THE%20CONSTRUCTION%20OF%20EVERYDAY%20INFORMATION%20PRACTICES

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THE CONSTRUCTION OF EVERYDAY INFORMATION PRACTICES

• Reijo Savolainen
• Department of Information Studies
• University of Tampere, Finland
• 28 February 2006

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Overview of presentation

• 1. Introducing the concept of everyday
  information practice
• 2. The nature of information practices in
  non-work contexts
• 3. The construction of information source
  horizons
• 4. Conclusions

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1. What is meant by information practices?

• Information practice (IP) is a novel concept
• IP socially and culturally constituted ways to
  identify, seek, assess, use and share information
  
• Examples of IP watching TV news, reading
  newspapers and searching the Web
• Information practices are often habitualized and
  they can be identified both in job-related and
  non-work contexts

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1. What is meant by information practices?

• IP provides an alternative to the dominating
  concept of information behavior (IB)
• IB The totality of human behavior in relation
  to sources and channels, including both active
  and passive information seeking, and information
  use (Tom Wilson, 2000)
• IB emphasizes individual information needs as a
  trigger of information seeking

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1. What is meant by information practices?

• Information practice approach represents a more
  sociologically and contextually oriented line of
  research (Sanna Talja)
• IP emphasizes that the processes of information
  seeking and use are constituted socially and
  dialogically, rather than based on the needs and
  motives of individual actors

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1. What is meant by information practices?

• All human practices are social, and they
  originate from interactions between the members
  of a community
• The proponents of IP emphasize the role of
  contextual factors that orient peoples
  information seeking (as distinct from the
  individualist approaches that are characteristic
  of the assumptions of information behavior)

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1. What is meant by information practices?

• Defining everyday practices, in general (Wanda
  Orlikowski, 2002)
• Recurrent, materially bounded and situated
  action engaged in by members of the community
• Recurrent, repeated (habitualized) action
• Embedded in material context of occurrence
• Taking place in communities (e.g, workplace)
• These characteristics are relevant also for IP

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2. The nature of information practices in
non-work contexts

• Everyday information practices are ubiquitous
• For example, reading newspapers, listening to
  radio and watching television are embedded within
  everyday practices
• Media habits are constitutive of ones daily
  rhythms

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2. The nature of information practices in
non-work contexts

• IP often embedded in everyday projects (Anders
  Hektor, 2001)
• Generic projects (e.g., household care) are
  common for all members of society or community
• Specific projects (e.g., hobbies) are common only
  to one individual or sub-community in a
  particular life-situation

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2. The nature of information practices in
non-work contexts

• Specific projects may appear as
• Change-projects dealing with managing transitions
  in life (e.g., moving from a rural village to a
  major city)
• Specific projects require focused information
  seeking about problematic issues at hand
• Pursuit-projects (e.g., hobbies) are less
  dependent on immediate needs
• Opportunities are acted upon where valued
  information is encountered

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2. The nature of information practices in
non-work contexts

• Information practices are embedded in
  spatio-temporal contexts
• For example, watching TV news at home in the
  evening
• Information seeking habits may serve the needs of
  maintaining ontological security and give the
  sense of the mastery of life

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2. The nature of information practices in
non-work contexts

• Information practices may also occur in various
  kinds of information grounds, as suggested by
  Karen Pettigrew
• Information grounds can occur anywhere, in any
  type of temporal setting and they are predicated
  on the presence of individuals
• Examples of everyday information grounds public
  libraries, cafeterias, pubs, supermarkets, clubs,
  and clinics

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2. The nature of information practices in
non-work contexts

• People gather at information grounds for a
  primary, instrumental purpose other than
  information seeking or sharing
• Social interaction is a primary activity at
  information grounds and information seeking or
  sharing is a by-product
• For example, Pettigrews (1999) study on a foot
  clinic as an information ground

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2. The nature of information practices in
non-work contexts

• The clinic provides a social atmosphere that
  fosters spontaneous and serendipitous seeking and
  sharing of information
• Information grounds such as these are virtual
  they disappear until the next scheduled meetings
  between nurses and customers

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2. The nature of information practices in
non-work contexts

• The model of information practices (Pamela
  McKenzie, 2003)
• Based on the findings of an empirical study the
  information seeking practices of women pregnant
  with twins in Canada
• The major modes of information seeking practices

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2. The nature of information practices in
non-work contexts

• Active seeking (actively seeking contact with an
  identified source in a specific information
  ground, for example, a specialist in a medical
  clinic)
• Active scanning (identifying a likely source by
  browsing in a likely information ground, for
  example, a bookstore or a public library)

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2. The nature of information practices in
non-work contexts

• Non-directed monitoring (serendipitous encounters
  with people interested in the same topical
  issues these encounters may take place in
  unspecific places, for example, supermarkets)
• Information seeking by proxy (someone else, for
  example, a friend looks for information when
  visiting a public library)

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3. The construction of information source horizons

• Particularly from the constructionist point of
  view, the concept of information source horizon
  is central for the study of everyday information
  practices
• This horizon indicates the ways in which
  peoples prefer (or avoid) various kinds of
  information sources and channels
• The concept of information horizon was proposed
  by Diane Sonnenwald (1999)

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3. The construction of information source horizons

• Savolainen Kari (2004) suggest a slightly
  modified concept of information source horizon
  (ISH)
• ISH an imaginary field which opens before the
  "minds eye" of the onlooker, for example,
  information seeker
• Sources deemed most significant are placed
  nearest to the onlooker in this field, and the
  less significant ones farther away

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3. The construction of information source horizons

• Information source horizons are created in a
  broader context which may defined as a perceived
  information environment
• When construing an information source horizon,
  the actor judges the relevance of information
  sources available in the perceived information
  environment and selects a set of sources and
  channels

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3. The construction of information source horizons

• Due to the selective approach to information
  sources, the horizon covers only a part of the
  actual information environment
• The construction of information source horizons
  is a result of complex interplay of judgments
  e.g. concerning the accessibility and quality of
  information sources
• The judgments enable people to put infor-mation
  sources in their "own" place

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3. The construction of information source horizons
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3. The construction of information source horizons

• An empirical study on the construction
  information source horizons (Savolainen Kari,
  2004)
• Participants 18 persons interested in personal
  delf-development (interviewed in Tampere,
  Finland, 2001-2002)
• The informants described their ways to use the
  Internet in information seeking as a part of
  their everyday information practice

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3. The construction of information source horizons

• They were also asked to draw a picture describing
  their source preferences with regard to seeking
  information for issues of self-development
• At this point, they were given a diagram with
  three nested circles (cf. Figure shown above)

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3. The construction of information source horizons

• The most important sources were placed in Zone 1,
  the second most important in Zone 2 and the least
  important in Zone 3
• At the same time, the informants were asked to
  think aloud in order to explain the preferences
  concerning each source

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3. The construction of information source horizons

• The interviewees mentioned altogether 49
  different information sources or channels
• Some sources - for example, WWW - were mentioned
  more than once the total number of the sources
  being mentioned was 111

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3. The construction of information source horizons

• Of the sources being mentioned
• 26 were human sources
• 23 printed media
• 18 networked sources
• 12 broadcast media
• 10 as organizational sources
• 12 other sources (e.g., music)

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3. The construction of information source horizons

• Information sources positioned in Zone 1
• Human sources were most popular (31.4) (for
  example, friends, colleagues, and experts)
• Networked sources (28.6) (Internet, WWW)
• Printed media (25.7) (Books, literature,
  newspapers, magazines)

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3. The construction of information source horizons

• Zone 1, contd
• Organizational sources (8.6.) (for example,
  associations, school, university)
• Other sources (5.7 (for example, arts,
  philosophy)
• Rich variety of information sources
• Human and networked sources were preferred

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3. The construction of information source horizons

• The high priority given to the Internet was often
  explained by referring to concrete benefits
  reaped from the use of the networked services.
• The Internet is seen to greatly facilitate
  everyday life and save time
• The Internet opens access to new kinds of
  information sources previously unavailable

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3. The construction of information source horizons

• Zone 2 information resources that were given a
  secondary place in the information source horizon
• Again, a broad repertoire of sources was
  identified
• Human sources and the printed media were
  mentioned most often
• The share of the networked sources remained quite
  modest

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3. The construction of information source horizons

• Zone 3 peripheral sources
• All source types were mentioned almost equally,
  including the networked sources
• People tend to value a limited number of really
  important sources (Zone 1) and the number of
  sources deemed peripheral (Zone 3) remains low
  because there is no particular interest to
  specify them

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3. The construction of information source horizons

• Characteristic of everyday life information
  seeking practices, people tend to draw on only a
  few sources that are familiar and easily
  accessible
• Human sources, such as friends, and printed media
  such as dictionaries on the bookshelf at home,
  and WWW exemplify information sources of this type

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3. The construction of information source horizons

• Broadcast media are also deemed as easily
  available and accessible sources
• Information supplied through them rarely focuses
  on the information need at hand, and thus, they
  tend to be favored less
• Organizational sources are ranked relatively
  low, due to efforts required to visit a public
  library, for example

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3. The construction of information source horizons

• Our study focused on the Internet users in the
  context of personal self-development
• Hence, one should be cautious in the
  generalization of the findings!
• For example, the role of public libraries might
  have been more central in information source
  horizons if the study had focused on other kinds
  of information practices, e.g., reading for
  pleasure

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4. Conclusions

• The concept of information practice provides a
  contextually sensitive viewpoint to understand
  how people seek, use and share information as an
  integral part of their everyday activities
• Many of these practices are habitual and deeply
  embedded in daily routine and ones way of living
• Thus, these practices tend to be invisible for
  information seekers themselves, as well as
  researchers interested in these phenomena

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4. Conclusions

• There is a need to elaborate the conceptual
  issues of information practice and to analyze its
  theoretical and methodological potential, as
  compared to the dominating approach of
  information behavior
• The approaches of information behavior and
  information practice should not be conceived as
  hostile rivals rather, they complement each
  other

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4. Conclusions

• There is a need to explore everyday information
  practices empirically both in job-related and
  non-work contexts
• For example, the nature of collaborative
  information seeking practices in various
  professional groups is an intriguing research
  topic

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4. Conclusions

• In non-work contexts, many relevant issues
  sensitive to everyday information practice are
  waiting for further research
• For example, seeking and sharing information in
  the context of change- or pursuit-projects or
  within various kinds of information grounds

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Conclusion

• Thank you for your attention!