Empirical Research On Information Encounteirng Phenomenon Under Network Environment

Information encountering (IE) as a special kind of information behavior, attractsmore and more researchers’ attention. IE which is different from the active andpurposeful behavior is a passive information retrieval without any purpose. It gives acomplement to the system of information behavior research. However, the currentstudies on information behavior focus on the purposeful information behavior, whileignore the IE. In this case, studying IE is meaningful not only in theory but also inpractice. In this paper, the main issues in the study—the studies of IE are mainlyabout theory, but seldom in the practical application—are put forward. Based on thispoint, this paper combines the IE with the Internet information organization to studythe IE on the web.Based on the studies about the IE examples in offline environment, the papersummarizes the general law among the subject, object and the environment of IE. Atthe same time, it explores the theory basis for IE from the aspect of philosophy,cognitive science, information behavior. This paper analyzes IE under the webenvironment, and explore the supporting factors insufficient factors which willinfluence IE under the web after a series of study on the IE examples on the websitesand web tools.It applies the IE into the network information organization building,takes NETEASE for examples and transforms it in order to increase the IE chance.Based on the analysis and summary of the literature and a large number ofempirical studies, this paper gives an opinion to recognize the information encounterfrom three aspects: unexpected, individual participation and the value of the results.Through the empirical analysis, this paper point out the relationship among thesubject, object and the environment of information encounter. The three aspects willinfluence each other with different degrees. There are more complex informationencountering phenomenon under the network environment. The network organizationsystem, the category and the content of the information all provide environment forthe information encountering. However, the unreasonable page setup, out of standard in the category, plenty of commercial ads also restricts the information behavior. Fromthe perspective of the existing problem, this paper analyzes the present situation onNet ease news, and put forward with two suggestions. For the visitors withoutregistering, the Net ease can make “information encountering” as a new category,which can provide visitors a platform to encounter information. For the registeredusers, it can push the personalized page for satisfying their interests at utmost.