Understanding Casual-leisure Information Needs: a Diary Study in the Context of Television Viewing

In this paper, we provide novel research on information behaviour and information needs in the context of television viewing. We conducted a diary study of a heterogeneous population (n=38), in the non-work related activity of watching television, and we received 381 responses. From the collected responses, we used a bottom-up approach to generate coding schemes for the needs and reasons given for those needs, respectively. Subsequently, 4 coders tested the coherency of the coding schemes by coding 50 random needs and reasons, and this revealed a large consistency in the use of the schemes. Our findings reveal important aspects of information behaviour in the context of television viewing and show how the characteristics of information needs can be different in leisure or non-work situations. We also found that contextual factors are very influential in relation to the needs and reasons. With these findings we provide important knowledge in relation to future television information systems design.