Information-Seeking 2.0

Abstract

This article begins to shed light on how informational advantage affects the use of new media for information-acquisition and assessment. Drawing on material culled from one-on-one and small-group interviews with high school students in an agricultural region of California, the article examines high achievers committed to academic excellence in preparation for college. However, while they share the same educational goals, not all of these students have access to the same informational resources. Informationally advantaged students’ access to new media, traditional media, and social networks distinguishes them from their informationally disadvantaged counterparts who lack access to both online and offline resources. Examination reveals how these disparities in access to informational resources have consequences for the students’ capacity to assess information relevant to schoolwork as well as college planning. Students with plentiful media resources adopt autonomous strategies vis-à-vis the assessment of information for both schoolwork and college searches. By contrast, students without informational resources are forced by necessity to rely on others, ultimately leading them to develop a dependence on trusted opinions in order to assess information. In relating informational environments to these assessment strategies, the article reveals the repercussions of informational advantage for schoolwork and college planning activities increasingly dominated by online resources.

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