Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

How Do You Solve A Problem Like The Whole User? The Construction Of Worthy And Problematic Users In Online Discussions Of The Public Library, Pam Mckenzie

FIMS Publications

In this article I use a discursive approach and the concept of the ‘category entitlement’ to analyse the ways that contributors to a public Internet discussion of the value of the public library make cases for different user characteristics and behaviour as ‘worthy’ or ‘problematic’, and use these characteristics to discuss and debate the kinds of individuals and the kinds of behaviour that properly belong to each category. Contributors to the discussion represented users in three categories: a fluid ‘everyone’, which included people represented as being disadvantaged and in legitimate need of the library’s resources, expertise, and support; the user …

Putting The Pieces Together: Endometriosis Blogs, Cognitive Authority, And Collaborative Information Behavior, Diane M. Neal, Pamela J. Mckenzie

FIMS Publications

Objective:

A discourse analysis was conducted of peer-written blogs about the chronic illness endometriosis to understand how bloggers present information sources and make cases for and against the authority of those sources.

Methods:

Eleven blogs that were authored by endometriosis patients and focused exclusively or primarily on the authors' experiences with endometriosis were selected. After selecting segments in which the bloggers invoked forms of knowledge and sources of evidence, the text was discursively analyzed to reveal how bloggers establish and dispute the authority of the sources they invoke.

Results:

When discussing and refuting authority, the bloggers invoked many sources of …

Interpretive Repertoires, Pamela J. Mckenzie

FIMS Publications

No abstract provided.