Too much information? Predictors of information overload in the context of online news exposure

ABSTRACT

As the Internet provides massive amounts of heterogeneous information, people may perceive this medium as challenging. The difficulty to evaluate and select relevant information increases as more and more diverse sources and content are available. Information overload (IO) may be the consequence. The research presented here gives a first comprehensive overview of possible indicators for IO in the context of online news exposure. Based on an online survey (N=419), we found that younger people with less information-seeking self-efficacy were more susceptible to experience IO. Additionally, we identified motivations for media consumption and information retrieval strategies in the Internet that imply IO. With our results, we contribute to a further understanding of IO and provide an important basis for future research needed to face the challenges resulting from the rising media diversity.

KEYWORDS:

• Information overload
• self-efficacy
• online news exposure
• motivations for media consumption
• information retrieval strategies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Josephine B. Schmitt (PhD, University of Hohenheim) is a postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Psychology, Media and Communication Psychology, University of Cologne, Germany. In her research, she is interested in the effects of (political) information behavior, media literacy as well as the role of online media for the dissemination and effects of propaganda and counter-messages [email: [email protected]].

Christina A. Debbelt (Communication Management, M.Sc.) has focused on media psychology during her master degree at the University of Hohenheim. During her thesis she observed and analysed the outcome of the media development in the age of online news consumption [email: [email protected]].

Frank M. Schneider (PhD, University of Koblenz-Landau) is a post-doctoral researcher at the Institute for Media and Communication Studies, University of Mannheim, Germany. His research interests include digital communication, entertainment and political communication research, communication processes and effects, and research methods [email: [email protected]].

ORCID

Josephine B. Schmitt http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4689-3049

Frank M. Schneider http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1028-0854

Notes

1 We had to exclude 122 observations due to missing values.

2 Compared to 37% of the German ‘onliners’ (AGOF, 2015), the sample shows an educational bias. However, because the present research does not aim at answering descriptive but correlational hypotheses and research questions, we do not consider this sample bias as severe.