Information Studies
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2249
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Item Toward a new understanding of immigrant information behavior: A survey study on information access and information overload among US Black diasporic immigrants(Emerald Group Publishing, 2020-02-18) Ndumu, AnaPurpose Immigration dominates much of the current US sociopolitical discourse. The research on US-based immigrant information behavior, however, remains scant. To understand the role of information in immigration, this study explores information overload among Black immigrants in the US. Design/methodology/approach The researcher developed a literature-derived information overload scale to investigate participants' information access along with experiences and response to information overload. Findings Results suggest that participants experience information overload due to behavioral (e.g. the demands of needing, seeking, or using information), quantitative (i.e. volume or length), and qualitative (e.g. authority, diversity, or urgency) indicators. Most participants mitigate information overload by turning to intermediaries and filtering resources. Research limitations/implications The information overload scale can advance knowledge of the role of information in immigrant acculturative stress. Social implications LIS researchers and practitioners can utilize findings to foster social inclusion and well-being among immigrants. Originality/value Scholarship on immigrant information behavior must reflect the centrality of information in migration and how it shapes integration and acculturation.Item Linkages between information overload and acculturative stress: The case of Black diasporic immigrants in the US(SAGE Publications, 2019-07-07) Ndumu, AnaThis study examines the information behavior of Black immigrants in the United States and specifically investigates possible linkages between information overload and acculturative stress. Focus groups were conducted with African, Afro-Caribbean, and Afro-Latinx immigrants in Florida. When analyzed according to Jaeger and Burnett’s theory of information worlds (Burnett and Jaeger, 2011; Jaeger and Burnett, 2010), the data supports that participants experience information overload as a result of the voluminous and dispersed nature of information in the US; perceptions of belonging and transnationality; and undertaking high-stakes tasks such as immigration procedures, finding employment, and understanding cultural norms. Participants felt that the large, stratified, and complex US information landscape can prompt stress. Since information overload poses a barrier to immigrant social inclusion, it can be interpreted as acculturative stress.Item NEGOTIATED TASTES: A STUDY OF THE AMERICANIZATION OF SOUTHERN AND EASTERN EUROPEAN IMMIGRANTS BY SOCIAL WORKERS, REFORMERS AND NUTRITIONAL SCIENTISTS.(2014) Fronk-Giordano, Catharine Annemarie; Freund, David; History/Library & Information Systems; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis aims to prove that the efforts of settlement workers, immigrant aid organization workers, home economists, reformers and nutritional scientists to Americanize the foodways of the southern and eastern European immigrants between the 1890s and the 1920s was not a systematic and homogenous enterprise motivated by a single idea and driven by a single goal, but a far more nuanced and contested process in which social workers with various backgrounds and beliefs mediated between American identity, science and immigrant food culture. Far outnumbered by the new immigrants, the social workers concentrated on alleviating immediate needs of the poor in the industrial centers, focusing on increasing their buying power and improving the nutritional value of their diets. Servicing all immigrants as well as Americans, the social workers often adapted their teachings to respect the immigrant food cultures and tastes, some even praising ethnic cuisines over the American diet.