, New Horizon College of Engineering, Bangalore, India

²Technical Officer, GTRE, DRDO, Ministry of Defence, Bangalore, India

*Corresponding Author:

Divyananda K
Technical Officer
GTRE, DRDO
Ministry of Defence
Bangalore, India
Tel: 08025248777
E-mail: kdivyananda@gmail.com

Received date: January 08, 2016; Accepted date: January 08, 2016; Published date: January 28, 2016

Citation: Kumara PBM, Divyananda K. Attitude towards the Usage of Electronic Information Resources by Television Media Professionals in Bengaluru. Global Media Journal. 2016, S1:6.

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Abstract

Television media is one the best media for information dissemination, entertainment, political, economic and cultural and other elites. In India television covers over 90% of India’s 1200 million people. By the nature of television professionals are information gatherers and information disseminators. This study aims to investigate the attitude towards the information needs and usage of Electronic Information Resources by Television Media Professionals working in various News, Spiritual and General Entertainment Channels at Bangalore. For this purpose researcher adopted survey method and well-structured questionnaire was distributed for media professionals to collect relevant data. Researcher distributed 710 questionnaire and 540 responses received back with 76.05% of response rate. The result of the study shows that 96.29% television media professionals use internet to access electronic information resource. It is explored from the data that Television media professionals well comfortable with usage of IT Applications like Search Engines, Email, Social Networks, Alert software and other tools. Television Media professionals prefer News, Entertainment, Educational, Political and other related information. Researcher suggests that some of the barriers like censorship, ICT tools to be overcome for fast dissemination of information.

Keywords

Information seeking behavior; Electronic information resources; Television media professionals

Introduction

Now a day’s libraries landscape is more vibrant than ever, offering faster and easy dissemination of information and make fewer barriers to access and more ways to using information. Information professionals give more preference for human behavior towards access of information resource. For the fulfillment of users information needs library professionals using various tools in system model design, information repacking, and dissemination of information.Television media is the most popular mass communication system in the world and every day its growth rate also more compare to other mass Medias [1]. Television media is the best media for information dissemination; those are entertainment, political, economical, cultural and other elites. Media professionals may select, repacking and comment on the information for broadcasting. Television media is one of the key role player contemporary society; from political, entertainment, education, science and technology, history and geography, sports, marketing, arts, religion and many more. According to the text book Media Now, "media effects are changes in knowledge, attitude, or behavior that result from exposure to the mass media [2]." Information gathering is one of the primary motives of the Television professionals. During previous decade information gathering was through primary sources and via face to face interviews. This has been changed in many aspects affecting the journalist’s working culture, personal, training through the usage of digital technological tools. The Media professionals always differ in reporting areas such as an educational, crime, entertainment, interviews, sports, business, foreign affairs and many more. Recent years the “information revaluation” has made the changes in the usage of digital technological tools that have made remarkable changes in the media professional work. The adaptation of digital technology by media professionals resources such as tapes, archives, databases and many more can be access by their finger point. These changes have been allows media professionals to easy and joyfully information access.

Television media’s in Bengaluru

Bengaluru as a capital city of Karnataka is one among the biggest and a metropolitan city in India. It is unique in the sense that all citizens originally belonging to any India province or city, whether urban or rural, live in Bengaluru [3]. As such, it is also called IT Hub, Garden City, and Silicon City of India. Its social, cultural, economical and educational background is quite different from other cities in the country. Being the hub of business and industry, job opportunities are far better here compared to other places in India. In many television channels and professionals are there in the Bengaluru. Bengaluru got its first look at television when Doordarshan established a relay centre here and started relaying programs from 1 November 1981. A production center was established in the Doordarshan's Bengaluru office in 1983, thereby allowing the introduction of a news program in Kannada on 19 November 1983. Doordarshan also launched a Kannada satellite channel on 15 August 1991 which is now named DD Chandana [4]. The advent of private satellite channels in Bengaluru started in September 1991 when Star TV started to broadcast its channels [5]. Though the number of satellite TV channels available for viewing in Bengaluru has grown over the years, the cable operators play a major role in the availability of these channels, which has led to occasional conflicts. Direct To Home (DTH) services are also available in Bengaluru now. Doordarshan is the broadcaster of the Government of India and its channel DD Chandana is dedicated to Kannada. In private sector Udaya TV is the first Kannada channel broadcaster [6]. As on today flowing television medias have broadcast from Bengaluru (Table 1).

Table 1: List of television channels in Bangalore.

Review of Literature

Rosamma Joseph has taken a study on “How Indian Journalists Use Libraries”. This survey aims to obtain information of journalists about the information needs and the patterns of use of information by libraries. For this purpose author surveyed working on the eight Kerala newspapers journalists in Kerala, India. This study finds that there were significant differences in the patterns of use of the library by senior editorial staff and staff in other categories. David Nicholas carried out a study on "The impact of the Internet on information seeking in the Media 1.” In this study open ended interviews, questionnaires and observation have been adopted for collection of data and 300 journalists and media librarians were surveyed. The researcher was found that amongst traditional journalists Internet use was light [7]. Barriers like Poor access, Proper ICT tools to access Internet leads reasons for non-familiarity with the internet use. Researcher suggested that Media Librarians should avoid such barriers to ease of access to information for journalist. Bruce Garrison examines in the study “Journalists’ Perceptions Of Online Information-Gathering Problems”. This study reports the leading problems identified by journalists using the World Wide Web for newsgathering. Data from national surveys conducted in 1994 to 1998 reported and listed the perceptions of flaws in the Web as a newsgathering source [8]. The study found a growing need for ongoing newsroom training and development of online research skills among reporters and their editors.

Mark Deuze made a research on “Online journalists in the Netherlands: Towards a profile of a new profession.” The result of the survey indicates basic, occupational and professional characteristics of online journalists working for broadcast and print media as well as online-only media. It focuses, in particular, on the question of whether it is too early to be able to determine the specifics of the new professional model of online journalism. One of the main conclusions from this study is that distinct media logic for online journalists is emerging, the main characteristic of which seems to be empowering audiences as active participants in the daily news [9]. Levi Obijiofor conducted a survey on “Students’ Perceptions and Use of the Internet as A News Channel”. This study was used the survey method for collecting data, total of 98 questionnaire distributed to second and third year journalism students, who studied the undergraduate course at the University of Queensland, Australia. The result from the study show that second and third year journalism students are heavily use internet and also internet is most popular source of news for them also students are highly selective of the news media that gratifies their news needs [10].

Need and Purpose of the Study

Television media is one of the largest mass communication systems in the world. In India broadcasting, is the sole preserve of the government, provides television coverage to over 90% of India's 1200 million people. By the nature television professionals are information gatherers; do television professionals ‘information needs match their information gathering behaviors? Is there a gap that is evidenced by emerging technologies? This study focused on finding patterns of habit, use, and perceptions of information needs and usage behavior within their respective contexts [11]. Television Media Professionals in this study refer to the staff members of the television channels. They produce news, current affairs and research oriented programmes on different topics such as health, economics, crime, politics, foreign affairs, entertainment, education, children, religion, sports, religious and social issues. There have been no studies made on the information usage or gathering behavior of television media professionals in Bengaluru [5]. This study is the first attempt to find patterns of information usage behavior, use, and perceptions of needs of television media professionals in Bengaluru. Results of this study will be helpful for librarians and information specialists, who are working in media libraries for the planning and designing of library services.

Objective of the Study

Specifically speaking this study has been carried out to achieve the following objectives.

1. To examine the attitude of television media professionals in usage of electronic information sources.

2. To determine the various types of electronic information sources in used by the television media professionals in Bengaluru.

3. To explore the electronic information needs of the television media professionals in Bengaluru.

4. To examine what criteria are using for access of electronic information sources.

5. To find out difficulties and barriers faced by television media professionals while accessing the electronic information.

Research Design

From the above discussion about the importance and significance of the electronic information, the investigator undergoes the preliminary survey on attitude towards electronic information resources usage of electronic information resources by television media professionals. So, it was the matter of investigation to know the attitude of television media professionals using the electronic information. For this study investigator considered media professionals from various television channels in Bengaluru, the study aims to explore attitude towards usage of electronic information resource by television media professionals. The survey method has been adopted for the study and well structured questionnaire was distributed for collection of data.

Analysis and Interpretation of Data

The researcher used a descriptive survey method and well structured questionnaire as a data collection instrument. Researcher was distributed 710 questioners to media professionals and 540 questionnaires were returned duly filled with 76.06% of Response Rate. The data collected were tabulated and analyzed in the following table. Statistical techniques of percentage of respondents have been mainly used to analyze the collective data (Table 2).

Table 2: Demographic characteristics of respondents.

The data summarized in the Table 1 demonstrates the demographic characteristics of respondents. Data shows that 88.44% of respondents are male and only 84 (15.56%) respondents are Female from Television Medias, 188 (34.81%) of respondents come under the age group of below 20-30 years considered as young TV professionals. 171 (31.66%) of respondents come under the age group of 31-40 years, 136 (25.18%) respondents are come under the age group of 41-50 years, 37 (6.85%) respondents come under the age group of 51-60 years and 8 (1.48%) respondents are TV Media Professionals. Majority 226 (41.83%) media professionals completed Graduate Level of qualification, 168 (31.1%) respondents completed Post Graduate level, followed by 62 (11.48%) respondents having Diploma and 34 (6.29%) of respondents were completed Certificate course. Data reveals that very less 12 (2.22%) respondents completed M. Phil in Journalism and Mass Communication.

Awareness of electronic information sources

Figure 1 shows that among 540 respondents 520 (96.29%) Media professionals were aware about EIR and 20 (3.70%) media professionals mentioned they have not aware about EIR. The analysis reveals that EIR is main tool of television media professionals.

Figure 1: Awareness of electronic information resources (EIR).

Place of accessing electronic information resource

Figure 2 reveals that Office/Work Station and home is more comfortable place to access of EIR for 480 (92.30%) media professionals and 390 (75%) media professionals access from Home, followed by 70 (13.47%) and 68 (13.07%) media professionals access through library and Cyber Café respectively.

Figure 2: Place of accessing electronic information resource.

Skill in usage of information technology applications

The data summarized in the Table 2, explores that ICT usage skills by Media Professionals, data explores that majority i.e., 178 (34.23%) respondents mentioned they have “Outstanding skill” and 179 (34.42%) respondents respondent “Very Strong” while using Search Engines, followed by E-mail 168 (32.03%), Social Networks 158 (30.08%) media professionals have “outstanding skills”.. Also 236 (45.38%) Media Professionals and 213 (40.96%) Media Professionals have “Very Strong skill” in using Email, Microsoft office, Audio / Video Software and Social Networks. Data shows that media professionals having “very strong skill” while using the IT applications i.e., 179 (34.42%) respondents have “Very Strong Skill” in using Search Engines, 218 (41.92%) respondents in file transfer protocol, 188 (36.15%) respondents in web browsers have “Very Strong Skill”. While using Language Tools 196 (37.7%), Alerts Software 183 (35.2%), Blogs 169 (32.5%), RSS Feeds 141 (27.12%), FTP 126 (24.23%) and Audio / Video Software 121 (23.27%) media professional have “competent skills”. It is also observed from the table that alerts software, blogs, language tools, RSS feeds, anti-virus software, and operating systems, graphic and other ICT applications media professional have fewer amounts of ICT usage skills. Examining the data further showed that media journalists were have the good skill in using IT applications for the journalistic task (Table 3).

Table 3: Skill in usage of information technology applications.

Needs of specific electronic information resources / sources

When professionals were asked about the needs of Specific electronic information resources related to various aspects of journalistic information majority i.e., 196 (37.69%) respondents expressed “most of the time” they needs Financial / Company related information followed by 186 (35.77%) and 176 (33.85%) respondents need Institutions and Entertainment / sports related information “most of the time” for information gathering also 169 (32.5%) respondents “Always” need Entertainment / Sports related information. 136 (26.15%) respondents “Most of the time” need Live Streaming for live news coverage. 152 (29.23%) respondents “Most of the time needs” News Services to gather required information. It is gathered form the data that 178 (34.2%) respondents “Rarely” Use the Reference related Information for news coverage. Majority of the respondents i.e., 189(36.35%) “Often” use the Directories to find details. It is observed from the data that Magazines, References, Statistics, Graphics, Government and News Services are “Always” required by the Journalists (Table 4).

Table 4: Needs of specific electronic information resources.

Criteria for evaluating websites electronic information resource

Media professionals were asked to specify the criteria to evaluate information available on the web (Table 5) explains the Criteria used for evaluating websites related to electronic information resource. Majority of 196 (37.69%) respondents stated that “most of the time” they consider the convenience of the website, 109 (20.96%) stated that they “always” consider “Convenience” of the website. 188 (36.15%) respondents “most of the time” check the coverage while selecting electronic information resources. Data shows that 88 (16.92%) respondents “always” and 148 (28.46%) respondents “most of the time” consider authority of the website. Also following criteria such as objectivity 63 (12.12%) respondents, Promptness 88 (16.92%) respondents, Cost 77 (14.81%) respondents, Currency 98 (18.85%) respondents were “always” consider evaluating the website for selecting electronic information through web (Table 5).

Table 5: Criteria for evaluating websites electronic information resource.

Importance of EIR for journalistic tasks / usefulness

When respondents were asked about importance of EIR in Journalistic task in Background of news item 189 (36.35%) respondents expressed that it is “Useful” and 132 (25.4%) respondents expressed it is “Very Useful”. Concern to map 144 (27.69%) respondents said it is “Useful” 134 (25.77%) respondents expressed that “Moderately Useful”. Concern to Documents to cite in a news item EIR have always “Useful” role for 188 (36.15%) respondents and “Very Useful” for 98 (18.8%) respondents. For conduct research 140 (26.92%) respondents agreed that EIR is “Moderately Useful”, 133 (25.58%) respondents agreed “Useful” and 90 (17.3%) respondents agreed EIR is “Very Useful”. Concern to define terms or concepts EIR is “Useful” for 113 (21.73%) respondents. Further 148 (28.46%) respondents expressed that EIR is “Moderately Useful” to find photographs and 128 (24.62%) respondents mentioned EIR is “Useful” while find story ideas. 134 (25.8%) respondents stated that EIR are “Not Useful” to use as a Contact Sources. It is revealed from the table that Graphics, Latest news to put in story, maps, statistics for put in story, maps statistics for a news item and write editorial electronic information resources paly very important role (Table 6).

Table 6: Importance of EIR for journalistic tasks.

Coverage of electronic information resource

Table 7 depicts the extent of coverage of Electronic Information Resource by the television media professionals. It is clear from the above table that 145 (27.9%) respondents “Always” cover Arts and Culture related information, followed by 110 (21.2%) and 101 (19.42%) respondents “Always” cover films related information. 193 (37.12%) of the respondents have opined that “Most of the Time” they cover Educational related Information and 179 (34.42%) respondents “Most of the time” Arts and Culture related information. Further, another segment of respondents representing 178 (34.23%) respondents covers entertainment and 158 (30.38%) indicates “Often” cover the Educational related information, followed by 147 (28.27%) respondents cover Political related information. It can be inferred that the television media practitioners very less amount i.e., 56 (10.08%) cover security and Defence related information and 58 (11.2%) cover energy and industrial related information. The information including Science and Technology, Tourism, Health and Environment, Business and Economy, Fashion and other entertainment related information also have been covered by the media professionals based on the viewer choices.

Table 7: Coverage of electronic information resource.

Barriers of electronic information resource access

The respondents who encountered problems while accessing Electronic Information Resources Television media professionals have given their responses. The options included such as Access, Censorship, Confidentiality, Infrastructure, Information Overload, Knowledge, Lack of Guidance, Language, Nature of Job, Time and IT related barriers have been asked and data obtained from the respondents regard is presented in Table 7. When the sample respondents were asked about whether they face any problem while Access 283 (54.52%) respondents “Strongly Disagree” that they have an Access Problem, 52 (10%) respondents agreed that they have access problem. Censorship is one more problem faced by the journalists even that 170 (32.69%) respondents “Strongly Disagree” about that they facing Censorship problem and 89 (17.12%) respondents “Agree” that they have Censorship problem. 96 (18.46%) respondents agreed that they have Confidentiality while gathering the information. Majority of media professionals expressed that they have good equipment system and only 68 (13.1%) respondents “Strongly Agree” to be they have equipment problems. 113 (21.73%) respondents “Agree” for they are facing Information Overload, 77 (14.8%) respondents “Strongly Agree” that they are facing Lack of Guidance, 220 (42.31%) respondents stated that Language is not a problem for them, 162 (31.2%) respondents “Can’t Say” about their Nature of Job (Table 8).

Table 8: Barriers of electronic information resource access.

Findings and Recommendations

Major findings for this study included the following.

Demographic characteristics of TV media professionals

a. Maximum numbers of professionals are male (88.44%).

b. Majority of their age group in between 20–30 (34.81%).

c. Most of the professionals have graduation (41.83%) and 31.1% have post graduation academic qualification.

Awareness of electronic information sources

Almost all the media professionals 96.29 well aware of the Electronic Information Resources.

Place of accessing electronic information resource

Most of the Professionals were accessing EIR at office/ workstation (92.3%) and 75% of the respondents access form home and very less number (13.47%) at media library.

Skill in usage of information technology applications

a. Professionals were outstanding and Very Strong skilled in using Search engines, Microsoft Office, FTP, Audio/ Video Software, Web Browsers, E-mail and Social Networks respectively. They were skilled more than average for the 15 applications listed.

a. Professionals were outstanding and Very Strong skilled in using Search engines, Microsoft Office, FTP, Audio/ Video Software, Web Browsers, E-mail and Social Networks respectively. They were skilled more than average for the 15 applications listed.

Needs of specific electronic information resources

a. Media Professionals are needed EIRs is Entertainment/Sports, Financial/Company, Live streaming, Journals, Newspapers, Institutions, and Press releases.

b. Journalists are least needed to use the EIRs related to Scientific information, Directories, Magazines, Reference, Statistics, News services , Government, Graphics and Other related information.

Criteria for evaluating websites electronic information resource

a. All 10 website Electronic Information Resources evaluation criteria were found to be more than average in importance by the Authority, Coverage, Convenience, Currency, Accuracy and Interactivity in obtaining information being the always and most the time.

b. The promptness, cost, objectivity and other electronic information resource was viewed as rarely and never important.

Importance of electronic information resource for journalistic tasks

a. The most Important electronic information resources are journalistic task are Background of news item, Maps, Documents to cite in a news item, Latest news to put in story, Conduct research, Find photographs, Find story ideas, Contact sources, Write editorial, Define terms or concepts and Statistics.

b. Find difficult-to-find facts, Graphics, Fact-checking and Verification and Other electronic information resource are least importance for journalistic task.

Subject coverage of electronic information resource

a. Electronic Information Resources are covered all the areas of information requirement of journalist. It shows that dependency of electronic information resource for TV Media professionals.

b. Security and Defense, Sports, Tourism and other related information are slightly not covered the information needs.

Barriers of electronic information resource access

a. Information overload, Lack of guidance, confidentiality and Time was the major barrier preventing journalists from access the EIR.

b. A large majority of journalists are satisfied with the access of the electronic information resource.

Recommendations

Based on the findings the following suggestions are made to improve the services provided by Media Libraries.

a. To achieve the professional objectives media professionals have to review and regularly analyze the ICT Infrastructure. The adoption of ICT should not be considered as a luxury, but as an added tool to provide the current information effectively to fulfil the complex needs of the viewer.

b. It is recommended that the Media Libraries should be equipped with advance audio-visual facilities and It is recommended that data access speed (Networking Infrastructure) should be increased.

c. Appropriate action should be taken by Media Libraries to develop state of the art library services.

d. Information Retrieval is an important component of Library Services, it is suggested that provision should be made to train the media professionals even from a very basic level, this should be further followed by the latest IT applications.

e. User education is essential. It helps to effective utilization of the media library.

Conclusion

The study indicates the attitude towards electronic information resources usage is more in Bengaluru television media professionals. The response to the survey showed media journalists are well aware of e-information resources and IT applications for journalistic task. A majority of our survey respondents evaluate the website information based on the authority, currency and convenience. Media Journalists using e -resource for finding information about background of news item, conduct research, find photographs, find story ideas, graphics, maps, statistics for journalistic tasks. Despite the perceived benefits of e-resource related to censorship, information overload, lack of time is the major barriers to access. However, it does appear that the e resource is becoming valuable asset for Bengaluru media professionals and majority of the respondents are proactive in usage of EIR in journalistic task in all manners.

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