Impact of New Technology on the Communication of Parliamentary Information, 2001

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of new technology on the communication of parliamentary and devolved assembly information to the general public. It consisted of two distinct stages:<br> Stage 1) A series of semi-structured interviews with representatives of the public information services of the UK Parliament, the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly. These interviews gathered data on the objectives and strategies of the services and on the information access and dissemination activities used and developed by each one.<br> Stage 2) The application of a new data collection tool: an interactive, electronically assisted interview taken out across the UK as part of a pilot roadshow to organisations such as public libraries, community centres, sheltered accommodation and universities. Here, a researcher, aboard a minibus equipped with a laptop and mobile data transmission equipment, invited members of the public to explore and respond to the web sites of the UK Parliament, the Scottish Parliament and the National Assembly for Wales. This roadshow approach was developed in an attempt to gather data from all groups in the community and not only those with an expressed or obvious need for parliamentary information and was devised as means of getting close to the everyday lives of those studied. These sessions utilised verbal protocol analysis, where the respondents were asked to 'think aloud' as they progressed with their search.

本研究旨在探究新技术对议会及权力下放议会（devolved assembly）向公众传播政务信息的影响。本研究包含两个独立阶段：
第一阶段：针对英国议会、苏格兰议会、威尔士国民议会及北爱尔兰议会的公共信息服务代表开展一系列半结构化访谈，采集各机构公共信息服务的目标与策略，以及其采用与开发的信息获取、传播活动相关数据。
第二阶段：应用一款新型数据采集工具——交互式电子辅助访谈。该工具作为巡回试点项目的一部分，在英国全境面向公共图书馆、社区中心、庇护式住宿机构及高校等组织实施。调研中，一名研究员乘坐搭载笔记本电脑与移动数据传输设备的小巴，邀请公众体验并访问英国议会、苏格兰议会及威尔士国民议会的官方网站并作出反馈。本巡回试点方案的设计初衷，是为了从社区全体群体中采集数据，而非仅面向明确表达或明显存在政务信息需求的人群，同时旨在贴近研究对象的日常生活场景。本次调研环节采用言语报告分析法，要求受访者在浏览网站的过程中出声思考。