© Copyright 2019 Hyerim Cho Understanding Users of Cross-media Information: Contexts, motivations, and information features focusing on visual narrative materials Hyerim Cho A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2019 Reading Committee: Jin Ha Lee, Chair Allyson Carlyle Nicholas Weber Program Authorized to Offer Degree: Information Science University of Washington Abstract Understanding Users of Cross-media Information: Contexts, motivations, and information features focusing on visual narrative materials Hyerim Cho Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Jin Ha Lee Information Science Librarians and information experts play key roles in facilitating access to multimedia objects, and the importance of their expertise has increased with the growth of digital libraries. Existing studies show, however, that current information systems—including online databases, library catalogs, and recommendation services—do not fully meet the needs of multimedia information users. This study contributes to improving multimedia access by focusing on three different types of visual narrative materials and their users: printed visual narrative (e.g., comic books, graphic novels, manga, newspaper comic strips), visual narrative with a moving image format (e.g., animated films, anime, TV cartoons), and interactive visual narrative (e.g., video games). The objective of this study is to understand users of different types of visual narrative materials through a two-pronged approach: a diary study complemented by a follow-up interview, and a larger-scale content analysis of natural language queries collected from online fan communities. The researcher addresses three main themes in this dissertation: 1) the motivations, context, and situational information of users who consume visual narrative materials, 2) essential information features for the users to find relevant visual narrative materials, and 3) relationships among the motivations, contexts, and information features, if any. By better identifying and understanding users of visual materials, the contributions may improve recommendations and reference services for multimedia materials, encourage media trans- literacy, and serve as a foundation for developing enhanced organization and retrieval systems for multimedia information. Specifically, this work provided recommendations for cross-media advisory services in libraries. By introducing patrons to relevant materials in different formats, librarians and reference service providers will provide those patrons options that they may not have explored yet, and will promote usage of potentially under-utilized media collections in libraries. In addition, providing a rich narrative of users’ information seeking needs and media consumption behavior will help current information systems provide enhanced search experiences to users. TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................. 11 1.1. Why multimedia information, why visual materials? ................................................... 11 1.2. Issues with recommending visual materials in libraries ............................................... 12 1.3. Search problems of visual materials ............................................................................ 13 1.4. Whole collection advisory ........................................................................................... 15 1.5. Objective and research questions ................................................................................. 16 1.6. Definitions of key concepts ......................................................................................... 18 Chapter 2. Literature Review ..................................................................................................... 21 2.1. Visual materials and user studies ................................................................................. 21 2.1.1. Printed visual materials: Comic books/graphic novels/manga ............................... 21 2.1.2. Visual materials with a format of moving images: Anime/animations .................. 27 2.1.3. Interactive visual materials: Video games ............................................................ 33 2.1.4. What is missing in the current literature of visual materials and user studies ........ 40 2.2. Motivations of consuming multimedia materials ......................................................... 41 2.2.1. Readers’ advisory services and appeals ................................................................ 42 2.2.2. What is missing in the current literature of multimedia consumption motivations . 48 Chapter 3. Methods ................................................................................................................... 50 1 3.1. Data collection ............................................................................................................ 50 3.1.1. Self-reporting diary and a follow-up interview ..................................................... 51 3.1.2. Content analysis ................................................................................................... 60 3.2. Data coding ................................................................................................................. 65 3.3. Intercoder reliability .................................................................................................... 72 3.4. Data analysis ............................................................................................................... 75 3.4.1. Tabulation and cross-tabulation analysis .............................................................. 75 3.4.2. Cluster analysis .................................................................................................... 76 3.5. Reliability of the study ................................................................................................ 80 Chapter 4. Results ..................................................................................................................... 83 4.1. Results from diary and interview methods ................................................................... 83 4.1.1. Demographic information .................................................................................... 83 4.1.2. Overview of the identified themes ........................................................................ 88 4.1.3. Cross-tabulation analysis results......................................................................... 110 4.1.4. Cluster analysis .................................................................................................. 119 4.1.5. Intercoder reliability testing results .................................................................... 130 4.2. Results from content analysis method ....................................................................... 133 4.2.1. Overview of the identified themes ...................................................................... 134 4.2.2. Cross-tabulation analysis results......................................................................... 146 2 4.2.3. Cluster analysis .................................................................................................. 156 4.2.4. Intercoder reliability ........................................................................................... 165 Chapter 5. Discussion .............................................................................................................. 169 5.1. Search problems identified in current recommendation systems .................................... 169 5.1.1. Language ........................................................................................................... 170 5.1.2. Filtering and navigation difficulties .................................................................... 174 5.2. What users want in future recommendation systems .................................................. 178 5.2.1. Personal values and being aware of social issues ................................................ 178 5.2.2. Commonly important motivation, information features, and context across the media 181 5.2.3. Tailored needs for different types of visual materials.......................................... 192 5.3. Social stigma of popular culture and visual media fans .............................................. 202 5.4. A new perspective on escapism in visual material use ............................................... 204 Chapter 6. Conclusion ............................................................................................................. 207 6.1. Summary of findings..................................................................................................... 207 6.2. Revisiting the research questions .................................................................................. 211 6.3. Suggestions for libraries ................................................................................................ 213 6.4. Contributions and evaluations of the research ............................................................... 215 6.5. Future work .................................................................................................................. 219 3 References .............................................................................................................................. 221 Appendix