A NICE PLACE ON THE INTERNET: AN EXPLORATORY CASE STUDY OF TEEN INFORMATION PRACTICES IN AN ONLINE FAN COMMUNITY

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dc.contributor.advisorSubramaniam, Megaen_US
dc.contributor.authorWaugh, Amandaen_US
dc.contributor.departmentLibrary & Information Servicesen_US
dc.contributor.publisherDigital Repository at the University of Marylanden_US
dc.contributor.publisherUniversity of Maryland (College Park, Md.)en_US
dc.date.accessioned2018-07-17T05:56:26Z
dc.date.available2018-07-17T05:56:26Z
dc.date.issued2018en_US
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation focuses on the everyday life information practices of teens in the Nerdfighter online fan community known as Nerdfighteria. Nerdfighteria is the community of fans of vloggers John and Hank Green. This study examines aspects of everyday life information seeking (ELIS) by 1) focusing on an understudied demographic, teens between the ages of 13 to 17; 2) focusing on a fan community, Nerdfighteria, which has many members, but has been rarely studied in the academic literature; and 3) investigating everyday life information practices using a single community that utilizes multiple online platforms (i.e., Facebook, Twitter, Discord, and YouTube), rather than centering on a single platform. This dissertation is a case study incorporating a survey of 241 teens and semi-structured interviews with 15 teens about their experiences in Nerdfighteria, followed by a month-long diary activities. The study also included observations of public communities and review of documents related to the Nerdfighter community. Data analysis was iterative and incorporated grounded theory techniques. This study finds that teen Nerdfighters use their fan community to engage in a wide variety of everyday life information seeking around topics that are related to their personal development. Social, cognitive, emotional, and fan topics were predominant. Teen Nerdfighters engaged across platforms and were likely to switch platforms to find the optimal technical affordances while staying in Nerdfighteria. The teens viewed these changes as staying within the community rather than changing from one platform to another—illustrating the primacy of the community to the teens in meeting their information needs. Teens were drawn to Nerdfighteria because they believed it to be a unique place on the Internet, which valued intellectualism, positivity, and kindness. In many cases, teens preferred to observe other’s interactions in order to gain the information they needed or wanted, and waited to engage via posting or responding when certain criteria were met. These findings describe the complicated interplay of the ELIS topics sought, the preferred practices for meeting an information need, and the reasons for choosing one community over another.en_US
dc.identifierhttps://doi.org/10.13016/M2C53F45H
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/20878
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledInformation scienceen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledLibrary scienceen_US
dc.subject.pqcontrolledWeb studiesen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledEveryday life information seekingen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledFandomsen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledInformation studiesen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledOnline communitiesen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledTeensen_US
dc.subject.pquncontrolledYoung adultsen_US
dc.titleA NICE PLACE ON THE INTERNET: AN EXPLORATORY CASE STUDY OF TEEN INFORMATION PRACTICES IN AN ONLINE FAN COMMUNITYen_US
dc.typeDissertationen_US

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