363 research outputs found
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"Being in a Knowledge Space": information behaviour of cult media fan communities
This article describes the first two parts of a three-stage study investigating the information behaviour of fans and fan communities, focusing on fans of cult media. A literature analysis shows that information practices are an inherent and major part of fan activities, and that fans are practitioners of new forms of information consumption and production, showing sophisticated activities of information organisation and dissemination. A subsequent Delphi study, taking the novel form of a 'serious leisure' Delphi, in which the participants are not experts in the usual sense, identifies three aspects of fan information behaviour of particular interest beyond the fan context: information gatekeeping; classifying and tagging; and entrepreneurship and economic activity
Preferred Level of Weird: A Librarian\u27s Guide to Fanfiction
This instruction guide aims to provide librarians with an understanding the basics of fanfiction including a glossary of terms, an introduction to the information seeking behaviours of fanfiction readers, and some search tips on a popular general fanfiction archive for helping both librarian and patron find the reading experience they are looking for
To my betas, endless chocolate frogs! : exploring the intersections of emotion, the body, and literacy in online fanfiction.
This project examines the complex intersections of identity, including gender, sexuality, and social class, in the literacy practices of online fanfiction. Previous scholarship has focused solely on the gender and/or pedagogical implications of fanfiction communities, and my project engages and extends these conversations by analyzing how fanfiction practices provide a distinctive space to explore how we understand identity, digital technologies, and fannish participation. I conducted textual analysis of stories, authors\u27 notes, how-to guides, and questionnaires and interviews. A close inspection of fanfiction practices provide insight into how digital technologies and literacy practices interact within exchange economies. My dissertation is divided into five chapters. Chapters 1 and 2 include a review of the literature as well as a theoretical approach to the project and its methods. Chapters 3 and 4 address the functions of online fanfiction by looking at fan websites, fan stories, and how-to fan documents, as well as questionnaires and interviews. Finally, Chapter 5 develops a theory of online fanfiction literacy practices, and the ways in which these practices are shaped by power structures, identity construction, community norms, and material circumstances. I focus, in particular, on developing a theory of emotion in terms of literacy practicesâwhat I come to call âemotioned literacyâ (borrowing from Micciche).The investigation of online fanfiction spaces is especially valuable for rhetoric and composition because it highlights how writing is a deeply embodied and emotional, life-long (learning) process. In addition, this project highlights the importance of a network of dedicated participants with knowledge(s) in different areas. Finally, this project highlights the importance of paying closer attention to the ethics of our online research methodologies
Youth and Digital Media: From Credibility to Information Quality
Building upon a process-and context-oriented information quality framework, this paper seeks to map and explore what we know about the ways in which young users of age 18 and under search for information online, how they evaluate information, and how their related practices of content creation, levels of new literacies, general digital media usage, and social patterns affect these activities. A review of selected literature at the intersection of digital media, youth, and information quality -- primarily works from library and information science, sociology, education, and selected ethnographic studies -- reveals patterns in youth's information-seeking behavior, but also highlights the importance of contextual and demographic factors both for search and evaluation. Looking at the phenomenon from an information-learning and educational perspective, the literature shows that youth develop competencies for personal goals that sometimes do not transfer to school, and are sometimes not appropriate for school. Thus far, educational initiatives to educate youth about search, evaluation, or creation have depended greatly on the local circumstances for their success or failure
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Fandom, food, and folksonomies: The methodological realities of studying fun life-contexts
As Library and Information Science research has evolved, new domains of interest have shaped the field, and with them comes a need to question the appropriateness of applying traditional methodologies to these new domains. This panel focuses on the methodological realities of studying fun life-contexts and will address how researching a new domain comes with challenges and opportunities. The group of scholars on this panel all share an appreciation for identifying and exploring the unique information experiences within fun life-contexts, and engage with a variety of subfields, including information behavior, information organization, embodied information, and fan communities. This interactive panel will consist of five short presentations from each of the panelists and a moderated Q&A led by moderator, Jenna Hartel. The panelists each share some examples of their recent work studying fun life-contexts, reflect on their experience researching in a new domain, and develop themes and questions that should be addressed in future work
The informational âcosplay journeyâ of Star Wars cosplayers in the context of a Facebook group
INTRODUCTION. Research on personal information practices has increased in recent decades. Building on this current of thought, the present study explores information practices in the context of serious leisure, looking specifically at the Rey Cosplay Community Facebook group, an online community of Star Wars cosplayers. The work discusses how these fans seek, organize, and share relevant information during the process of making costumes.
METHOD. This study used participant observation and semi-structured interviews to investigate information behaviours, including information seeking, organization, use, and sharing, of seventeen members in the Rey Cosplay Community with a purposive sampling strategy.
ANALYSIS. The researchers transcribed and jointly coded the collected data with an open coding scheme to identify themes that emerged from the data.
RESULTS. The cosplayers used a myriad of tools to seek, organize, and share information about costume making. Participants identified that their information practices had evolved over time, and they shared sophisticated strategies for sharing work-in-progress photos and updates as well as methods for organizing information for later use.
CONCLUSION. There are a variety of information practices used when making a costume. Participants often seek and acquire relevant information on online platforms and use a combination of traditional physical tools and modern electronic tools to organize information. They also display a rich culture of sharing information when responding to other fansâ information needs. The overall structure that these information practices take can be neatly articulated as a sort of informational âcosplay journeyâ
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Fandom, Folksonomies and Creativity: the case of the Archive of Our Own
Over recent years Web 2.0 has brought information into the hands of the public, and we are increasingly seeing non-professionals doing sophisticated information tasks not merely for work, research or personal interest, but also for leisure â and even pleasure. This paper looks at an online fanfiction repository, Archive of Our Own (AO3), and investigates the ways that media fans have co-opted new technologies to build a âcurated folksonomyâ (Bullard 2014), in order to organise the fanworks (fan-created creative works) uploaded by fans to the website. Run by volunteers, the site is a fascinating example of how passion, and even obsession, can bring amateur knowledge workers together collaboratively with users to build an intricate âdemocratic indexingâ system (Hidderley and Rafferty 1997; Rafferty and Hidderley 2007).
Through methods of tag analysis and interviews, the paper explores how Archive of Our Ownâs curated folksonomy allows fans to make full and creative use of their own original, freeform tags, while also building a highly granular and sophisticated taxonomy which, though highly labour-intensive to maintain, serves the community by maintaining a high degree of accuracy while also preserving the folksonomic properties of freeform tagging. As well as building a functioning taxonomy, through standardising its nomenclature, and facilitating the discoverability of AO3âs collections to its users, these amateur knowledge workers see their domain expertise and knowledge organisation labour as a type of fanwork that âgives back to the communityâ, in lieu of other creative works such as fanfiction and fanart
Searching for Balance: The Reading Choices, Experiences, and Habits of Women in Higher Education Leadership Roles
Women in higher education leadership roles face complicated challenges in their professional roles, and struggle to maintain work-life balance, yet they make time to read for professional development and for pleasure. Utilizing grounded theory methodology, focus group methods, and grounded theory coding, this study examines the reading choices and habits of women in higher education leadership roles, delving into how they balance their reading between material tied to their professional interests and leisure reading material, and to what extent reading for pleasure contributes to their work-life balance. The study explores what reading materials women academic leaders consume, and where they acquire reading recommendations. The study also examines whether women had an early love of reading and when that began, and follows their reading choices and habits through K-12, college, graduate school, and their present lives. In addition, the study explores how reading has impacted women throughout their personal and professional lives, and how it has contributed to their current higher education leadership roles. Suggestions will be made regarding changes that can be implemented in curricula to better support and prepare young women to attain leadership positions and lead balanced lives once in these roles
Clubwomen and Time: An Examination of Temporality in American and British Womenâs Literary Clubs
This thesis connects womenâs literary clubs in America and Britain from 1850 to 1900. It specifically looks at Shakespeare Clubs and Robert Browning Clubs in America, and The Pioneer Club, named for Walt Whitmanâs poem, in Britain. The thesis looks at articles, club documents and journal reports printed by and about the clubs, to demonstrate a common theme between them. It further examines original writing left behind by the Shakespeare Clubs as examples of fanfiction. The thesis posits that these clubs represent a separate sphere of womenâs time, forming spaces of temporal reclamation. All three club movements existed in a period when womenâs time was meant to be spent on prescribed activities, centred around home and family. Womanâs designated sphere was the domestic space of home, in a society built on the ideology of separate spheres. This thesis suggests that the clubs, which were generally home-based and built around and within womanâs existing sphere, were spaces where women reclaimed some of the temporal autonomy denied to them in society. While critics have explored the idea of women having a different experience of time, there has not been a study which views these literary clubs as a separate experience of womenâs time. The thesis will use evidence from primary and secondary sources to demonstrate that the clubwomen viewed their activities as separate from, and time intentionally claimed from, prescribed temporal pursuits. This was time claimed purely for leisure and self-serving, which was not an accepted or prescribed way for a woman with or without family responsibilities to spend her time. This thesis will claim that women used their clubs as spaces for exercising temporal autonomy
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