Examining Information in Web Environment Searching and Commitment Strategies of University Students According to Demographic Variables

Abstract

Millions of people all over the world use the internet so as to communicate or search a topic to get information today. There are several sources about any topic on the internet. Even though there are some misleading ones, there are perfect ones, as well. Therefore, what is important about this issue is to determine whether this electronically acquired information is reliable, true and of high quality or not. If it is, to what extent it is reliable? The purpose of this research is to determine whether information searching and commitment strategies of university students vary according to demographic variables. Quantity method was used in the research, and relational scanning model was preferred among all scanning models. 370 students at Education Faculty, Science and Literature faculty and Engineering faculty of Kocaeli University were included in this research. The questionnaire of information searching and commitment strategies on the internet developed by Wu and Tsai (2005) was used in the research. At the end of the research, it was observed that university students use developed strategies more than others. The highest grade about the strategies of information searching and commitment goes to the statement: ‘ I can combine the information that I collect from various web sites, whenever I need to get information.’ It can be expressed that university students have the necessary ability to compare the information from different web sites and combine it so as to reach the accurate and reliable information. Anova was used to determine whether the strategies of searching and commitment of information vary according to the frequency of daily internet use. No significant difference was observed, though.