Information-Seeking Behaviour Among the Rural Dwellers

Sarawak is vastly different from geographical, economic, political and other socio-cultural structures compared to other states in Malaysia. Heading towards a high-income and digital economy initiative, it is vital to ensure that the distribution and sharing of the right information is achieved to reach the right target so that all Sarawakians are involved in the State’s agenda. The two-way communication between the government and its people, regardless of urban or rural areas is critical to spur the state’s socio-economic growth and advancement. Therefore, this study is designed to investigate the informational behaviour among the rural dwellers in Sarawak.

Research Background

Information-seeking behaviour refers to the behaviours, activities or actions taken by a person in identifying information need, searching for information, Information-seeking as well as selecting and using a relevant information to satisfy their identified needs. Predominately, the studies on the information science mostly focus on the effectiveness of the library’s services and institutional communication (Islam & Ahmed, 2012). The lack of empirical data on information needs is one of the obstacles to narrow the communication and information gap between urban and rural population, and thus, local authorities and government agencies have deep commitment to bridge the gap. However, Cheunwattana (1998: 2) argues that there is not much empirical data available on rural information needs, gathering habits of the rural community and information support through information services. Besides, rural dwellers do not always know what their information needs are, how they can meet their needs, and from where they can get their required information (Islam & Ahmed, 2012).

It is evident that the lack of knowledge on their Information-seeking behaviour makes it even more challenging to serve the rural dwellers according. Rural dwellers in Sarawak are known to engage themselves in various economic activities such as agriculture, trading, and services. Rural dwellers may also include employees of public and private sectors stationed in the rural areas. In this study, rural dwellers include school children, working adults, and people of the community. Their information needs may shape the patterns for Information- seeking Behaviour (ISB) in the area. These rural dwellers may not only need information on updates of government initiatives, but also information on leisure and recreation.

For rural dwellers among primary school students, they could seek information to meet the needs of their Higher Order Thinking Skills (HOTS) curriculum. Similarly, for secondary school students, they seek information that is required for their coursework and school projects, especially for the fulfilment of the public examinations such as PMR and SPM. For school leavers, they often seek information on employment, job opportunities, and information to pursue tertiary education. Accessible information is a necessity among the rural dwellers in Sarawak. In view of the above scenario, this study is necessary to ascertain the information needs, the main sources of information, and the information skills needed by rural dwellers.

Discussion and Conclusion

This study was mainly designed to investigate the presence of demographical differences on Information-seeking behavior among the rural dwellers in Sarawak. Hence, the hypotheses testing was conducted to test the demographical differences (age, gender, ethnic group, religious belief, marital status, academic qualification and occupation) on the 15 variables, i.e. information needs (types of information, obtaining the information), information-searching behaviour (preferred reading, preferred source of information, preferred information channel/medium & information trustworthiness), information-seeking behaviour [purpose of seeking information (primary & secondary)] and information behaviour [information usefulness, passive attention, passive search, active search (primary & secondary) and ongoing search (primary & secondary)].

Generally, the findings demonstrate that there are several items that have little variance (explanation) among the rural dwellers in Sarawak. First, within the information needs construct, the family affairs, health, religious and education are the types of information that are possibly perceived as the least important and difficult to obtain among the rural dwellers in Sarawak. Although the finding for health-related information resonate with Hamzah et. al. (2015) who found that health Information-seeking behavior in Malaysia is still minimal, in general, the findings are inconsistent with Abu Bakar (2011) who found that the most important information needs of the women in the rural village in Selangor would include child education, religion, and food. For rural dwellers in Sarawak, it is probable that these factual types of information should come from highly trusted sources. Hence, it is probably not the kind of information that they need to seek daily.

Second, within the information-searching construct, it is statistically found that printed newspaper and printed magazines are perceived as the least important materials of preferred reading among the rural dwellers in Sarawak. There is a possibility that geographical factors caused the daily newspaper to reach the destination not in a timely manner. Besides, the high cost of transportation for sending printed materials to rural areas may cause the relevant magazines to become not easily available and lead to printed materials being rated as the least preferred reading materials. Additionally, YB, priest, government officer and head of the village are found to be among the least preferred source of information for rural dwellers in Sarawak. Although it may seem that these are important people for point of reference among rural dwellers, it is possible the hierarchical nature of their status in the society may contribute to the least preferred source of information. Added to the list, printed materials, TV/Radio and online sources/social media are found to be least preferred source of information among the rural dwellers in Sarawak. As mentioned earlier, printed materials probably are not necessarily updated materials, relevant or able to catch the interests of rural dwellers in Sarawak. The TV/Radio is perceived to be the least preferred source of information and this could be due to the issue with limited reception signal, availability of sufficient and continuous electricity supplies or selection of channel. Like the TV/Radio, online sources/social media is also not a preferred source of information due to limited reception signal in most of the rural locations. This is consistent with Dakansa (2015) who studied the clergymen from Northern Nigeria and discovered that their Information-seeking behaviours were characterized by the presence or absence of social amenities such as electricity supply, internet connectivity and accessible roads.

As expected, social media and internet is perceived as least important among rural dwellers in Sarawak as their preferred information channel/medium. It was stated earlier that there is high possibility that limited Internet reception signal in most of the rural locations makes social media application being noted as the least practical to convey the information. In addition, the fast spread but with minimum validated process, the information conveyed through the Internet and social media are perceived as least trusted among the rural dwellers in Sarawak. However, this is not consistent with the findings from Abdullah’s study in 2016 on the Saudis’ information-seeking behaviour on social media. It was found that the thriving social media makes religious information and resources to become more accessible through this medium.

Third, entertainment, leisure time, social network, small talk and assignment/homework/project are not perceived as the reasons or purposes of seeking information among these rural dwellers in Sarawak. Limited broadcasting (tv/radio/internet) signals in rural locations probably lead them to spend more time at home within their own family clusters. They become homey; have their own activities to fulfill their leisure times without searching further or outside their clan. Rural dwellers are living within their own closed cluster-society and hence, probably there is no urgent need for further searching or creating social networking. Small talks and issues related to their daily life can be done impromptu within the community members, without the need to study or search further on the topics or to communicate to other officials. It is likely that due to limited internet reception signal in rural locations, school children or working people prefer their own teachers or immediate superiors as their choice of reference in completing the assignment, homework or project. This is similar with a study by Bakar (2011) on women in different rural settings in Selangor. The women’s preference for information that is obtained from words of mouth, family members and friends is akin to the preference among the school children or working people in rural Sarawak, who prefer their own teachers or immediate superiors.

Fourth, knowledge and curiosity, problem solving, self-development, family and children, and work-related from the list of information for passive attention, were perceived as the least variance among the rural dwellers in Sarawak. As rural dwellers are living and working within a closed society, such information may not even be highly significant as their informational awareness. This is in contrast with the rural dwellers in Selangor (Anwar & Supaat, 1998), who indicated that their need for information are related to solving problem, self-development, and establishing better family and work purposes. Added to the information list of passive attention, entertainment, small talk, leisure time and social network are the information that are not searched for or acquired although that information are relevant at a particular time. These types of information are perceived as the least variance among the rural dwellers in Sarawak. As mentioned earlier, rural dwellers in Sarawak may be working and living within their own small and closed-knit society, and probably obtained the immediate supply of information whenever they are needed. Their reliable sources of information could also be from TV/radio, friends/neighbor, printed materials, relatives from the city, and the school (library) and these are similar with the findings from Anwar and Supaat (1998).

Although rural dwellers in Sarawak also need to search for information, it is perceived that entertainment, small talk, leisure time and social network are not in the list for their active even ongoing search effort. Although it is likely that they may have received, heard or seen that information, there is probably no attempt to seek confirmation towards the information that they had obtained. Similarly, such information is probably perceived as not the kind of information that needs to be continuously updated or further searched for more details. These types of information are perceived with the least variance among rural dwellers in Sarawak. However, family & children, work related, and crop & agriculture are considered as highly important ongoing search for these rural dwellers. These findings resonate with Bakar (2011) who found that the women in different rural settings in Selangor are concerned with the information related to food and children’s education.