How college students read and write on the web: The role of ICT use in processing online information

The diffusion of information and communication technology (ICT) has enabled people to process more information than at any time in human history. Despite a growing body of scholarship in ICT use and information processing, we still know very little about how people process mediated information in an online environment. This study contributes to the understanding of this process by investigating the connection between ICT use and processing of online news information. Through an experiment (N=114), several interesting relationships were detected. First, perceived credibility of a news article was significantly correlated with enjoyment, knowledge gain, and motivation. In addition, recall was significantly related to credibility, enjoyment, knowledge, and motivation. Implications and avenues for future research are discussed. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.