Ungdomars informationsbehov: en undersökning av ungdomars informationsbehov och informationssökning på Internet inför gymnasievalet

Abstract

The purpose of this thesis is to examine young people’s information needs when they are deciding on what upper secondary education to choose, why they used Internet to find the information, and how they experienced their information seeking. A qualitative study was made using interviews. The study’s respondents consisted of young people who are soon to be leaving elementary school, and young people who have just started their upper secondary education. The theoretical framework that was used to analyse the results of the study consisted of theories and models regarding information needs and information seeking. The results of the study shows that, initially, the Internet does not seem to have a significant role in the search for information. Rather, it was used at the end of the search, when they had decided which course of upper secondary education they were interested in. The study respondents used schools' websites almost exclusively to find the information needed. They were interested mainly in information about the upper secondary program of their choice, and photos of the school. They were very content in using the Internet to get information before deciding on which school to choose. They thought that it was simple to use, and that it was accessible. It appeared, however, that although they were satisfied with the Internet as information source they did not always understand the information that they found; nor were they interested in more or new information that could affect their decisions.