Role of social media in information-seeking behaviour of international students. A systematic literature review
| Pages | 643-666 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-03-2016-0031 |
| Date | 19 September 2016 |
| Published date | 19 September 2016 |
| Author | Suraya Hamid,Sarah Bukhari,Sri Devi Ravana,Azah Anir Norman,Mohamad Taha Ijab |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management |
Role of social media in
information-seeking behaviour
of international students
A systematic literature review
Suraya Hamid, Sarah Bukhari, Sri Devi Ravana and
Azah Anir Norman
Department of Information Systems, Faculty of Computer Science and IT,
University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and
Mohamad Taha Ijab
Institute of Visual Informatics (IVI),
The National University of Malaysia, Selangor, Malaysia
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to investigate the information-seeking behaviour of
international students in terms of their information needs and to highlight the role of social media.
Design/methodology/approach –In this paper, a systematic literature survey was conducted in
order to investigate information-seeking trends among international students while using social media.
As a result, an exhaustive systematic literature review (SLR) was carried out in order to investigate
social media as a source for the observation of the behaviours of international students. For this
purpose, 71 articles were selected from various well-known sources after an intensive SLR process of
searching, filtering and enforcing the inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Findings –As an outcome of this study, the information-seeking behaviour of international students
was highlighted with respect to social media as a source of information. In addition, this research
identifies the information needs of the international students and categorizes them by the roles played
by the social media in fulfilling the information needs.
Practical implications –A comparative study that highlighted the dearth of studies which merge
the social media and information-seeking behaviour of international students as well as identify the
future direction for the researchers and for benefits of international students.
Originality/value –A detail SLR which highlights the need of shifting the information seeking
behaviour from libraries to social media in regard to the new environment for international students.
Keywords Social media, Systematic literature review, International students, Information need,
Information-seeking behaviour, Role of social media
Paper type Literature review
Introduction
International students come from various countries with different backgrounds and
cultures. Therefore, information seeking is a problem in a new environment, where
international students need large amounts of information (Safahieh and Singh, 2006; Ward
et al., 2005; Yi, 2007). In addition, the information needs and information-seeking behaviour
of international students are different from those of the students belonging to the host
country (Ishimura and Bartlett, 2014). Further, Sin (2015) found that it is more difficult for
international students to find legal, financial, personal, cultural and transportation Aslib Journal of Information
Management
Vol. 68 No. 5, 2016
pp. 643-666
©Emerald Group Publis hing Limited
2050-3806
DOI 10.1108/AJIM-03-2016-0031
Received 15 March 2016
Revised 29 July 2016
Accepted 1 August 2016
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2050-3806.htm
This research was financially supported by the University of Malaya and the Ministry of Higher
Education, Malaysia under research grant RP005E-13ICT.
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A systematic
literature
review
information compared to academic information. In the past, libraries were major sources of
information for international students, but research that covers their information needs in
a new environment is limited (Ishimura and Bartlett, 2014; Liu and Winn, 2009).
Furthermore, issues in the new environment may cause mental problems and other forms
of distress for international students, and they are unable to obtain the desired output from
libraries (Liu, 2009; Ward and Kennedy, 1993b). However, with the advancement in
technology, the trend of seeking information has changed, especially in the academic
(Cerretani et al., 2016) and health context (Sezer, 2016). Hence, nowadays, social media
makes life easy for international students (Saw et al., 2013). But there is a dearth of studies
specifically investigating the role of social media in supporting information-seeking
behaviour of international students (Ishimura and Bartlett, 2014; Liu and Winn, 2009; Saw
et al., 2013). Therefore, it is necessary to conduct studies on the information-seeking
behaviour of international students using social media. However, in order to understand
information-seeking behaviour on social media, it is necessary to understand the general
meaning of information-seeking behaviour. First, it will help to correlate the social media
context as an information-seeking source during research. Second, this understanding will
enable adaptations to be made to social media in order to change the information-seeking
behaviour of international students with regard to their information needs.
According to Wilson (1999), information-seeking behaviour arises from the need for
information. It is a sub-part of information behaviour. Ellis et al. (1993) and Ellis (1989)
emphasized that information-seeking behaviour consists of eight core sub-processes,
which include starting, chaining, browsing, differentiating, monitoring, extracting,
verifying and ending. The seeker initiates the search process (starting), followed with
looking for footnotes and citations (chaining), then conducting semi-directed or semi-
structured searching from the material (browsing), differentiating the information
source (differentiating), keeping up-to-date (monitoring), extracting the relevant
material (extracting), checking the accuracy (verifying) and finally tying up loose ends
with final search (ending) (Ellis, 1989; Ellis et al., 1993).
Furthermore, Kuhlthau (1991) complemented Ellis’s model and called the activities
performed during the information-seeking behaviour stages. The stages are initiation,
selection, exploration, formulation, collection and presentation (Kuhlthau, 1991, 2004).
Initially, the information seeker initiates the information searching due to lack of
knowledge on a certain topic that needs answering (initiation), the seeker gets the
information about general topic (selection), starts the searching on topic (exploration),
focuses on a specific topic (formulation), gets the relevant data (collection) and presents
the finding (presentation) (Kuhlthau, 1991).
Other researchers, such as Wilson (1997), defined information-seeking behaviour in
terms of passive attention, passive research, active research and on-going research.
Passive attention and passive research are when an individual unintentionally gains
knowledge while not actively conducting any search for information, while active and
on-going research involve the active task of performing a search process. Neverth eless,
researchers (Ellis, 1989; Krikelas, 1983; Kuhlthau, 1991; Leckie et al., 1996; Wilson, 1981,
1997) agreed that information-seeking behaviour basically arises from a need, and that
need is fulfilled by some source. With regard to information-seeking behaviour on
social media, Chen et al. (2014) argued that active information-seeking behaviour on
social media involves affective commitment, continuance commitment and normative
commitment. However, information-seeking behaviour that is attributed to the search
for information from traditional sources such as reading materials like newspapers,
books, magazines and journals, is slightly different from information-seeking
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