Understanding young singaporeans gathering and credibility assessments of online sexual health information 1a

UNDERSTANDING YOUNG SINGAPOREANS’ GATHERING AND CREDIBILITY ASSESSMENTS OF ONLINE SEXUAL HEALTH INFORMATION SITI NURHARNANI BINTE NAHAR BSocSc.(Hons.), National University of Singapore A THESIS SUBMITTED FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS COMMUNICATIONS AND NEW MEDIA PROGRAMME NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE 2010 ii To Ayah & Ibu, iii Acknowledgments Really great people make you feel that you, too, can become great. Mark Twain I would like to express my appreciation to family, friends, mentors and colleagues for their support during the course of my completion of this Masters dissertation. Specifically, I wish to thank my supervisor, Dr. Lim Sun Sun for her guidance in completing this thesis. I especially appreciate the precious feedback by Dr. Millie Rivera, Dr. Cho Hichang, as well as fellow graduate students in the graduate seminar, theories, and methods classes. I want to extend a big thank you to my family, friends and colleagues for assisting me in getting respondents for my fieldwork. And special thanks to my fellow TAs, administration and technical support ladies for being there during my occasional ranting. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank new friends - my respondents and the Health Promotion Board for making this completion possible. My respondents were not only willing to share their experiences with me; they also took the extra mile and roped in more participants. And to the Health Promotion Board, I am appreciative of their assistance and support. Most importantly, I am thankful to God for giving me strength and endurance, my parents, and brother for their love, support and occasional waivers from household chores. And, I would like to give special mention to Ck who was my bastion of support with his unwavering belief, constant supply of resources, wake-up calls, and keeping me sane. iv Table of Content Acknowledgments Table of Contents List of Appendices List of Tables List of Figures Abstract Chapter One – Significance and Background Information 1.1. Objectives of Study 1.2. Background Information 1.2.1. Defining Youths 1.2.2. Profile of the Singaporean Youth 1.2.3. Sex Education in Singapore 1.3. Sequence of Presentation 1.4. Conclusion 2 5 6 6 7 12 17 18 Chapter Two – Literature Review 2.1 Nature of the Internet 2.2 Information Seeking 2.2.1. Personal Locus 2.2.2. Knowledge Structure 2.2.3. Skills 2.3 Review of Existing Literature and Information Gaps 2.4 Summary 21 22 23 28 29 31 35 42 Chapter Three – Research Methodology 3.1 Self-Confrontation Interview 3.2 Strengths of the Self-Confrontation Interview 3.3 Research Methods considered 3.4 Sampling, Selection Criteria and Actual Respondent Profiles 3.5 Interview Administration and Procedure 3.6 Coding Frame and Interview Guide 3.7 Analysis of Data 3.7 Conclusion 44 45 47 48 49 55 60 62 62 Chapter Four – Findings and Discussion 4.1 Personal Locus 4.1.1 Attitudes of respondents 4.1.2 Convenience and speed 4.1.3 Other concomitant factors 4.2 Knowledge Structure 4.2.1 Search string permutations 4.2.2 Navigation within websites 4.2.3 Keying of web addresses 4.2.4 Use of bookmarks 4.3 Skills 4.3.1 Search engines 64 65 66 68 70 70 72 76 77 78 82 83 v 4.4 4.5 4.3.2 Websites 4.3.3 Information seeking process Personal Influences and Nature of Information Conclusion 85 87 107 110 Chapter Five – Conclusion 5.1 Key Findings and Recommendation to Increase Media Literacy 5.2 Limitations and Future Research 112 112 116 Bibliography 118 List of Appendices Appendix 1.1 Overview of Singapore Education Landscape Appendix 1.2 Figures and tables extracted from IDA Annual Survey on Infocomm usage in households and by individuals Appendix 2.1 Blurbs of 2001 to 2010 studies related to young people, Singapore, sexual health and/or Internet Appendix 3.1 Age-group statistics according to ethnic group Appendix 3.2 Detailed Profiles of Respondents Appendix 3.3 Coding Appendix 3.4 Interview Guide List of Tables Table 3.1a Table 3.1b Table 3.2a Table 3.2b Table 3.3 Table 3.4 Table 4.1 Table 4.2 Table 4.3 Variables for Maximum Variation Sampling Sampling based on gender, ethnicity and institution type Profiles of Respondents Detailed Profiles of Respondents Pre-interview questionnaire Sample of Instruction and Task List Different permutations of search strings Respondents and time spend on Internet daily Different types of websites and websites visited List of Figures Figure 1.1 Figure 1.2 Figure 3.1 Figure 3.2 Figure 4.1 Figure 4.2 Figure 4.3 Figure 4.4 Figure 4.5 Figures 4.6 Figure 4.7 Figure 4.8 Figure 4.9 Figure 4.10 Sex + Body column in Teen magazine Question & Answer in Teen Confidential column Overall Sampling of Study Second screen capture which allows for matching pauses and audio Images from Google Video from YouTube List of protection methods grouped List of protection methods grouped by gender Examples of search aids Spelling mistakes Ali was attracted to the graphics Ads presented within content Ads presented within content Pages that were possibly read instead browsed by respondents vi Abstract There is little literature which explains how young people seek and assess online sexual health information. Also, there is still a gap in understanding the part that media literacy plays when young people sieve through the myriad sources for credible information. With the plethora of information online and the rise of user-generated content, this comprehension of their manner of assessment serves to be increasingly pertinent. Given this milieu, the main focus of this paper is to understand the influences and thought processes of young people in seeking sexual health information. In December 2008, the study recruited 36 Singaporeans between the ages of 17 and 21 to participate in a self-confrontation interview study, using Camtasia studio. Although the interview sessions indicate that young people are equipped with basic media literacy skills, there is still a gap in youths’ information seeking. Also, often, youths become absorbed in only gathering information that they do not stop to evaluate them. Therefore, youths still need to be equipped with strong knowledge structures, to be in control of their locus in looking for information, and to continually upgrade their skills through frequent use. In order to aid these youths, the school curriculum needs to move from the trend of functional media literacy to that of critical literacy. Keywords: Internet; information-seeking, media literacy; health literacy; electronic health information; sexual health information; young people between 17 and 21; Singapore Chapter 1 Significance and Background Information Chapter One Significance and Background Information Traditionally, books, newspapers, magazines, television, radio, family, and friends were the main sources of information for the masses. In the information age today, the Internet has dominated that role – rivalling the aforementioned old media and bringing about tremendous change in the way people obtain information. The current youth population has not been spared from this change, and the Internet plays a big part in their lives. Today, a youth is more likely to look for information using a search engine rather than visiting the library (Palfrey & Gasser, 2008). The Internet allows them to be involved in these activities under different parameters, via anonymity and simultaneity (de Kerckhove, 1995). Youths preferentially use the web as an information resource because compared to traditional media, the Internet maintains a 24–hour presence, allows for private browsing while still receiving current information, and boasts fast search capabilities (Pierce, 2007; Stern & Willis, 2007; Suzuki & Calzo, 2004). As for Singaporean youths, recent newspaper articles suggest that one use of the Internet is to retrieve information on sex-related topics. They also use blogs to pen their sexual adventures, share sex tips on various forums, and engage in cyber-sex using various online communication applications such as Instant Messaging (Shuli, 2008; Teo, 2008; Toh, 2007). This is a trend that requires greater attention because in the absence of sufficient and accurate sex information, youths have been found to depend greatly on the media for such information and guidance (Strasburger, 2005; Weimann, 2000). 2 As for the content available on the Internet, studies show an increased delivery of sexual and reproductive health promotion information, and this is due to sexuality and reproductive health education efforts. They aim to provide individuals with information, motivation, and behavioural skills that will enable individuals to avoid sexual and reproductive health problems and achieve well-being in this area (Barak & Fisher, 2001; 2003; Fisher & Fisher, 1992; 1999). There are also websites which are commercially-driven, and other websites which are uploaded by private individuals. Despite the motives behind these efforts, the plethora of information online has resulted in a cause for concern about quality of the information online. Participatory Web gives rise to a complication, which relates to information quality. One of the big changes wrought by the use of the Internet is the way in which individuals can easily create and consume information and knowledge. With a lack of universal standards for posting information, online information may be easily modified, plagiarised, misrepresented, or even created under false pretences (Fritch & Cromwell, 2002; Johnson & Kaye, 2002; Metzger, Flanagin, Eyal, Lemus, & McCann, 2003; Rieh, 2002). Information quality issues are neither Internet-specific nor new to the digital age, however, the availability of user-generated content has made it more difficult to distinguish accurate and inaccurate information. However, there are concerns about the challenges that youths are facing, having to grow up surrounded by numerous information sources that allow anyone become an author or an editor (Palfrey & Gasser, 2008; Metzger, 2007). In relation to the Singapore context, this lack of gate-keeping is worrying as 91% of Singaporeans who receive information from the Internet 3 have taken action in response to the information gathered (Siow et al., 2003). Also, 45% of Singaporean Internet surfers of health content consider online health information trustworthy if the information is from a professional source or if the website displays the source, while 10% trust the information if it concurs with the doctor’s advice (Siow et al., 2003). Currently there is a gap in literature pertaining to youths’ assessment of health information online; with only several studies conducting research in this area (eg. Metzger, 2007; Rieh & Hilligoss, 2008). Firstly, this is because extant research has primarily been about information searching where researchers examine the kind of information respondents acquire and learn (Chelton & Cool, 2007; Chelton & Cool, 2004 as cited in Chelton & Cool, 2007). It is only in recent years that studies have shifted towards information seeking in a bid to explain how respondents look for information (Chelton & Cool, 2007; Chelton & Cool, 2004 as cited in Chelton & Cool, 2007). Next, despite the growing body of literature on the Internet and healthcare, with the exception of research on college students, there are few empirical studies of youths' usage of the Internet for health information, and even fewer concerning sexuality issues (Gray & Klein, 2006). There is also limited research on how youths learn about sexuality from the media (Strasburger, Wilson, & Jordon, 2009). The literature gap in youths’ usage of sexual health information exists as the sensitivity of the issue has resulted in such literature being skewed towards situating adults and college students as the subjects of research. In the case of Singapore, prior studies of the situation have found that 27% of young Singaporeans aged 13 to 19 and 37% of those aged 20 to 29 use the Internet to look for health information (Siow et al., 2003). Of such 4 Internet surfers aged 13 to 55, 25% choose the Internet as the second top preferred source (Siow et al., 2003). Notwithstanding the value of Siow’s study, there is still a lack of qualitative and quantitative academic research on Singaporean youths’ usage of the Internet to search for sexual information. This thesis seeks to fill the aforementioned gaps and to contribute to research on Internet studies pertaining to youths. Given that a high percentage of Singaporeans take action from the health information which they gather, the findings from this paper will be significant as it will enable better understanding of youths’ concerns in seeking sexual health information. With this understanding, steps can then be taken to better tailor future literacy programs. 1.1 Objectives of Study The thesis seeks to examine young Singaporeans’ thought processes, and cater to their competency levels to understand the selection of online information in their exploration of sexual health topics. It concerns itself with youths’ evaluations of the multitude of information online by studying the factors that influence their information search. It also will explore how youths assess the credibility of online sexual health information. The thesis will focus specifically on young people between 17 and 21 years old. It mainly seeks to capture information seeking among youths who have just completed their education in secondary schools to those attending universities. There are several reasons why this age-group is chosen. Firstly, it is interesting to study the digital natives who assert that they are web experts (Livingstone, 2007). Next, a high percentage has Internet access - 5 83% of Singaporeans aged between 15 and 30 access the Internet at any location (IDA, 2007). Also, this age group is significant as it is a developmental phase independence, peer manifested influence, by sexual identity formation, coming-of-age and increased risk-taking behaviour (Donovan & Jesser, 1985; Strasburger, Wilson, & Jordon, 2009). Moreover, there is little research done on this age group as a result of inherent problems in doing research on youths’ knowledge, attitudes and behaviour toward sexual media content and sexuality (Gray & Klein, 2006; Wartella, Scantlin, Kotler, & Donnerstein, 2000). Previously, the main barrier was youths’ concerns about confidentiality. Therefore, past studies on youths were mainly conducted on university students. For this reason, this paper aims to fill the literature gap by examining a slightly younger age group. 1.2 Background Information In this section, the paper will define young people, provide their background information, as well as present their behavioural traits. In considering youths’ information seeking behaviour, it is also imperative that we understand what it means to be a Singapore youth. Therefore, the paper will present a profile of young Singaporeans. An understanding of their educational, technological, social, familial, sexual backgrounds will better contextualise our understanding of their media engagement. 1.2.1 Defining Youths In this paper, young people, young adults, and youths will be used interchangeably as they are common terms used to denote the group of 6 people who are caught between childhood and adulthood. The United Nations 1985 General Assembly defines the term youth as “those persons falling between the ages of 15 and 24 years inclusive” (United Nations, 2007). Youth is a “demographic concept that has both biological and sociological aspects (Atal, 2005, p.10).” However, sociologically it is a category, not a group; and a category may consist of several groups. This is because although categorically, this concept is represented by certain biological attributes, with the roles and expectations associated with it differing from culture to culture (Atal, 2005). During this period, relationships and peer culture also take on important roles in explaining youths’ choices (Wolfe, Jafee & Crooks., 2006). In addition, the media plays an integral part in young people’s communication, general knowledge, comprehension of the world and relation to other people (Kenway & Bullen, 2001). In coping with transition into adulthood, youths inevitably experiment in risky behaviours. Risky behaviours, relating to substance use, sexual activity and extreme sports activities occur when youths with limited or no experience engage in behaviours in anticipation of benefits without comprehending the immediate or long-term consequences of their actions (Irwin & Millstein, 1992). Conducting risky activities may be a function of adolescent egocentrism – these youths think that they are unique and that misfortunes will happen to someone else, not them (Strasburger, Wilson & Jordon, 2009). 1.2.2 Profile of the Singaporean Youth Termed as “the parents, decision-makers, business people and leaders of tomorrow [n.p.]” (National Youth Council, 2006), young people in Singapore 7 are invaluable to a nation that depends on human capital as its main resource. As at the end of June 2007, young Singaporeans between the ages of 15 and 24 constituted 475,000 out of the country’s 3.58 million citizens (Singapore Department of Statistics, 2008). Youths in Singapore are welllearned, highly connected to the Internet, and participate in offline and online activities. These associations to Singaporean youths will be elaborated in the following sections. Firstly, on the issue of education, Singapore passed the Compulsory Education Act in 2000, and it states that “a child of compulsory school age is one who is above the age of 6 years and who has not yet attained the age of 15 years” (Ministry of Education, 2008). An overview of the 2010 Singapore education landscape is available in Appendix 1.1. The overview illustrates that students in Singapore would have obtained a satisfactory level of education. Next, being “the most wired nation” with a household broadband penetration rate of 99.9% as of December 2008, the use of the Internet in Singapore is close to saturation (Tan, 2009). The Ministry of Education (MOE) promotes ICT use in schools by providing network infrastructure, hardware, and curricular support. In schools, using ICT is integrated into 30% of curriculum period through its use in lessons, online learning portals, and educational games (Koh, 2007). Therefore, with regards to youths’ media consumption, this means that it is fairly common for Singaporean students, even at primary schools, to research, prepare, and even submit homework using the Internet. In fact, the 2008 annual survey on households’ infocommunications usage shows that among Singaporean youths aged 15 to 24, 99% have access to computers at any location and 98% are Internet 8 users (IDA, 2009). 78% of the youths use the Internet at least once a day (IDA, 2009). Their top three uses of the Internet are for communication, leisure activities and getting information (IDA, 2009). Getting information is one of the top three Internet activities carried out by youths between ages 15 to 29 years old (IDA, 2007). Research from the World Internet Project (2009) findings indicate that 73% of Internet users in Singapore aged 18 and older consider the Internet to be an important / very important source for information, and 79% use the Internet several times a day / daily / weekly to get information for school related work. The full figures and tables are available at Appendices 1.2a, b, c and d. Hence, with the basic IT knowledge learnt from schools, and daily Internet usage, the youths would have sufficient media literacy to gather information online. Similar to youths in other countries, youths in Singapore dabble in many activities during this transition period. These activities may include those which put them at risk. In Singapore, at-risk youths refer to “those who have been subject to a combination of interrelated biological, psychological, and social factors that result in greater likelihood for the development of delinquency, substance abuse, or other related anti-social and self-destructive behaviours” (Inter-Ministry Committee on Youth Crime, 2002, p. 5). In particular, the next paragraphs look at risks related to sex as youths who engage in risky sexual behaviour may be vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases, unwanted pregnancies, and dangers of unsafe abortions (United Nations World Youth Report, 2007). With regards to legal statutes relating to sex, the minimum legal age for (a) engaging in sexual intercourse and (b) watching movies categorised as 9 Restricted Artistic R(A) are 16 and 21 years of age respectively (National Youth Council, 2006). However, past studies show that (a) the average age that Singaporeans initiate sexual activities is between 14 to 15 years, (b) the first sex encounter is 18.9 years, and (c) a Singaporean youth has an average of 5.8 sex partners (Durex, 2005; Fei Yue, 2002, as cited in A to Z Guide on Singapore Youth). 30% know their friends are having sex, 40% have half or less than half of their friends believe in abstinence from pre-marital sex, 60% have several, if not many friends, who hold permissive values towards premarital sex (Fei Yue, 2002, as cited in A to Z Guide on Singapore Youth). For the 52% of youths who view pre-marital sex as being acceptable, being curious, satisfy desire, and love are the three cited reasons for having premarital sexual intercourse (Fei Yue, 2002, as cited in A to Z Guide on Singapore Youth). Despite the relatively high number of youths who are for pre-marital sex, 48% Singaporean youths view pre-marital sex as unacceptable even when two people love each other (Fei Yue, 2002, as cited in A to Z Guide on Singapore Youth). Most students, especially females, say that they are able to resist pressures or temptations when they encounter situations where they are pressured or tempted to having sex (Fei Yue, 2002, as cited in A to Z Guide on Singapore Youth). These pro-abstinence youths explain the top reasons with which they uphold their stand: (a) getting HIV/AIDS and other sexually-transmitted diseases, (b) becoming pregnant and (c) losing self-respect (Durex, 2004). In recent years, there has been increasing public concern in Singapore over “teenage pregnancies, abortions, HIV infection, abandonment of babies by teenage parents, [and] sexual abuse of children” (Ministry of Education, 10 2000). Teenage pregnancies and the higher rates of STIs indicate that some youths are sexually active and are having unprotected sex (Ministry of Education, 2009). With regards to safe sex practices, 74% of young Singaporeans display relatively high awareness of them by indicating that the condom is the most effective method of preventing sexually transmitted diseases (Chuah, 2007). However, only 36% say that they use contraceptives all the time. Statistics show an increase in the number of HIV infected Singaporeans between ages 10 to 19 and 20 to 29 years old from 2006 to 2008 (Ministry of Health, 2009). Specifically among teens, the number cases of sexually transmitted infections have increased by 250 per cent from 2002 to 2008 and the number of HIV cases has grown from 1 in 2002 to 9 in 2007 (Ministry of Education, 2009). Such statistics suggest that a small but significant minority of Singaporean youths are not well informed about sex, contraception and sexually transmitted diseases. Lastly, with regards to personal influence, inexperienced youths require support and advice in making decisions. The National Youth Council reports that there are “moderately strong relationships between youth and their families”, since young Singaporeans generally indicate a positive perception of support from their family. For advice on important decisions, youths turn to their mothers (75%), followed by their friends (65%), fathers (57%) and siblings (39%) (National Youth Survey, 2002 as cited in A to Z Guide on Singapore Youth). Youths seldom confide their problems to teachers (National Youth Survey, 2002 as cited in A to Z Guide on Singapore Youth). Despite the fact that parents are deemed important by youths, more youths turn to their peers for social support; 79% and 70% indicate that they will turn 11 to their friends and mothers respectively for emotional support (National Youth Survey, 2002 as cited in A to Z Guide on Singapore Youth). This is because only few young people have family members paying attention to their problems and noticing their achievements (National Youth Survey, 2002 as cited in A to Z Guide on Singapore Youth). Therefore, in the event that youths have concerns, 25% indicate that they would choose to act on the concerns themselves, and 28% would ask friends for assistance (National Youth Survey, 2002 as cited in A to Z Guide on Singapore Youth). In the next section, the chapter will provide a short introduction on the sex education landscape and present the sex-related information that is made available to Singaporean youths if they choose to seek them. 1.2.3 Sex Education in Singapore Sex education was initiated in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century by the social hygiene movements in the United States. Early education centred on information about venereal diseases and its prevention (Irvine, 1995). Past literature showed various models of school-based sex education programs and curricula. The two broad types are comprehensive programs and abstinence-only programs. In the first school of thought, the conservative models of sex education maintained that for adolescents, refraining from sex is the only safe and moral choice (Gilbert, 2004). This program is largely influenced by religious groups; for instance the Christian Right group likened talking about sex in the classroom to emotional molestation (Irvine, 2002) where the language is said to provoke and infect the listeners. The model equates talking about sex with a form of violation on 12 the listener in which the students who hear an invasive vocabulary will catch the disease of sexual desire. Gilbert (2004) argues that this rhetoric of protection serves to expand the silence surrounding sexuality in schools. The second school of thought argues that sex topics should not be taboo because they are neither provocative nor encourage or promote sex or sexual identities (Gilbert, 2004). The main objective of this model is to be comprehensive by offering young people access to information on sex. Therefore the difference lies in the fact that while conservative educators withhold information, comprehensive sex education supporters argue that access to information about sexuality will offer young people the tools to be able to refuse sex. However, several authors criticise both models for the pathologisation of sexuality and the rejection of youths’ sexual rights (Britzman, 1998; Patton, 1996). The content and delivery of sex education vary among different countries and education systems. This is due to the sensitive nature of the subject matter which touches on fundamental values and religious beliefs. Sex education in Singapore was initially a part of the cross-discipline curriculum. It was covered in the Health Education lesson in Upper Primary levels; the Science, Civics and Moral Education, and Pastoral Care curriculum in secondary schools and junior colleges. Schools also invited external organisations such as the Ministry of Health, family service centres, the Singapore Planned Parenthood Association among others, to conduct talks and seminars for students. In 1992, the Ministry of Education also developed some general guidelines to teach human sexuality in secondary schools. However, it was only in 2000 that the framework for sex education was 13 developed and circulated to all schools. The framework sets the objectives, main themes and principles for the design and delivery of sex education in schools. The four main themes covered are (i) human development, (ii) interpersonal relationships, (iii) sexual health and behaviour, and, (iv) society and culture (MOE, 2007). Sex education in Singapore comprises four dimensions in shaping a person’s sexuality; physical, emotional, social and ethical. The physical aspect refers to sexual maturation, physiology of sex and human reproduction. The emotional aspect relates to sexual attitudes and feelings towards self and others. The social aspect pertains to sexual norms and behaviour and legal, cultural and societal implications while the ethical aspect looks at the sexual values and moral systems (MOE, 2007). Besides receiving sex education in schools, 52% of the Singaporean respondents indicate that parents/guardians should be the ones teaching sex education, followed by schools (32%) (Durex, 2005). 47% of the respondents suggest that the government should focus on sex education in schools, 21% Figure 1.1 Sex + Body Column in Teen magazine educational initiatives, 14% contraception, and 11% via advertising campaigns (Durex, 2005). Other than dissemination of sex education in school, the study identifies the local media as a source of sexual health dissemination. For instance, print media such as local youth magazines and newspapers provide advice on sexuality issues. 14 Figure 1.1 shows a Sex + Body column in the Teens magazine (Sex + Body, Teens, 2006, p.110), which allows youths to ask questions anonymously. It is not stated whether experts are responding to the queries. It provides contact numbers of counselling organisations in the article. Figure 1.2 shows the response by a professional counsellor on sex issues faced by a youth as an example of a weekly feature in the Gen Y section of the Sunday Times under the Teen Confidential column (Teen Confidential, Sunday Times, 2007, p.43). Figure 1.2 Question & Answer in Teen Confidential column Currently there are no specific programs on local broadcast television which provide sexual health information for youths. Nonetheless, a local English-speaking current affairs program, Get Rea!, was aired with several episodes relating to Singaporean teens’ experiences including teenage pregnancy premarital sex. Singapore’s Health Promotion Board (HPB) launched the HPB online in 2001 to disseminate health messages that are verified by healthcare professionals (Vijaya et. al, 2006). HPB Online integrates multimedia into the published information – by using text, pictures, sounds and video clips (Vijaya et. al, 2006). HPB also sets up the Let’s talk about sex website for men, 15 women, couples and parents, which covers sexual issues and concerns such as understanding one’s body, sexually transmitted infections, sexual relationships and imparting useful sexual information to youths (Let’s Talk about sex, 2009). The Youth Health Division of the Health Promotion Board plans a variety of health promotion initiatives that covers a range of pertinent health issues such as smoking control, mental wellness, STI/AIDS prevention, nutrition, physical activity promotion and obesity prevention. The objectives are to create a health-promoting environment for the young and to equip them with the required knowledge and skills to lead healthy lifestyles (Wong & Chew, 2007). In 2005, the Health Promotion Board launched the Youth Advolution for Health (YAH) program (Wong & Chew, 2007). YAH is a peer-led program, with an executive committee comprising of youth leaders from tertiary institutions which sets the directions and plans different initiatives for their peers. The HPB plays an advisory role and supports the youths in the planning and implementation of their projects (Wong & Chew, 2007). Yah.sg includes a blog where youths can access and share their thoughts and views about various health issues (Youth Advolution for Health, 2009). Examples of youth projects are the Audible Hearts project and StompAIDS. The former is a confidential online platform for young people to reveal and talk about common issues of growing up (e.g. relationships with families and friends, school life, career choices) with their peers (AudibleHearts, 2007). The StompAIDS project aims to raise awareness of the causes, consequences and prevention of HIV/AIDS as well as to dispel common misconceptions of the disease among youths (StompAIDS, 2007). HPB also develops youth-centric 16 Multimedia Services (MMS) downloads which carry health messages to encourage them to adopt positive health behaviours to be forwarded to peers (Wong & Chew, 2007). While Singaporean youths may receive information on sex through official channels, a significant question to ask is, whether they do so. Otherwise, are the Singaporean youths equipped to sieve through the myriad of sexual health information online via the unofficial channels. This is pertinent as earlier statistics suggest that a significant minority of Singaporean youths still remain ignorant about sex, contraception and sexually transmitted diseases. 1.3 Sequence of Presentation This chapter has provided a general overview of the orientation, objectives and significance of this study. It has also defined youths and identified their salient behavioural traits, reviewed sex education initiatives and its imperatives in Singapore, and presented a profile of Singaporean youths in terms of statistics, values and concerns. To position the paper in the relevant academic context, Chapter Two will review the theoretical and empirical literature which frames this study. Specifically, the chapter is concerned with examining literature on information seeking, credibility and literacy. It will explain the analytical framework which will be applied. Chapter Three will explain the methodology used in the study. Chapter Four will provide an overview of the research findings. It is assessed according to the coding frame designed for video recording and interview scripts. It analyses the research findings and highlights the prominent choices made by youths in 17 their decision-making. Chapter Five is the concluding chapter which will provide a detailed summary of the study, including a recapitulation of the research questions, findings and analysis. It will reflect on the limitations of the study and how it could have been improved, thereby also suggesting directions for future research and development. 1.4 Conclusion Being citizens of the “most wired nation” (Tan, 2009), Singaporeans are highly connected to cyberspace. With the plethora of information online and the rise of user-generated content, assessment on the credibility of information serves to be increasingly pertinent. This thesis contributes to research on the Internet by examining how young Singaporeans between the ages of 17 and 21 use the Internet to seek information on sexual health. This study reveals the different stages of influence and thought processes of youths’ seeking sexual health information, the challenges that youths face in seeking information and the importance of media literacy. 18 Chapter 2 Literature Review Chapter Two – Literature Review Chapter Two Literature Review Existing literature shows that youths turn to various channels for sexual health information. Peers and social perceptions play more important roles in influencing youths’ decisions about safe sex practices, compared to clinicians or authoritative information resources (Zwane, Mngadi & Nxumalo, 2004). Also, as the mass media – television, newspapers, magazines, radio, and the Internet – permeates the lives of youths, it is inevitably used to gather information and gradually plays an important role in imparting information. In particular, studies show that youths are “major users and early adopters of the Internet [p.519]” and that they use the Internet for a broad array of information, ranging from entertainment and shopping to academic and health-related topics respectively (Borzekowski, 2006). Accordingly, sexual health is one of the most common health topics that youths seek information online (Borzekowski & Rickert, 2001; Baxter, Egbert & Ho, 2008). However, the nature of the Internet has resulted in a world saturated with information; and this factor among others, has made information seeking difficult. This chapter will discuss in greater depth the nature of the Internet and describe the information seeking process. It will explain why sieving through the myriad of online information has become an onerous task and the various problems that occur in youths’ information seeking online. In view of the difficulty that young people face in seeking information using the Internet, it becomes pertinent for them to have media literacy. The chapter will also review extant literature on information seeking online, paying special attention 21 Chapter Two – Literature Review to the context of health and sexual health. Finally, the chapter will introduce the study’s research questions which will seek to fill the gap in existing literature. 2.1. Nature of the Internet The Internet has become an important source for individuals to seek information. With its fast search capabilities and 24–hour availability, the Internet has become a useful alternative to traditional media (Stern & Willis, 2007; Suzuki & Calzo, 2004). The Internet is particularly popular as it contains content that “fulfil[s] nearly every want and need” of most youths (Stern & Willis, 2007). Yes, the advent of the Internet has endowed us with vast information access at the click of the mouse. Yet, at the same time, this convenience results in information overload and the emergence of several concomitant factors. Firstly, the problem of quality control occurs as it is easy for any individual to post information online. This ease has resulted in an overwhelming amount of information online which makes it difficult to decide what information is valid and important. In the past, the high cost of information production and dissemination limited content provision to those with sufficient authority and capital (Metzger, 2007). While previously the limited number of content providers resulted in lower quantity of content, the likelihood of their being quality information providers was higher. Next, the task to differentiate between various messages is no longer an easy one with the blurring of different genres today. For example, news 22 Chapter Two – Literature Review shows use the entertainment formula, thereby providing less information and more entertainment while advertisements look more like information (Potter, 2004). In addition, information is often presented with greater brevity and in ‘sound bite’ form, and therefore there is a greater need to contextualize the information in order to understand it. Decoupling of information from online authors can be a difficult task as the nature of the Internet makes it possible for authors to remain anonymous. Their intentions are also often unknown (Metzger, 2007; Potter, 2004). Also, the idea of credibility and the web is recently getting more attention in academia because it is recognised that web credibility must be differentiated from other forms of credibility because its characteristics. These include factors such as speed, multifarious attributes and links, need for referencing and organizational conventions which makes it impractical to be assessed conventionally, absence of gate keeping mechanism, the uncertainty of sources, and the lack of evaluation standards (Burbeles, 2001; Danielson, 2005; Taraborelli, 2008). Therefore, despite the ease in gathering information, the aforementioned nature of the Internet has made it difficult for individuals to seek information online. 2.2. Information Seeking To understand the information seeking process and the role of media literacy in information seeking, the paper looks at works on information seeking and media literacy as underlying conceptual frameworks. 23 Chapter Two – Literature Review Past studies demonstrate the need to have literacy in processing the myriad of online information. Individuals require various knowledge and competencies – textual understanding, visual and aural discernment, ICT skills, critical analysis and more. This movement for literacy has gained more urgency as it has become increasingly difficult to determine the sources of the information (Martin, 2006). Literacy is also identified as a necessary remedy for the earlier-mentioned information overload problem (Potter, 2004). Specifically, media literacy can be defined as a “set of perspectives from which we expose ourselves to the media and interpret the meaning of the messages we encounter” (p. 58, Potter, 2004). Riddell (2008) says that when equipped with media literacy, individuals are able to plough through the massive storehouses of information and to distinguish between true and false information. This ability to differentiate between true and false information refers to the idea of credibility which is believability of some information and/or its source (Hovland, Janis, & Kelley, 1953). Context is also central to information seeking (Case, 2002; 2007). Users’ concerns for information credibility therefore vary according to the perceived consequence of information use (Rieh & Hilligoss, 2008). Credibility is less pertinent for online entertainment information than for other kinds of online information (Flanagin & Metzger, 2000). Concerns increase when it involves personal information needs such as health and finances (Rieh & Hilligoss, 2008). For example, compared to product or travel search tasks, users are more concerned with credibility and authority for healthrelated information seeking (Rieh, 2002). 24 Chapter Two – Literature Review In addition, in seeking information with specific concerns such as health, having health literacy is important. Health literacy refers to “the degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services needed to make appropriate health decisions” (p. 6, Ratzan & Parker, 2000). It is required when someone seeks information via various media to know more about an illness affecting them or their family members. From the gathering of information, they start asking questions relating to the content they encounter, as well as its validity (Rosen, 2007). Traditionally, studies show three problems of health literacy: (1) problems in understanding simple self-care directions or prescription instructions, (2) fear of taking medications without assistance, and (3) unfamiliarity or lack of understanding of basic health care terms (Norman & Skinner, 2006). This shows that it is required for individuals to know relevant health terms and to be able to situate health information within the appropriate context to be able to make appropriate health decisions. With the lack of such skills, it may be difficult for a person to follow directions or to engage in essential appropriate self-care activities (Ratzan & Parker, 2000). In this information age, seeking health information differs comparatively from the past. New information and communication technologies, particularly the Internet, are seen as beneficial to assist in health or health care (Eng, 2001). However, health educators see a need for young people to have media literacy before they can actually be health-literate. They need to have the ability to seek, find, understand, and appraise health information from electronic sources and apply the knowledge gained to addressing or solving a health issue (Norman & Skinner, 2006). 25 Chapter Two – Literature Review Having online literacy is more pertinent because of three factors: (1) the topic is health-related as the need for quality and credibility is more crucial, (2) individuals lack skills in assessing the accuracy of online information and depend on indirect cues, and (3) there is difficulty in balancing the number of pro-health messages with negative and harmful messages in the mediascape (Freeman & Spyridakis, 2004; Rieh & Danielson, 2007). Also, past literature indicates that while seeking health information may be popular, the activity is not necessarily frequent among most people unless they have chronic diseases (Eysenbach, 2008). The implication of this usage pattern of health information is that people may have inadequate experience and competence with health Web sites as they are generally not used on a day-to-day basis (Eysenbach, 2008). Given that health and medical questions arise infrequently, people do not necessarily have a trusted brand name or portal in their mind as they begin a search. Thus, whereas people may be savvy and experienced enough to evaluate the credibility of general news Web sites or e-commerce sites (Eysenbach, 2008), the case differs for health information sites. Media literacy is also an essential element as it controls credibility judgments (Rieh & Hilligoss, 2008). One of the primary markers for judging the quality of Internet-based health information is source credibility (Tu & Hargraves, 2003). A source is considered more credible if it comes from a recognized expert who keeps information current, and who has no competing interests in providing the information. This is opposed to a non-expert source that provides outdated information, or that has commercial interests in providing the information (Bates et al., 2006). 26 Chapter Two – Literature Review Although the Internet is perceived as a major source of low-quality information; the problem of health credibility assessment is not unique to the Internet because inaccurate information is also present in other media (Eysenbach et al, 2002). Also, Internet self efficacy partially mediates (1) the relationship between individuals’ experience with using the Web and their attitude to the quality of health information available online and (2) the relationship between individuals’ desire to be informed about their health and being involved in medical decisions, and their attitude towards information quality (Rains, 2008). For individuals, these factors make it difficult to seek information, and it is therefore essential to have the required skills to plough through the online content. Another factor for consideration in information seeking is that it is sometimes conducted for other individuals. This information sought could directly/indirectly impact other people. Therefore, in these cases, as one respondent said, “when other people are involved, and other people are going to use the information, you definitely need to have good sources of credibility” (Rieh & Hilligoss, 2008). Overall, in information seeking, the way individuals gather information is a result of a continuous process of learning; that is, individuals start strengthening their media literacy. The strength of individuals’ overall perspective on media determines the various points at which individuals are placed along the continuum (Potter, 2004). In the following section, the paper will provide literature on individuals seeking information and detail out the problems they encountered while seeking information online. To understand where individuals are placed along this continuum, the chapter will look at 27 Chapter Two – Literature Review three crucial factors: (1) personal locus, (2) knowledge structures and (3) skills used in information seeking. These factors serve as building blocks in Potter’s media literacy (2004; 2008). The accumulative strength of these factors will determine how one carries out information seeking. 2.2.1. Personal Locus Information seeking is a conscious undertaking to receive information. Individuals carry out information seeking to respond to an information need or knowledge gap which appears when they identify that their knowledge is insufficient to satisfy their goals (Case, 2007). Goals may be long-term, leading or current search goals. A long term goal refers to a personal goal to be achieved over a long period of time, a leading search goal is a current information task-related goal, and a current search goal involves a specific search. There can also be sub goals achieved, which refer to interactive intentions while seeking information results. Several authors emphasised the importance of personal locus, comprising goals and drives, in information seeking (Case, 2007; Potter, 2004; 2008; Rieh & Hilligoss, 2008). They explain that it motivates individuals to be involved in information-related activities, and administer the informationprocessing tasks (Case, 2007; Rieh & Hilligoss, 2008). An individual who takes notice of his locus is better able to control the process of acquiring and using information. When his locus is weak, he can be subjected to media control; that is, the media may exercise great control over his exposures and information processing (Potter, 2008). Hence, when he understands more about this locus and take steps to shape it; he can better control the process. 28 Chapter Two – Literature Review Also, the more he engages his locus, the more he can increase his media literacy (Potter, 2008). When he is consciously using the locus, he controls his information processing and meaning making (Potter, 2008). 2.2.2. Knowledge Structure In this conscious undertaking to meet their goals, individuals may come up with a particular system or strategy while seeking information. A strategy could contain stratagems, that is, repetitive sequences of information seeking actions (Bates, 1990). They also require information processing and in order to do so, their knowledge structure needs to be carefully constructed. In order to meet their information seeking goals, people make judgments while information seeking. Also, authors Rieh and Hilligoss (2008) mention that judgments which occur throughout the entire information seeking process can be separated into two distinct kinds of judgments; namely predictive judgments and evaluative judgments. Predictive judgments refer to creating predictions that reveal certain expectation in using these selected information resources. People then make evaluative judgments of the information gathered and start placing “values and preferences (p. 56)” on them (Rieh & Hilligoss, 2008). It is only at a later period, when respondents encounter contradictory information that they make a third kind of credibilityrelated judgment, verification. Past studies show that there are at least two kinds of situations where people will try to verify the information during the information seeking process. The first is to accept information without questioning its credibility, but later started to be uncertain when identifying wrong information. Therefore, a person will need to accept or refute the initial 29 Chapter Two – Literature Review information. Another situation is when a person is uncertain about the credibility of information when reading them at the initial point and these doubts may prompt him to take on the verification process. It is here that one decides if one should trust the information and whether to use it (Rieh & Hilligoss, 2008). Specifically, to conduct the abovementioned, an individual selects the necessary facts, shapes them into information, and subsequently puts them into proper places in a structure. By doing so, it becomes easier to see patterns, and these patterns serve as guides indicating where to go to gather more information or how to retrieve previous information. With media literacy, individuals have strong knowledge structures in (1) media effects, (2) media content, (3) media industries, (4) the real world, and (5) the self. By having knowledge in these areas, individuals become more aware of their entire information seeking process. With awareness, they will be able to make better decisions about seeking information, working with that information, and constructing meaning from it that will be helpful to fulfilling their own goals. The construction of strong knowledge structures and behaving in a medialiterate manner during media exposure are required in the media literacy construct. With a better knowledge structure, he will be able to better see the media phenomenon (Potter, 2004, 2008). Strong and organized knowledge structures may equip individuals with adequate perspectives to construe the meaning of a media message. Nobody can be at either end of a spectrum as it is not possible for an individual to have no literacy or for an individual to be fully literate (Potter, 2008). 30 Chapter Two – Literature Review 2.2.3. Skills Using competencies and skills as tools, personal locus and knowledge structure help in the filtering process, meaning matching and meaning construction. To specifically describe the above mentioned flow of an information processing task, one may choose to ignore or process (filtering) information one is presented with. As for the information which one chooses to process, one must make sense of it through recognition, for example, matching a symbol to what one had learnt about it (meaning matching) and eventually constructing the meaning of the message from one’s knowledge structure (meaning construction). Meaning matching depends on competencies and a person is either competent or not competent, while meaning construction relies on skills (which refers to a range of ability). To illustrate, at a basic level, to show competence is when one learns individual words and eventually makes coherent sentences from them; and at an advanced level, one gathers meaning from the passages or shows expressions while reading to demonstrate skill (Potter, 2008). However, it must be recognised that there are potential traps in constructing meanings; several traps are (1) halo effect – believing in someone’s explanation based on the fact that the person is an expert in the field or by placing trust in the person, (2) availability heuristics – people’s tendency to evaluate the possibility of an occurrence based on how quickly the connections or linkages come to mind, and (3) continuity bias – when one decides on a particular pattern in the information received, one may choose to disregard examples that are anomalies (Potter, 2004). 31 Chapter Two – Literature Review To prevent from being trapped, individuals require skills. Skills can be developed through practice; and when they are not, they get weaker. Skills, analysis, evaluation, grouping, induction, deduction, synthesis, and abstraction, are not exclusive to media literacy tasks, but useful to media literacy. Applied to the media context, having analytical skills allows one to probe into messages through the breaking up of the components, and examining the composition of the component that put together the message (Potter, 2004). With the ability to evaluate, one makes judgment and based on a form of standard, the media message is then assessed, and accepted or rejected. Grouping is deciding which elements are alike or different, and forming classification rules. Having the skills of induction and deduction is shown by being able to see a pattern across small number of elements, and making generalisations, and using general principles to explain details. In building media literacy, being able to synthesise is important as using the new media message, individuals reformulate, refine, and update their existing knowledge structures. Lastly, the main reason for having an abstraction skill is that individuals can capture the main idea of the media message in few words. Media literacy is multidimensional. It requires that one gets information and builds knowledge using four dimensions - cognitive, emotional, moral, and aesthetic. The cognitive dimension contains factual information, while the emotional dimension is about feelings. For the latter dimension, easy-torecognise symbols can trigger emotions that do not entail a high degree of perception and understanding. However, subtle emotions will require a higher degree of literacy. The moral dimension contains information about value. The 32 Chapter Two – Literature Review more detailed and refined one’s moral information, the more one can recognize the values that motivated messages in the media and the more sophisticated and reasoned are one’s assessments about those values. Lastly, the aesthetic dimension contains information about how to produce messages. With this information, individuals can then make finer distinctions between different visual works. With this information, individuals can then make finer distinctions between different visual works. There are other factors which raises the importance of having skills in information seeking. Firstly, information seeking is a dynamic process (Case, 2007). As aforementioned, individuals may have sub goals when they switch their search goals and intentions during the information seeking process (Rieh, 2004). For instance, while seeking to satisfy their goals, individuals’ questions may change at various instances. Even when one’s current question is answered, it could lead to a set of different questions (Case; 2002; 2007). Next, while information seeking, individuals may also carry out unintentional or passive behaviours, such as browsing or encountering information (Case, 2007). Also, in seeking information, more information is not always better. To tackle through the massive information, individuals may also perform purposive behaviours while seeking information, such as avoiding information (Case, 2007). For instance, in cases where there is insufficient time or energy to consider everything, it is considered justified and rational to ignore or avoid information (Case, 2007; Gross & Saxton, 2001; Lester & Koehler, 2007). 33 Chapter Two – Literature Review Lastly, it is impossible for one to deal with the massive amount of information available and to maintain a high concentration level continuously. To meet the challenge of sieving through the information, among other forms of exposure states, the human mind may go on ''automatic pilot [p.6]" where they develop routines (Potter, 2004). Automaticity refers to an automatic processing of information, that is, the mind continues to function without conscious effort (Potter, 2008). In this state, individuals are able to perform complex tasks as the actions are already ingrained in them. At this point, individuals may encounter a significant number of media messages but they filter them out and not pay attention to all messages. The mind is triggered only when something in the environment occurs or there is something in the media message that causes one to break away from this state, and only at this point that one will become mentally conscious of one’s action (Potter, 2008). This means that individuals unconsciously screen out all information until there is a triggering point. This triggering point refers to an attentiongrabber which is usually something of value. The disadvantage of this automaticity is that individuals may miss useful messages as the mind is not engaged to identify and receive all relevant triggers. Also, when individuals are in a state of automaticity, the effect of the media is experienced the most as individuals are not fully guided by their judgments as they would when they are ‘conscious’. Therefore, using the analogy of programming, it becomes crucial for the programmed code to be intermittently examined, so that the mind is equipped to obtain useful information. As information processing can occur consciously or unconsciously, when individuals are equipped with 34 Chapter Two – Literature Review media literacy, they will be better able to control and process the information flow. 2.3. Review of Existing Literature and Information Gaps The paper reviews many studies on youths’ online information seeking literature, and in Appendix 2.1 are studies only relating to health, sexual health, literacy, and/or credibility from 2001 to 2010 placed in table form. In this section, I will first provide an overview of youths’ information seeking behaviour and later specifically, narrow down to their information seeking on sexual health. I will also review the relevant existing literature, as well as indicate its gaps. In recent years, there have been an increase in the number of studies on youths’ information seeking behaviour online (for e.g. Buhi et al, 2010; Rieh & Hilligoss, 2008; Fisher, Marcoux, Meyers & Landry, 2007; Pierce, 2007; Dhillon, 2007). These literatures show that youths process and interpret the information which they consume from the mass media differently from young children and adults (Dorr, 1983, Morison, Kelly & Gartner, 1981). While studies show that compared to children, youths are more discriminating about their media content consumption, extant literature shows that youths still face problems when seeking information (Dorr, 1983, Morison, Kelly & Gartner, 1981; Large, 2007; Pierce, 2007). These “information deficits” (p. 75, Pierce, 2007) occur as young people spend little time digesting the information found online (Large, 2007). They are more interested when the information is new, attention-grabbing and convenient to access (Pierce, 2007). 35 Chapter Two – Literature Review With regards to assessing information, despite a growth in literature of information seeking and credibility, there is still little work conducted on youths (eg. Chelton & Cool, 2004; 2007; Metzger & Flanagin, 2008). To date, general information assessments studies focus on web design features (Fogg et al., 2001; Johnson & Kaye, 1998), cross-media comparisons (Flanagin & Metzger, 2000; Sundar, 1999), source attributions (Sundar & Nass, 2000; 2001), and the role of users’ reliance on web-based information (Johnson & Kaye, 2000; 2002). Many studies which examine credibility assessments emphasise evaluative credibility judgments of information and sources. Briefly, source (e.g., reputation, type), information presented (e.g., content, breadth, depth, organization, type,), and presentation/design (e.g., graphics, design, layout, functionality, readability navigability) are the common criteria of web searching (Rieh & Hilligoss, 2008). For instance, Wilkinson, Bennett and Oliver (1997) provide an exhaustive evaluation criteria and indicators of quality by looking at site access and usability, resource identification and documentation, author identification, authority of author, information structure and design, relevance and scope of content, accuracy and balance of content, navigation within the document, and quality of links. Several authors argue that there are differences in credibility assessments of objects such as source, message and media while others state that they could interconnect and influence one another (Kiousis, 2001; Slater & Rouner, 1996). This is because while credible sources are normally seen to generate credible messages and vice versa, it remains unclear whether media that is known to be credible will only show information from credible sources (Fragale & Heath, 2004; Rieh & Danielson, 2007). 36 Chapter Two – Literature Review Among others, it is shown that the way in which youths use the Internet can be driven by their online skills. It is not sufficient for people to just have access to the Internet; they must also have the skills and know-how (Hargittai & Hinnant, 2008). People with the same computer access, but with differing abilities may experience different benefits (Livingstone & Helsper, 2007). Online skills need to be developed, and this can be cultivated by using the Internet more often. In comparing frequent and infrequent Internet users, studies have found that individuals who spend less time on the Internet are less knowledgeable (Hargittai & Hinnant, 2008). This is because by spending more time online, it is likely that individuals become more familiar with the medium’s characteristics (Hargittai & Hinnant, 2008). As individuals become more experienced with the Internet, they are better acquainted with the medium, and thereby start to trust or ignore certain sites (Flanagin & Metzger, 2000). For instance, health experts stress that health sites which include information from reputable sources are more credible and advise looking at authors’ qualifications (Stanford, Tauber, Fogg & Marable, 2002, Rieh & Danielson, 2007). One’s ability to search online influences the materials one is able to find (Bonfadelli, 2002). Notably, studies show that there is a usage gap for those who use it for entertainment compared to work and education (van Dijk, 2006). Studies demonstrate that there are competing factors in information seeking – aesthetic versus content. While several youths’ information seeking studies suggest that the aesthetics factor is salient, other studies suggest that content plays a significant role in information seeking. The former argues that there is increasing dominance of visual images where written text takes on a 37 Chapter Two – Literature Review secondary role. Images lead over text and that text itself is treated as an image and similarly assessed using the principles of visual design (Kress, 2003). As for the latter, in terms of context, youths seeking health-related information show that content and source reputation are given less emphasis compared to presentation, graphics, functionality as well as structural features such as navigation tools, site ownership and contact information (Hong, 2006). Gender may be an intervening variable as some studies show that information seeking between males and females differ. For example, in a study among 15-year-old respondents, females find information presented as text-only to be more significant while males have a propensity to regard an evidence to be more pertinent when an image is included. Female youths seem to prefer images that include information in a direct and concrete way (Clark & Slotta, 2000). In assessing given information, accuracy is widely used as an aspect of information quality (for eg. Fallis & Frické, 2002; Haddow, 2003). However, there are studies which argue for more varied quality criteria which include design, readability, technical quality, comprehensiveness and accuracy (for eg. Eysenbach, Powell, Kuss & Sa, 2002). Studies also demonstrate that compared to other users, domain experts are less bothered with visual appeal and focus on sites’ quality (Stanford, Tauber, Fogg & Marable, 2002, as cited in Rieh & Danielson, 2007). Youths demonstrate that they are more concerned with how information is related to the topic and have less concern for authority and recency. In carrying out an information search task, research on university students show that despite having specific training on websites related to their 38 Chapter Two – Literature Review disciplines, they are very dependent on search engines, and almost all of them choose to use Google (Bélisle, 2006, as cited in Martin, 2008). Search engines drive the way young people receive information. With the infinite mass of information, search engines play a key role in youths’ gathering of health information (Buhi et al., 2010; Gray & Klein, 2006). The results from search strings depend on a combination of factors – the design of their search engine’s algorithm, the search engine’s revenue stream and business model, and the original source of the content (Hargittai, 2004). However, the problem is that not all of them know this. In addition, young people encounter problems as a result of filtered internet search for sexual health information (Gray & Klein, 2006; Pierce 2007). There are occurrences where youths encounter barriers to information when they use the Internet in schools or libraries, and some websites are filtered. They are restricted by their own search skills health/online literacy proficiency. Also, young people are unable to meet their information requirements as they have difficulty with search engine queries and making judgments about the relevance and credibility of the studies they find (Large et al, 2007). For example, studies show that youths are unable to answer health questions using the Internet because of spelling errors, inappropriate selection of search strings and insufficient assessment of websites found (Hansen, Derry, Resnick & Richardson, 2003; Shenton & Dixon, 2004). However, a recent study shows that youths do not aimlessly and randomly look for information, instead they use stratagems – they will start information seeking at a trusted place, use numerous resources and crossreference the content gathered (Rieh & Hilligoss, 2008). In a next strategy 39 Chapter Two – Literature Review referred to as bandwagon credibility heuristic (Sundar, 2008), youths deem information to be credible and trustworthy when they originate from various sources, and this is considered based on the condition that the information presented in the sources shows no discrepancy (Rieh & Hilligoss, 2008). Another information seeking strategy is when youths consider the source to be correct as it has similar information to another source. This method is known as contextual approach (Meola, 2004). For both methods, only when there are inconsistencies in the findings, youths will employ verification exercises (Rieh & Hilligoss, 2008). While there are youths who actively verify the information that they find, there are also young people who are prone to sacrificing credibility for convenience and speed (Rieh & Hilligoss, 2008). This is because there is a need to balance credibility issues with other workloads (Rieh & Hilligoss, 2008). Youths have been found to exercise responsibility in seeking information for other people (Rieh & Hilligoss, 2008). They find that it is necessary to use credible sources when other people are involved. Youths also differentiate credibility assessments by context. For example, respondents say that while they place a lot of trust in their textbook, they may change their minds when their lecturers disagree with a theory; and they do recognise that even though something is reliable in the classroom context, it may not be applicable to the real world context (Rieh & Hilligoss, 2008). As for literature on youths’ sexual and reproductive health, the quantity of youth’s information seeking online remains low but slowly gaining momentum (eg. Buhi, et al, 2010; Gray & Klein, 2006; Pierce, 2007; Smith et 40 Chapter Two – Literature Review al., 2000; Spink, Ozmutlu & Lorence, 2004). This is because in earlier years, studies show that youths conceal that they have looked at information on sex or they choose not to look for such information because of the negative perceptions surrounding it (Morrissey, 2005). There are also youths who believe in abstinence but engage in sexual behaviours such as oral sex as they consider it safe – such youths are unlikely to seek information or other resources to reduce risks to sexual health (Pierce, 2007). This explains why there is a paucity of work on information seeking regarding sexual health topics by youths (Grey & Klein, 2006; Pierce, 2007). Looking at the limitations between the research and the methodology that was carried out in the existing studies on sexual health information, there are gaps in literature. For instance, Smith et al. (2000) instructed respondents to seek information based on two items and they were only allowed to use search engines. Notwithstanding the importance of their research, this method is limiting as it means that respondents were not allowed to go directly to a trusted health information site if they wanted to. Another study (Buhi et al, 2010) sought to understand how first year undergraduates sought sexual health information online, and whether they retrieved accurate information. However, they had used the ‘think-aloud’ method and recognised it to possibly slow students’ information seeking process and also contributed to feelings of discomfort. Lastly, literature show inconsistent trends in youths’ perception of digital media (Rieh & Hilligoss, 2008). For example, while there are media comparison studies, in which college students find traditional media to be more impartial and credible compared to the Internet (Metzger, Flanagin & 41 Chapter Two – Literature Review Zwarun, 2003), there are other studies which yield opposite findings (Johnson & Keye, 1998) and neutral findings (Sundar, 1999). 2.4. Summary Chapter Two has outlined the literature that undergirds the main ideas in this dissertation. The literature review demonstrates how information saturation necessitates the understanding of how individuals sieved through the massive information with the ultimate goal of getting the required information. Past studies (for example, Shenton, 2007) have shown low literacy levels or the inability to differentiate between correct or wrong information among youths. However, there are also studies which showcase youths’ abilities through the use of stratagems and consideration of context. Given that there are varying accounts in the literature, it still remains a question as to whether youths are indeed restricted by online or health proficiency as found in several studies. In addition, there is a literature gap in sexual health information seeking among youths (Gray & Klein, 2006; Nwagwu, 2007; Pierce, 2007). Current literature also shows methodology limitation in their studies. Hence, this study seeks to address the following research questions to fill the gaps in existing literature and to contribute to Internet studies. RQ1: How do young Singaporeans seek sexual health information online, and what are the thought processes that come into play? RQ2: What are the challenges which young Singaporeans faced while seeking such information? 42 Chapter Two – Literature Review Potter’s conceptual framework is chosen because of several factors. Firstly, literacy is necessary to remedy the information overload problem today. Next, it is useful when differentiating the various types of messages online. Thirdly, when equipped with media literacy, individuals are better able to recognise the credibility of information. With media literacy, individuals would have understanding, discernment and skills to analyse the messages. Particularly for health messages in this information age, health educators emphasise the importance of media literacy to be health literate. Also, given the complexities involved in the cognitive processes of information seeking online, Potter’s media literacy proves to be a suitable conceptual framework. This is the case as the main thesis of the framework is that the strength of an individual’s overall perspective on media determines the point at which an individual is placed on a continuum. The building blocks of personal locus, knowledge structures and skills will allow the paper to identify the factors which aid or hinder youths’ information seeking process. Having sketched the research context and concerns, as well as having provided the relevant conceptual framework for this study, the next chapter will describe the various methods used in data collection and analysis in the research process. 43 Chapter 3 Research Methodology Chapter Three – Research Methodology Chapter Three Research Methodology Past research on online information seeking shows that qualitative enquiry methods are more appropriate in areas where the main focus is indepth comprehension of human actions (Mellon, 1990). This is because in order to fully grasp human-web interaction, the chosen methodology must allow researchers to plot online actions, comprehend the thought processes steering these actions, and the mental characteristics governing them (Lim, 2002). With these recommendations in mind, the main research method chosen is the self-confrontation interview which is an “integration of cognitive with manifest phenomena” of verbal with non-verbal actions (p.3, Kalbermatten, 1982 – 83, as cited in Lim, 2002). In addition, to understand respondents’ Internet usage and prior knowledge of seeking health-related information online, each respondent was asked to fill in a questionnaire and the first interview is conducted based on it. This chapter will explain the research method and provide reasons for its use versus other research methods. It will describe the sampling, selection criteria, and coding scheme. It also will provide brief respondents’ profiles and present the procedural steps taken while conducting the research. 3.1. Self-Confrontation Interview A self-confrontation interview is conducted in several continuous stages (Lim, 2002). The sequence of the self-confrontation interview process is as follows (Cranach & Harré, 1982; Lim, 2002; Young et al., 2001): • Ask respondents to carry out actions to be studied; 45 Chapter Three – Research Methodology • Capture respondents’ actions with a video-recording; • Let respondents watch the video recordings of their actions to allow them to recall internal processes, such as cognitions and emotions; • Occasionally stop the video recording and ask the respondents to recollect their thoughts and feelings during that particular segment and elaborate on their actions; • Record the interview sessions with a voice recorder; and • Transcribe interviews by correlating the participants’ thoughts and feelings to their actions. The self-confrontation method was traditionally applied in psychological research, intervention, and training. A review of the video playback studies illustrates how this method had been used across different populations: boys on probation, children in playroom setting, youths, criminals, families, psychiatrists, brainstormers, alcoholics, basketball players, salesmen, and teachers (eg.; Berger, 1970; Fuller & Manning, 1973; Kaswan & Love, 1969; Paredes & Cornelison, 1968; Sandfort, 1984). The method has also been used in the study of human-computer interaction to investigate how activities are carried out and to find out what influences the performance of different tasks (Smith, 1997). However, the rigorous nature of the process has resulted in limited literature on the use of the methodology on online behaviour studies (eg. Lim, 2002; Tan, 2003). 46 Chapter Three – Research Methodology 3.2. Strengths of the Self-Confrontation Interview There are several reasons for using the self-confrontation interview method. Firstly, this method comprises within-method triangulation of the interview and systematic observation methods (Creswell, 1994; Flick, 1998; Webb, Donald et al., 2000). With this triangulation, this method allows for a thorough examination of actions and cognitions of the respondents. It enables respondents to tap into their short-term memory and provides a full account of their actions (Ericsson & Simon, 1993). Since it is unlikely for respondents to be systematically false about their intents, this method will result in a good analysis of respondents’ intents (Harré & Secord, 1972) Observational methods have previously been adopted to study a more detailed human-computer interaction; by observing how respondents navigate websites and taking note of the junctures at which they encounter problems (Abrams, 2000). The action steps comprising different actions are noted through systematic observation, which is a specific approach to quantify behaviour (Bakeman & Gottman, 1986). Prior to observation, behavioural codes were identified and during observation, researchers record behaviours that correspond to the predefined codes (Bakeman & Gottman, 1986). The systematic observation enables researchers to record unreported behaviour of the respondents (Selltiz, Jahoda et al., 1976). Martin and Bateson (1993) suggest using video recordings since behaviour can be too fast or complex to analyse in real time. Therefore, the self-confrontation videotape playback serves as an important auxiliary method for studying behaviours (Young et al., 2001). It captures and clarifies individual’s thought processes and eventual 47 Chapter Three – Research Methodology action while seeking information. In addition, researchers can slow down and take note of salient actions (Martin & Bateson, 1993; Young et al., 2001). 3.3. Research Methods considered Past research conducted on young people and online behaviours have used both quantitative and qualitative methods. Examples of qualitative methods are focus group, thinking aloud and interruption. Focus group is defined as an informal assembly of intended people whose opinions are requested to address a chosen issue (Vaughn, Schumm, & Sinagub, 1996). The objective of the focus group is to induce the perceptions, feelings, attitudes, and ideas of respondents about that topic (Large, Beheshti, & Tarjin, 2002). However, past literature shows that the subject of sex is sensitive to youths, and therefore, this method is unsuitable for this study. Other qualitative methods considered for this study were the thinking aloud method and the interruption method. For the thinking aloud method, an interviewee must vocalize his or her thoughts while performing an action. There are several limitations of this method – (a) the respondent may be distracted when s/he has to multi-task – making comments and proceeding with actions, (b) s/he feels compelled to comment on his/her actions even when it is unnecessary to comment, and (c) it is difficult to encapsulate self-regulated behaviour resulting in automatic actions (Lim, 2002). In the interruption method, an interviewee is constantly stopped and questioned on his/her actions and the reasons behind them. The limitation of this method is that it impedes the respondents’ flow of actions to chain of thought. Comparatively, 48 Chapter Three – Research Methodology the two-step procedure of the self-confrontation interview allows the respondent to independently execute his/her actions uninterrupted. As for quantitative methods, they are found to be more suited for generalized studies and are unsuitable for gathering in-depth information (Mitchell & Ybarra, 2007; Özcan & Buzlu, 2007). Also, compared to static methods such as surveys, interviews are more effective in probing experiences and emotions. Given the limitations of other research methods and strengths of the self-confrontation interview method, the latter method was adopted for this thesis. 3.4. Sampling, Selection Criteria and Actual Respondent Profiles Qualitative studies have always been recognized for its rich data where useful information can come even from a single individual (Willis, 2005). Instead of maximising breadth or reach, the purpose of sampling is to become saturated with information about a certain issue (Padgett, 2008). However, despite its comprehensiveness, quantitative researchers have always said that the main limitation of qualitative studies is that its findings cannot be generalisable. To produce stronger generalisability, Clarke (1982) suggests an intensive method to understand interaction of large numbers of factors in small numbers of instances, to an extensive method of understanding interaction of small numbers of factors in large numbers of instances. As this qualitative study attempts to narrow the gap in relation to this argument of generalisability, it does so with maximum variation sampling by emulating a much larger aggregate. Maximum variation sampling helps to document diverse variations and to help identify common patterns that cut 49 Chapter Three – Research Methodology across variations (Ellsberg & Heise, 2005). The main principle is to deliberately interview a very different selection of people so that their aggregate answers can be close to the whole population. Using this sampling frame, respondents were selected based on school type, ethnicity, and gender. Figure 3.1 illustrates the overall sampling of the study. Firstly, the paper will study respondents within the post-secondary school to first year of university group which typically Theoretical Population: Singaporean Youths Study population: Singaporean Youths between 17 and 21 Sampling Frame: Maximum variation based on National census comprises youths, ages between 17 and 19. To include students in the normal (academic) stream who would otherwise be eliminated in such a sampling, the age group is Sample: Student rounded-off ratio extended to between 17 and 21. Next, for school type, the Figure 3.1 Overall Sampling of Study study used available statistics of students entering universities, secondary five, Institute of Technical Education College (ITE), LASALLE College of the Arts (LASALLE)/ Nanyang School of Fine Arts (NAFA), polytechnics and junior colleges / centralized institutions. Also, to ensure that the study mirrors the actual Singaporean youth population as far as possible, 1 slot has been allocated to exceptional cases. These cases refer to students who are not included in the census such as the NUS High School, the Singapore Sports School and Singaporean students who are studying abroad. The national census divides students into those aged 15 to 19 and those aged 20 to 24 years; and this is highlighted in Appendix 3.1. As this 50 Chapter Three – Research Methodology research is studying youths aged 17 to 21, both groups were taken into account when calculating the number of respondents. Census figures approximate an equal number of male and female respondents; and the ethnicity ratio is approximately 41: 10: 5: 1 for Chinese, Malays, Indians, and Others respectively. This leads to 57 respondents. As maximum variation sampling is appropriate for cases around 30, the figure is narrowed down in the following manner (Audience Dialogue, 2004). With a small ratio of the two latter ethnic representations, the figures for Indian and Other respondents are kept to make a more representative sampling. A flexible range of respondent is considered for the other two ethnic groups using an ethnicity ratio of 4:1, of which 24 Chinese and 6 Malay students were eventually interviewed. Given the sensitivity of the topic, respondents were eventually recruited based on snowball sampling, and chosen respondents had to be within the sample of identified variables and rounded-off ratios explained in preceding paragraphs. Table 3.1a and 3.1b shows the variables and sampling respectively. Table 3.1a: Variables for Maximum Variation Sampling Chinese Male Chinese Male Chinese Male Chinese Male Chinese Male Secondary Five ITE LASALLE/NAFA Polytechnic JC/CI Chinese Female Secondary Five Chinese Female ITE Chinese Female LASALLE/NAFA Chinese Female Polytechnic Chinese Female JC/CI Malay Male Secondary Five Malay Male ITE Malay Male LASALLE/NAFA Malay Male Polytechnic Malay Male JC/CI Malay Female Secondary Five Malay Female ITE Malay Female LASALLE/NAFA Malay Female Polytechnic Malay Female JC/CI Indian Indian Indian Indian Indian 51 Chapter Three – Research Methodology Male Secondary Five Male ITE Male LASALLE/NAFA Male Polytechnic Male JC/CI Indian Female Secondary Five Indian Female ITE Indian Female LASALLE/NAFA Indian Female Polytechnic Indian Female JC/CI Others Male Secondary Five Others Male ITE Others Male LASALLENAFA Others Male Polytechnic Others Male JC/CI Others Female Secondary Five Others Female ITE Others Female LASALLE/NAFA Others Female Polytechnic Others Female JC/CI Table 3.1b: Sampling based on gender, ethnicity and institution type Gender/ Ethnic Chinese Malay Indian Others Male 12 3 3 Female 12 3 2 1 Total 24 6 5 1 Education Secondary 5 ITE LASALLE / NAFA Polytechnic JC / CI Entry into Universities Total Total 18 18 36 Ratio 2 5 1 17 9 1 35 In summary, the sample (N=36) was recruited through a combination of maximum variation sampling and snowball sampling. All respondents were Singaporeans or Permanent Residents aged between 17 and 21 at the time of data collection. The gender figures were almost equal. As for ethnicity, 72.2% of respondents identified as Chinese, 16% identified as Malay, 8.3% identified as Indian, and 2.8% identified as Eurasian. Table 3.2a will provide a quick glance of the 36 respondents’ profiles collated from the questionnaires and follow-up interviews. Also, I noticed that there were incidents where there are differences between a respondent’s answer in the questionnaire and the interview. Therefore, Table 3.2b in 52 Chapter Three – Research Methodology Appendix 3.2 will reflect these differences and show in-depth responses from the follow-up interviews. Both tables provide background information on the respondents, reasons for their actions in information seeking and explain how it is that their actions are significant or insignificant in the context of the research. To protect the identities of the respondents, pseudonyms are used, and other identifying details that could link the data to the respondents have been removed. 53 Education University Polytechnic NAFA Centralised Institution Junior College ITE Special School Secondary 5 Pseudonym Race Gender Age at time of interview Internet Use Prior experiences with seeking Information on : Health (in Health in Sexual general) by general Health using the Internet Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No No No No Yes Yes No No No No Yes No No Key Gabriella Zarina Darren Denisa Ellen Eric Barbara Felix Jamal Hannah Gordon Haoren Ian Adeela Sunil Jonathan Kaijie Amelia Cathy Chinese Malay Chinese Chinese Chinese Chinese Chinese Chinese Malay Chinese Chinese Chinese Chinese Indian Indian Chinese Chinese Other Chinese Female Female Male Female Female Male Female Male Male Female Male Male Male Female Male Male Male Female Female 21 20 18 19 19 18 21 18 20 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 18 19 1 - 6 hrs 12 - 16 hrs 6 - 12 hrs 1 - 6 hrs 1 - 6 hrs 6 - 12 hrs 1 - 6 hrs 1 - 6 hrs 6 - 12 hrs 6 - 12 hrs 1 - 6 hrs 1 - 6 hrs 6 - 12 hrs 6 - 12 hrs 12 - 16 hrs 1 - 6 hrs 1 - 6 hrs 1 - 6 hrs 6 - 12 hrs Gender Female Male Race Chinese Malay Indian Other Birth year 1988 1989 1990 1991 Education Secondary 5 Institute of Technical Education Polytechnic Special School Junior College Centralised Institute University Aishah Malay Female 21 1 - 6 hrs Yes Yes Yes Yes Anthony Yuping Bard Caleb Faisal Feifei Gayathri Bharat Ali Ingrid Jessica Kai Ling Keegan Agnes Priya Badrisah Chinese Chinese Chinese Chinese Malay Chinese Indian Indian Malay Chinese Chinese Chinese Chinese Chinese Indian Malay Male Female Male Male Male Female Female Male Male Female Female Female Male Female Female Female 18 18 18 18 18 19 18 18 20 20 21 20 20 18 19 18 1 - 6 hrs 1 - 6 hrs 6 - 12 hrs 6 - 12 hrs 1 - 6 hrs 1 - 6 hrs 1 - 6 hrs 1 - 6 hrs < 1hr 1 - 6 hrs 6 - 12 hrs 1 - 6 hrs 6 - 12 hrs 1 - 6 hrs 1 - 6 hrs 1 - 6 hrs Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Yes Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No No Yes Yes Yes No No Yes No No No Yes No Yes No Yes No Yes No Previously sought health information Previously sought sexual health info Previously sought health info online Table 3.2a: Respondents’ Profiles 54 3.5. Interview Administration and Procedure An exploratory study was conducted between March and April 2008. It allowed for (1) testing the suitability and feasibility of the research method, (2) identifying potential problems in the sentence construction of the short questionnaire and task list, and (3) estimating the duration of each respondent’s web search and interview session. The actual study was scheduled after written consent was obtained from respondents and parents, in accordance with the National University of Singapore’s Institutional Review Board guidelines. The sessions were conducted between December 2008 and February 2009 at the Communications and New Media department, National University of Singapore. Martzoukou (2005) says that a combination of techniques serve to strengthen the internal validity of findings in information seeking online. In this study, before proceeding with the self-confrontation interview, the respondent was firstly, given a brief questionnaire, reproduced in Table 3.3. The rationale behind the questionnaire and clarification session is threefold; it (1) seeks to be an ice-breaker exercise, (2) assists in finding out if youths have ever sought sexually-related information, and (3) investigates if there is a relationship between users’ Internet habits and their responses to the tasks. Questions on health were divided so that during the interview, it would be easier to narrow down and ask respondents questions relating to sexual health. This is important because of the earlier literature on the sensitivity of youths to questions pertaining to sex. After the respondents filled in the 55 Chapter Three – Research Methodology questionnaire, there was a five to ten minute clarification session of the responses given in the questionnaire. Table 3.3 Pre-interview questionnaire Part I: Questionnaire 1. On average, what are the total hours of your internet use daily? □ □ □ □ □ 1 hour or less 1 to 6 hours More than 6 hours to 12 hours More than 12 hours to 16 hours More than 16 hours 2. Which of the following types of information have you previously sought online? Tick as many as apply. □ School o o o Homework Project Others (such as _____________________________________) □ Employment o Finding jobs o Finding internships □ Interest □ □ □ o o o o Sports Movies Music Others (such as _____________________________________) o o o o Physical (such as exercise, diet, skin care) Psychological (such as addiction, stress phobia) Sexual (such as puberty, pregnancy, disease) Others (such as _____________________________________) o o o International Regional Local Health News Others such as ___________________________________________) Part II: Demographic Details Month and Year of birth _____________ Ethnic group _____________ Gender _____________ School type _____________ Next, respondents were instructed to look for information according to a task list. Prior to that, they were informed that shortcuts to web browsers had been placed on the desktop computers. According to the market share 56 Chapter Three – Research Methodology report by Net Applications (2008), Internet Explorer has 75.47% market share and Mozilla Firefox has 16.98%. Therefore, these two browsers were preinstalled on the desktop. When the interviewer was pre-informed by respondents that they used other web browsers such as Safari and Flock, these web browsers were also downloaded and the shortcuts were placed on the desktop. The typical homepage of each respondent was also pre-loaded onto the browsers. In addition, respondents’ bookmark lists had been loaded onto the laptop to allow for behavioural norms in information seeking. However, there were several respondents who forgot or were unable to bring along their lists. To compensate for this potential deviation in information seeking behaviour, respondents were later asked during the interview sessions if they would have looked for additional information using their favourites list. These factors - similar web browsers, same homepage, and bookmark list - were taken into account to make the surfing experience as natural as possible. The instructions and full task list are at Table 3.4. The first task and second task pertain to pre-and-post sexual intercourses respectively. Specifically, the key terms used in task one are apply safe sex and first sexual experience and task two is sexually transmitted diseases. Considering the background information on Singaporean youths, the tasks given to the respondents had been carefully worded to sieve out the different types of respondents. Firstly, as seen from the table, task one used the term safe sex, a definition that encompasses protection from pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Next, the term, apply safe sex, is used instead of practice safe sex, which is frequently used in commercials and sexual health 57 Chapter Three – Research Methodology brochures. The term is used so as to identify incidents when respondents are possibly unconsciously carrying out their information seeking that they did not notice this. Lastly, the term, sexually transmitted diseases, is used instead of sexually transmitted diseases/infections. In schools, students have been taught terms, sexually transmitted diseases and sexually transmitted infections. Therefore, if there are incidents when respondents used the term sexually transmitted infection or its abbreviation STI, it will narrow down the possibilities to that respondents (a) were using prior knowledge, and/or (b) carrying out their information search in a conscious manner. Table 3.4 Sample of Instruction and Task List INSTRUCTIONS Read the following instructions carefully: 1. Explore online by using, but not limited to the following options – search engine, website, blog, chatroom, discussion forum, and even via instant messaging; to collect the relevant information. 2. Carry out your search in a manner you normally seek information online. You may choose but not limited to saving your relevant search by keeping print screens, saving webpages and / or even copying the information into word processing documents. You may then proceed to save your search in the provided Respondent folder placed at the desktop. If you normally do not save your search, you are not required to do so. 3. Take as much time as you require. Proceed to the next task once you feel you have sufficient relevant information. TASK LIST Task 1 – Your classmate confides in you that she is ready to have her first sexual experience. She is determined to have sex with her boyfriend because she loves him very much. She feels that by doing so, she is proving her love to him. You know that you can’t stop her. As a good friend, your task is to find online information to help your friend apply safe sex. (Proceed to the next task once you feel you have sufficient relevant information.) Task 2 – Your classmate confides in you that he had his first sexual experience with his new girlfriend but it was not her first time. He also has reason to suspect that she may have a sexually transmitted disease. He is not ready to go to the doctor. You decided to find more information online about these diseases. 58 Chapter Three – Research Methodology Each information seeking session was recorded using a laptop which had Camtasia™, a screen capture software installed on it. The software stores all actions performed on a computer screen such as text entries, cursor movements, and screen changes. Therefore, before respondents began, they were reminded that their actions would be screen recorded and that they had to find the information as they usually would in seeking information. The video-recordings were not of the respondents themselves but of their onscreen activity. At no time was a physical camera trained on the respondents. Hence in the course of the task, they may well have forgotten that their actions were being video recorded. They were also informed that they could save their search in a respondent’s folder placed on the laptop’s desktop. The respondents were left to search for information independently and given as much time as they needed to complete the tasks. This was to reduce behavioural changes that may occur when subjects are physically observed (Martin & Bateson, 1993). Respondents’ actions were saved as a video-recording. In this recoding, both audio and video are captured so that the respondents could clearly explain during playback what they had heard and seen while seeking information. When respondents completed their tasks, they were given the option of having a short break before the video recordings were re-played to them. During playback, the recordings were occasionally paused when an interesting action was observed so as to allow for clarifications from the respondents of their thoughts on their actions at that time. Respondents also explained exactly what they were looking at on the website when it was unclear from the recordings. All the interviews were audio-recorded using a 59 Chapter Three – Research Methodology portable MP3 recorder. In addition to audio recordings, for interviews 18 to 36, there was also screen capturing of playbacks of the original video recordings which include the pauses. This second screen capture (as seen in Figure 3.2) was conducted because during the period of interviews, transcribing was conducted concurrently, and the interviewer found the process of matching the audio-recoding to the video to be time-consuming. Therefore, the new step circumvented the earlier problem as there are now matching pauses and audio. Figure 3.2 Second Screen Capture which allows for matching pauses and audio At the end of the each study, each respondent was given a cash honorarium and pamphlets sponsored by the Health Promotion Board as a token of participation. 3.6. Coding Frame and Interview Guide Bakeman and Gottman (1986) recommend constructing a coding scheme to categorize the actions of the behaviour being studied before 60 Chapter Three – Research Methodology analyzing observational data. For this study, it was more appropriate to code the events as compared to coding time intervals between events (Bakeman & Gottman, 1986). Two coding schemes were put together in this study – one is for the video recording and the other is for transcribing purposes. The coding scheme by Lim (2002) was adapted for the video recording in the study where appropriate terminology was cautiously chosen to depict different online actions and the different features which appear on websites. It helped identify respondents’ various actions during online information seeking; for example, typing of web address or clicking on a hyperlink. More actions are added to the original coding frame done by Lim (2002) to keep up with the recent actions available in web browsers. As for the coding frame of the interview transcripts, the paper uses Wilkinson, Oliver, Bennett’s (1997) eleven comprehensive criteria in websurfing: (1) site access and usability, (2) resource identification and documentation, (3) author identification, (4) authority of author, (5) information structure and design, (6) relevance and scope of content, (7) validity of content, (8) accuracy and balance of content, (9) navigation within the document, (10) quality of the links, and (11) aesthetic and affective aspects. Each criterion contained many questions, but the latter were narrowed to those relevant to the study. During the interview sessions, several factors were summarized into a table together with the interview guide. These factors helped me to ask relevant questions. The coding frames for the video recordings and transcribing are at Appendices 3.3a, 3.3b and 3.3c. As for the interview guide, the initial one had general questions and instructions to respondents. However, after several interviews were 61 Chapter Three – Research Methodology conducted, additional specific questions were included in the interview guide to identify potential patterns of web searching demonstrated by earlier respondents. Both versions of the interview guides are at Appendices 3.4a and 3.4b. 3.7. Analysis of Data During the transcribing process, both audio interviews and both video footages which were individually replayed and analyzed yielded a rich amount of data. To be more constructive, while most of the interviews were prepared ad verbatim, selected portions of the interviews during transcribing were prepared as summaries instead as they were not relevant to sexual health information, health information or online information seeking. Despite that there were very few occurrences where the summaries unexpectedly contained salient themes or possibly new emerging themes, when they did took place, I re-played the audio and video for clarifications. As for the footages of individuals’ behaviours, they were summarised according to the coding frames. Findings between actions and text were matched using pen and paper. 3.8. Conclusion Using maximum variation sampling, 36 respondents, ages 17 to 21, were chosen to undergo the self-confrontation interview method in NUS between December 2008 and February 2009. Having sketched the research concerns, literature review, and research method, the findings of this study will be discussed in the next chapter. 62 [...]... will enable better understanding of youths’ concerns in seeking sexual health information With this understanding, steps can then be taken to better tailor future literacy programs 1.1 Objectives of Study The thesis seeks to examine young Singaporeans thought processes, and cater to their competency levels to understand the selection of online information in their exploration of sexual health topics It... contributes to research on the Internet by examining how young Singaporeans between the ages of 17 and 21 use the Internet to seek information on sexual health This study reveals the different stages of influence and thought processes of youths’ seeking sexual health information, the challenges that youths face in seeking information and the importance of media literacy 18 Chapter 2 Literature Review Chapter... imparting information In particular, studies show that youths are “major users and early adopters of the Internet [p.519]” and that they use the Internet for a broad array of information, ranging from entertainment and shopping to academic and health- related topics respectively (Borzekowski, 2006) Accordingly, sexual health is one of the most common health topics that youths seek information online (Borzekowski... topics It concerns itself with youths’ evaluations of the multitude of information online by studying the factors that influence their information search It also will explore how youths assess the credibility of online sexual health information The thesis will focus specifically on young people between 17 and 21 years old It mainly seeks to capture information seeking among youths who have just completed... refers to the idea of credibility which is believability of some information and/ or its source (Hovland, Janis, & Kelley, 1953) Context is also central to information seeking (Case, 2002; 2007) Users’ concerns for information credibility therefore vary according to the perceived consequence of information use (Rieh & Hilligoss, 2008) Credibility is less pertinent for online entertainment information than... From the gathering of information, they start asking questions relating to the content they encounter, as well as its validity (Rosen, 2007) Traditionally, studies show three problems of health literacy: (1) problems in understanding simple self-care directions or prescription instructions, (2) fear of taking medications without assistance, and (3) unfamiliarity or lack of understanding of basic health. .. al, 2006) HPB Online integrates multimedia into the published information – by using text, pictures, sounds and video clips (Vijaya et al, 2006) HPB also sets up the Let’s talk about sex website for men, 15 women, couples and parents, which covers sexual issues and concerns such as understanding one’s body, sexually transmitted infections, sexual relationships and imparting useful sexual information. .. Taraborelli, 2008) Therefore, despite the ease in gathering information, the aforementioned nature of the Internet has made it difficult for individuals to seek information online 2.2 Information Seeking To understand the information seeking process and the role of media literacy in information seeking, the paper looks at works on information seeking and media literacy as underlying conceptual frameworks... reflect on the limitations of the study and how it could have been improved, thereby also suggesting directions for future research and development 1.4 Conclusion Being citizens of the “most wired nation” (Tan, 2009), Singaporeans are highly connected to cyberspace With the plethora of information online and the rise of user-generated content, assessment on the credibility of information serves to be... slightly younger age group 1.2 Background Information In this section, the paper will define young people, provide their background information, as well as present their behavioural traits In considering youths’ information seeking behaviour, it is also imperative that we understand what it means to be a Singapore youth Therefore, the paper will present a profile of young Singaporeans An understanding of ... of sexual and reproductive health promotion information, and this is due to sexuality and reproductive health education efforts They aim to provide individuals with information, motivation, and. .. to that of critical literacy Keywords: Internet; information- seeking, media literacy; health literacy; electronic health information; sexual health information; young people between 17 and 21;... the multitude of information online by studying the factors that influence their information search It also will explore how youths assess the credibility of online sexual health information The