Information-rich, but time-poor: exploring Members of Parliament’s approaches to information in relation to Chatman’s ‘small world’ conception

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to analyse how elite politicians in opposition in the Norwegian parliament use information when responding to government propositions and investigate if Chatman’s small world conception can explain the socially and economically highly privileged groups’ approach to information. Design/methodology/approach: The qualitative analysis of the data consisting of eight interviews with seven members of parliament (MPs) and one political advisor is based on a selective coding grounded to Chatman’s six propositions on life in the round. Findings: The overall findings indicate that elite politicians’ information practices concentrate in mastering the flow of information and admitting attention selectively, but on broad topics. Whereas MPs information practices within an intentional approach (i.e. to be used in political responses and debates) aligned with the small world idea, the nebulous approach (i.e. keeping updated on societal issues) breaks the boundaries of their “small worlds”. Originality/value: The study provides a glimpse into information practises of a little studied group, elite politicians. Moreover, it applies Chatman’s conception of small world in a novel manner.