[Air-l] information seeking, web surfing and social capital

[Anabel Quan Haase]

Dear AoIR fellows:
I am investigating the relationship between information seeking
(offline), web surfing, and social capital. I would really appreciate
it, if you could point me to any literature on how these three
constructs are
related. 

Specifically to information seeking and social capital: There have been
some claims that information seeking is related to social capital (the
direction of the relationship is still unclear). The argument being that
"People who seek information, e.g., read the newspaper, and go to
libraries, tend to have higher levels of political and organizational
participation, as well as more postivie attitudes towards community." or
"The intensity in which people engage in reading news, etc, leads to
higher levels of engagement in the community. 

Specifically to web-surfing or net use and information seeking offline:
"It is claimed that those who are interested in politics, and news in
general will use the web as one more source thus extending their already
existent offline reading habits." 

So far the only reference that I have found is:

Karen E. Pettigrew &- Joan C. Durrance - "Fostering Social Capital Using
the 'Net: Perceptions of Community Network Users, Information Providers
and Organizers"

Thanks so much for your help!
-- 
Anabel
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Anabel Quan Haase
Faculty of Information Studies,
University of Toronto
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