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INFORMATION, COMMUNICATION AND TELECOMMUNICATIONS: A PILOT STUDY OF THE BEHAVIOUR OF CITIZENS
Kirsty Williamson. Mark Balnaves. Peter Caputi.
Original Articles
Information, communication and telecommunications are all important to the lives of citizens. This paper reviews the literature on the information-seeking, communication and telecommunications behaviour of citizens and then reports on a pilot study to test empirical measures being developed by the Telecommunications Policy Research Group at RMIT As a result of the pilot study, an information-communication continuum is proposed to overcome the problems of definition of information and communication needs. There is also a suggestion that a distinction between purposeful information seeking and incidental information acquisition is required. The role of telecommunications in meeting information and communication needs is explored. Policy implications are included.
