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Document and Information Experience in Virtual Zenanas: An Exploration of a Diaspora Small World

The word diaspora is currently understood as the large scale voluntary movement of people, along with capital and goods due to the mechanisms of globalization. Adopting a diaspora, gender and leisure perspective, this dissertation looked at the information and document experiences of a particular fan community of women belonging to the Indian diaspora and the online spaces created and occupied by them (fan fiction blogs which can be viewed as book clubs). The study also looked at memory making and documenting of the same as a part of document experience, resulting in what can be termed as "serendipitous memory archives." The blogs hosting fan fiction and the mediated practices they support were viewed as documents for the study. The online spaces were conceptualized as small worlds and the theoretical framework used for the study consisted of a preliminary model of a small world (based on literature review and my understanding of the world under study), information experience as a concept as well as document experience models. The results show that social ties play a big role in the information and document experience, while memory making and documenting of the same are also seen to happen as part of the document experience. The results also show that adopting a document perspective enables us to see the myriad ways in which information is experienced, freeing us from considering as information only that which helps us in meeting a purpose or which fills a gap. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:unt.edu/info:ark/67531/metadc1752398
Date12 1900
CreatorsKizhakkethil, Priya
ContributorsMiksa, Shawne D, Zavalina, Oksana, O'Connor, Brian, Burnett, Gary
PublisherUniversity of North Texas
Source SetsUniversity of North Texas
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis or Dissertation
Formatxi, 224 pages, Text
RightsPublic, Kizhakkethil, Priya, Copyright, Copyright is held by the author, unless otherwise noted. All rights Reserved.

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