Document Type : Research Paper
Author
Assistant Professor, Faculty of Management, Social Sciences and Media, University of Religions and Denominations, Qom, Iran.
Abstract
The main objective of the research was to discover the impact of the religious attitudes of researchers in the field of screenwriting on the evaluation of retrieved documents during searches. Screenwriters, who are considered the main roots of television and cinematic works, can influence the tastes of audiences and their religious thoughts. Moreover, their religious outlook and that of researchers who assist in elucidating screenplays can affect their behavior. Therefore, this research aims to demonstrate how the religious attitudes of these individuals influence their searches in databases and their evaluations of retrieved documents, as ultimately this evaluation by them will directly impact the type of screenplay text and dialogues that are to be written. On the other hand, considering that the evaluation of retrieved documents is performed by the end user, the conditions in which the user finds themselves also affect their evaluation. The researcher seeks to examine whether there is a link between the beliefs, convictions, religious practices, and religious approaches of screenwriting researchers and their information-seeking performance. Various studies have been conducted on indicators of religiosity; however, no research has been done in the field of content production in media, which provides a significant portion of society's intellectual nourishment through this medium, and the impact of religiosity on the behavior of content producers has not been examined. The question that is to be answered is: What effect do the dimensions of religious attitudes (belief-based, ritualistic, emotional, and consequential) among screenwriting researchers have on their evaluation of retrieved documents?
Method: Method of this research is applied in terms of its objective and utilizes a quantitative approach (descriptive survey method) for data collection has been used. The statistical population consists of 43 researchers in the field of television and cinema screenwriting (census method). To measure the dimensions of religious attitudes (religious beliefs and convictions, religious practices, religious emotions, and religious outcomes), the Glock and Stark religiosity questionnaire has been used, which includes 26 items categorized into four dimensions: belief-based (7 items), emotional (6 items), consequential (6 items), and ritualistic (7 items). In the present study, work tasks were designed to
prepare the experimental environment and simulate real information needs for researchers. A scenario was defined for each user, based on which they searched for the necessary information resources. The most important metrics and sub-metrics for evaluating retrieved documents in this study were "information search performance" and "interactive performance." Each work task included a scenario and a request that specified what each user needed to do. Researchers, after carefully studying the scenario and request, initially conducted searches related to their scenario and request, then evaluated articles pertinent to the scenario based on the criteria from the questionnaire assessing the relevance of retrieved documents. The key indicators for evaluating documents included information search performance (use of search engines, number of selected information sources, and number of pages viewed in each database) and interactive performance (recognition of content producer reputation, discernment of content comprehensibility and novelty, user satisfaction level, and time spent on searching).
Results: This research examined the impact of religious attitudes (ritualistic, experiential, consequential, and emotional dimensions) on the evaluation of retrieved documents by screenwriting researchers. Document evaluation refers to users' judgments about the relevance of the retrieved documents resulting from their searches and how well these documents meet their information needs. The results indicate that the religious context of society can have a significant impact on the evaluation of the relevance of retrieved documents. Findings showed that information search performance has a higher average. The ritualistic (B=0.400) and belief-based (B=0.262) dimensions can act as significant predictors for the evaluation of retrieved documents. The beta coefficient in the ritualistic dimension (0.400) indicates that each unit increase in the score of the ritualistic dimension (such as prayer, fasting, and participation in religious ceremonies) increases the likelihood of a positive evaluation of retrieved documents by 40%. This finding confirms that performing religious rituals directly influences researchers' judgments about the retrieved content. The beta coefficient in the belief-based dimension (0.262) suggests that religious beliefs (such as belief in God, resurrection, or Sharia) also have a positive but weaker impact. This implies that researchers with stronger religious beliefs may unconsciously incorporate religious criteria into their evaluation of retrieved documents. However, the consequential (B=-0.057) and emotional (B=-0.021) dimensions do not have a significant impact on the evaluation of retrieved documents. This means that emotions, perceptions, and feelings related to a spiritual relationship with God, as well as the religious awareness of researchers, cannot predict the evaluation of retrieved documents.
Discussion and Conclusion: The ritualistic and belief-based dimensions can predict the evaluation of retrieved documents by researchers, as their significance levels are 0.02 and 0.03, respectively; considering the beta coefficients, the impact of the ritualistic dimension is greater than that of the belief-based dimension. However, the consequential and emotional dimensions do not affect the evaluation of retrieved documents. Therefore, in evaluating retrieved documents, one should not rely solely on the information retrieval algorithms of databases. It should be noted that the user plays a direct role in decision-making and assessing the relevance of retrieved documents. Bordbār and Keshāvarz (2023) concluded that there is a significant relationship between the belief-based dimension and the optimism of nurses in making appropriate decisions to improve patient conditions, which aligns with the results of the present study. However, the findings of Jafarī Kādijanī and Maʼadanī (2023) do not correspond with the results of this study, as they concluded that the consequential component plays the most significant role in internet addiction and selecting irrelevant pages based on students' information needs. Lewis et al. (2011) found that core components of religiosity, such as religious identity and religious rituals, have the highest correlation with the level of use of virtual social networks. The findings of Kinley (2012), which indicate a positive and significant relationship between users' cognitive styles and their information-seeking behavior, are consistent with the results of this study. It is recommended that designers of information retrieval systems consider the religious context of the society from which users will be drawn.
Conflict of Interest: This article has no conflict of interest.
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