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Posted by aninfiniteweirdo

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This time, it’s about information behaviours: by the fans, for the fans

The clickbait title of this post would have been: gatekeeping in fandom. Fandom’s information behaviour is of much interest to scholars as

(…) cult media fans are seen to be an information-intensive group in many respects, with a variety of sophisticated online and offline information practices.

Price, L.; Robinson, L. (2017). ‘Being in a knowledge space’: Information behaviour of cult media fan communities. Journal of Information Science, 43(5), 649-664. doi.org/10.1108/JD-05-2020-0089

These sophisticated practices might involve the role of information gatekeepers.

These gatekeepers seem to have a network that extends outside of the immediate social structure and as such they seem to possess strong ties even to external resources. They are able to filter the flow of information when passing the knowledge on to others. This kind of gatekeeper or information provider can be observed within the context of the game, either at a low level, like in a guild, or at a high level, like someone who for one reason or another has earned acclaim and thus earned credibility.

Nyman, N. (2010). Information Behaviour in World of Warcraft [Master’s thesis, University Umeå].

Nyman here talks about gaming environments and it would be dangerous to generalise based on that, but some takeaways might be warranted. Gaming is based on voluntary and active participation, the communities are collaborative and not based on fixed hierarchies, these are presupposed for the purposes of this post.

Then, Nyman expected to see that the information needed for this participation (how to complete a quest) was gathered through the personal relationships in the game (from the people the gamers are already raiding with, for example).

Well, close enough.

The most common way to gather the information needed (to complete in-game tasks) was by visiting a third-party website.

Nyman, N. (2010). Information Behaviour in World of Warcraft [Master’s thesis, University Umeå].

Nyman’s speculation was based on how information sciences gather the most effective ways to gather information. Then, the result could also suggest that third-party websites are, in some way, more effective in providing information.

The game is taking place online, as such Internet is but a few clicks away. So even if the knowledge exists withint he social structure to resolve many of the needs, the quickest path to a satisfactory result is to use a website for research.

Nyman, N. (2010). Information Behaviour in World of Warcraft [Master’s thesis, University Umeå].

In their description of a gatakeeper, the acclaim can be earned either in the game or outside of the game world, while still related to the game. There is reason to think that that acclaim (or social capital) could be earned through contributing information to third party websites.

Furthermore, the voluntary participation of gaming communities is interest-based. While they might not be interpretative communities in the same way fandoms are, it can be speculated that information resources for gamers by gamers will organise and disseminate information in ways that makes sense for these gamers, therefore, making these resources close to as effective, as if they were personally tailored to the information seeker.

It has been observed that fandoms

are saturated and defined by distinctive information behaviours, affecting all aspects of the information communication chain, from creation and dissemination, to organisation and use.

Price, L.; Robinson, L. (2017). ‘Being in a knowledge space’: Information behaviour of cult media fan communities. Journal of Information Science, 43(5), 649-664. doi.org/10.1108/JD-05-2020-0089

So fandoms can provide information effectively to fans specifically because of the distinctive information behaviours, but they are distinctive in what ways? This is something to be further discussed.

Post by Szabó Dorottya

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