City Research Online City, University of London Institutional Repository Citation: Narsesian, S. (2010). Football Fans, Their Information, The Web And The Personal Home Page. (Unpublished Doctoral thesis, City University London) This is the accepted version of the paper. This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link: https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/12140/ Link to published version: Copyright: City Research Online aims to make research outputs of City, University of London available to a wider audience. Copyright and Moral Rights remain with the author(s) and/or copyright holders. URLs from City Research Online may be freely distributed and linked to. Reuse: Copies of full items can be used for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge. 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City Research Online: http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/ [email protected] Football Fans, Their Information, The Web And The Personal Home Page Shant Narsesian February 2010 A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy City University London Department of Information Science Supervised by: Dr Tamara Eisenschitz Title Page 1 Table of Contents Table of Contents Title Page ..................................................................................................................1 Table of Contents.......................................................................................................2 List of Figures............................................................................................................6 List of Tables.............................................................................................................7 Acknowledgements....................................................................................................9 Declaration .............................................................................................................. 10 Abstract ................................................................................................................... 11 CHAPTER I - INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 12 1.2 The Personal Home Page (PHP)......................................................................... 12 1.3 Motivation for this Study ................................................................................... 14 1.4 Aims and Objectives .......................................................................................... 17 1.5 Scope................................................................................................................. 18 1.6 Case Study......................................................................................................... 19 1.7 Limitations of this Study .................................................................................... 19 1.8 Football Background.......................................................................................... 20 1.9 Football Websites............................................................................................... 23 1.10 Chapter Conclusion.......................................................................................... 24 CHAPTER II - LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 26 2.2 Search Strategy .................................................................................................. 26 2.3 Personal Home Pages......................................................................................... 28 2.3.1 Definition.................................................................................................... 29 2.3.2 Blogs (WebLogs) and Social Networking (SN) Sites................................... 32 2.4 The PHP as an Object of Study .......................................................................... 36 2.4.1 Characteristics of PHPs and Related Studies................................................ 36 2.4.2 Purpose of PHPs.......................................................................................... 38 2.4.3 Accessibility of PHPs.................................................................................. 39 2.4.4 PHP Numbers ............................................................................................. 40 2.4.5 PHP Problems............................................................................................. 41 2.4.6 PHPs and Grey Literature............................................................................ 43 2.4.7 Virtual Communities, Communities of Practice and Knowledge Sharing..... 44 2.4.8 PHPs as Sources of Information .................................................................. 48 2.5 Information Seeking........................................................................................... 51 2.5.1 Information Seeking Models ....................................................................... 51 2.5.2 Environments of Information Seeking ......................................................... 54 2.6 Football Studies ................................................................................................. 56 2.6.1 Football Surveys ......................................................................................... 57 2.6.2 Football in the Community.......................................................................... 60 2.6.3 Football and Legal Issues ............................................................................ 62 2.7 Chapter Conclusion............................................................................................ 67 2 Football Fans, Their Information, The Web And The Personal Home Page CHAPTER III - METHODOLOGY 3.1 Introduction ....................................................................................................... 69 3.2 Methodology Overview......................................................................................69 3.3 Stage One People-Study..................................................................................... 71 3.3.1 Football Fan Interviews............................................................................... 73 3.3.2 Football Fan Interview Questions................................................................ 76 3.3.3 Questionnaires............................................................................................. 79 3.3.4 Employed Questionnaire ............................................................................. 81 3.3.5 Questionnaire Questions.............................................................................. 84 3.4 Stage One Web-Study........................................................................................ 86 3.4.1 Finding PHPs .............................................................................................. 88 3.4.2 PHP Inclusion ............................................................................................. 89 3.4.3 PHP Classification ...................................................................................... 90 3.4.4 Comparing PHPs......................................................................................... 96 3.4.5 Relative Information Contents Ratings (RICR)............................................ 97 3.4.6 Comparison Results .................................................................................. 103 3.4.7 Uniqueness of Information on the Web ..................................................... 106 3.4.8 Accuracy of Information ........................................................................... 109 3.5 Stage Two Overview........................................................................................ 112 3.6 Stage Two Web-Study ..................................................................................... 112 3.6.1 Website Examination Procedure................................................................ 113 3.6.2 West Ham Online Website Investigation Example..................................... 114 3.7 Stage Two People-Study .................................................................................. 117 3.7.1 Web Author Interviews ............................................................................. 117 3.7.2 Web Author Interview Questions .............................................................. 119 3.8 Evaluation and Replicability ............................................................................ 121 3.9 Chapter Conclusion.......................................................................................... 123 CHAPTER IV - RESULTS I - INFORMATION SEEKING TOOLS OF FOOTBALL FANS 4.1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 125 4.2 Demographics.................................................................................................. 126 4.2.1 Premiership Demographics........................................................................ 126 4.2.2 Football League Demographics ................................................................. 128 4.2.3 Comparisons Within This Study...............................................................