Modalities, Motivations, and Materials Investigating Traditional and Social Online Q&A Services
Document Type
Article
Subject Area(s)
Library and Information Science
Abstract
With the advent of ubiquitous connectivity and a constant flux of user-generated content, people’s online information-seeking behaviours are rapidly changing, one o f which includes seeking information from peers through online questioning. Ways to understand this new behaviour can be broken down into three aspects, also referred to as the three M’s – the modalities (sources and strategies) that people use when asking their questions online, their motivations behind asking these questions and choosing specific services, and the types and quality of the materials (content) generated in such an online Q&A environment. This article will provide a new framework – three M’s – based on the synthesis of relevant literature. It will then identify some of the gaps in our knowledge about online Q&A based on this framework. These gaps will be transformed into six research questions, stemming from the three M’s, and …
Publication Info
Published in Journal of Information Science, Volume 40, Issue 5, Fall 2014, pages 669-687.
© The Authors, 2014
Shah, C., Kitzie, V., & Choi, E. (2014). Modalities, motivations, and materials – investigating traditional and social online Q&A services. Journal Of Information Science, 40(5), 669-687.