Effects of Regular Media Use of Young Professionals on Their Online Source Selection During a Situated Digital Performance Assessment

Online sources are becoming increasingly important for information acquisition in both private and professional settings. The scale of the digital information landscape and the variance in website quality and reliability results in a promising, but also risky and at times untrustworthy, source for informational content. There is a variety of factors influencing how sources are selected, and familiarity is a significant one. People tend to use sources they are already aware of and where they know how to navigate the media format. In a sample of 143 young professionals in three domains (law, medicine, and teaching), we analyze how regular weekly media use influences source selection during a situated online performance assessment. The findings show distinct patterns in regular media use and influences on source selection during a situated online assessment. Frequent utilization of digital media formats is connected to a higher quality of source selection during the situated performance assessment, highlighting the importance of digital media learning opportunities in higher education.