The Dynamics of Information Access in the Online Media

While most research on information access focuses on search engines, a significant fraction of new information we are exposed to comes from news, whose source is increasingly shifting online. News, however, have a fleeting quality: in contrast with the 24-hour news cycle of the printed press, in the online and audiovisual media the non-stop stream of new developments often obliterates a news event within hours. Through archives, the Internet offers better long-term search-based access to old events than any other media before. Yet, if we are not exposed to a news item while prominently featured, it is unlikely that we will know what to search for. The accelerating news cycle raises several important questions: How long is a piece of news accessible without targeted search? What is the dynamics of news accessibility?