City Research Online City, University of London Institutional Repository Citation: Price, L. (2017). Serious Leisure In The Digital World: Exploring The Information Behaviour Of Fan Communities. (Unpublished Doctoral thesis, City, University of London) This is the accepted version of the paper. This version of the publication may differ from the final published version. Permanent repository link: http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/19090/ Link to published version: Copyright and reuse: 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. City Research Online: http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/ [email protected] SERIOUS LEISURE IN THE DIGITAL WORLD: EXPLORING THE INFORMATION BEHAVIOUR OF FAN COMMUNITIES LUDOVICA WING SHEUN PRICE DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY CITY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON DEPARTMENT OF LIBRARY & INFORMATION SCIENCE NOVEMBER 2017 FIRST SUPERVISOR: LYN ROBINSON SECOND SUPERVISOR: DAVID BAWDEN PUBLICATIONS Price, L., and Robinson, L. (2016). "Being in a knowledge space": information behaviour of cult media fan communities. Journal of Information Science, [online] 43 (5). Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0165551516658821 Price, L., and Robinson, L. (2017). Fan fiction in the library. Transformative Works and Cultures, [e-journal] 25. Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.3983/twc.2017.1090 ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................ XI GLOSSARY ........................................................................................................................................... XII 1. PART ONE: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 1 1.1. PERSONAL STATEMENT............................................................................................................................ 1 1.2. CONTRIBUTIONS TO KNOWLEDGE .............................................................................................................. 3 1.3. RESEARCH CONTEXT ................................................................................................................................ 4 1.4. AIM & OBJECTIVES ................................................................................................................................. 8 1.5. LIMITATIONS & SCOPE OF THESIS ............................................................................................................. 10 1.6. RATIONALE ......................................................................................................................................... 11 1.7. IMPACT .............................................................................................................................................. 16 1.7.1. Copyright ................................................................................................................................. 17 1.7.2. Publishing ................................................................................................................................ 19 1.7.3. Media industry ........................................................................................................................ 20 1.7.4. Education ................................................................................................................................. 22 1.7.5. Library and information professions ....................................................................................... 24 1.7.6. Summary.................................................................................................................................. 26 2. PART TWO – LITERATURE REVIEW ....................................................................................................28 2.1. DEFINITIONS ....................................................................................................................................... 28 2.1.1. Defining fans ............................................................................................................................ 28 2.1.1.1. Historical attempts to define fans .....................................................................................................29 2.1.1.2. Defining fans in the 21st century .......................................................................................................32 2.1.1.3. Summary ...........................................................................................................................................36 2.1.2. Defining fan communities ....................................................................................................... 37 2.1.2.1. Online communities ..........................................................................................................................39 2.1.2.2. Online vs. virtual................................................................................................................................42 2.1.2.3. Genre and discourse communities ....................................................................................................43 2.1.2.4. Fan communities ...............................................................................................................................49 2.1.2.5. Summary ...........................................................................................................................................52 2.2. HISTORY AND CONTEXT ......................................................................................................................... 53 2.2.1. A brief history of fandom ........................................................................................................ 53 2.2.2 The history of fan studies ......................................................................................................... 60 2.2.2.1. Early works on audiences ..................................................................................................................60 2.2.2.2. The birth of fan studies .....................................................................................................................65 2.2.2.3. Fan studies in the age of the internet ...............................................................................................70 2.2.3 Literature analysis .................................................................................................................... 75 2.2.3.1. Fan information behaviour in fan studies .........................................................................................76 2.2.3.2. Fan information behaviour in LIS ......................................................................................................78 2.2.3.3. Summary ...........................................................................................................................................90 2.3. THE INFORMATION BEHAVIOUR OF FANS ................................................................................................... 92 2.3.1. Relevant models of information behaviour ............................................................................. 94 2.3.1.1. LIS models .........................................................................................................................................95 2.3.1.1.1 Wilson’s model of information behaviour (Wilson 1981; 1996).................................................95 2.3.1.1.2 Everyday Life Information Seeking (ELIS) (Savolainen 1995) ......................................................97 2.3.1.1.3. Hektor’s information activities model (Hektor 2001) ................................................................99 2.3.1.1.4. Information grounds (Fisher 2005) ..........................................................................................101 2.3.1.1.5. The Information Journey (Blandford and Attfield 2010) .........................................................101 2.3.1.1.6. Information-seeking and communication model (ISCM) (Robson and Robinson 2013) ..........103 2.3.1.2. Non-LIS models ...............................................................................................................................104 2.3.1.2.1. The Serious Leisure Perspective (Stebbins 2001) ....................................................................104 2.3.1.2.2. The ecology of online Sims communities (Curlew 2004) .........................................................106 2.3.1.2.3. “A Worker’s Inquiry 2.0” (Brown and Quan-Haase 2012) .......................................................107 2.3.2. Summary................................................................................................................................ 109 iii 2.4. CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................................... 114 3. PART THREE – METHODOLOGY ...................................................................................................... 121 3.1. RESEARCH APPROACH ......................................................................................................................... 121 3.1.1. Methodology in fan studies .................................................................................................