scholarly journals Dialogue processes in online information seeking and sharing: a study of an asynchronous discussion group

2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Reijo Savolainen ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Information Seeking ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Online Forums ◽  
Initiation Phase ◽  
Dialogue Acts ◽  
Information Interaction ◽  
Initial Question ◽  
Dialogue Process ◽  
Fact Question

Introduction. This study elaborates the picture of dialogical information interaction by examining asynchronous dialogue processes constitutive of information seeking and sharing in online forums. Method. Descriptive quantitative analysis and qualitative content analysis of fifty discussion threads with 1326 messages downloaded from Google Groups uk.d-i-y forum. Analysis. To examine the dialogue processes, eleven categories of dialogue acts were defined. These acts include, for example, initial fact question, initial opinion answer, specifying opinion question, complementary fact answer and disagreement. Based on the temporally sensitive nature of such acts, the dialogue process was approached in two phases: initiation and elaboration. Results. The dialogue process at the initiation phase occurs in two ways: responding the initial question, and clarifying the initial question before answering. The elaboration phase is based on a more complex interplay of specifying questions, complementary answers, as well as answer agreements and disagreements. Due to this characteristic, the degree of dialogicality is higher at the elaboration phase. Conclusions. Dialogue is a fundamental constituent of information interaction. Due to its protean nature, the dynamics of asynchronous dialogue processes are difficult to capture in detail. The empirical research settings may be elaborated further by drawing on the potential of novel methods such as digital conversation analysis.

Health literacy in a complex digital media landscape: Pediatric obesity patients’ experiences with online weight, food, and health information

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 1343-1357 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Holmberg ◽  
Christina Berg ◽  
Jovanna Dahlgren ◽  
Lauren Lissner ◽  
John Eric Chaplin
Keyword(s):  
Social Support ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Health Information ◽  
Pediatric Obesity ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Food Marketing ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Online Forums ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Online Networks

This study aimed to explore experiences with online information regarding food, weight management, and health in a group of adolescents in treatment for obesity. Individual semi-structured interviews with 20 adolescents were conducted. Participants used a screen-recorded laptop to demonstrate their search procedures and online information sources. The transcribed interviews were categorized using qualitative content analysis. The adolescents described both encouraging and discouraging experiences. On one hand, they said that online forums could provide nutritious meal ideas and inspiration as well as social support for behavior change. On the other hand, they mentioned that there was a confusing amount of misleading commercial content online and also experiences of peer-facilitated food marketing in online networks. An overarching theme was generated: social media might be a resource for health inspiration, health information, and social support, but requires awareness and competencies. Implications for clinical practice are discussed in light of these findings.

The Impact of a Highly Publicized Celebrity Suicide on Suicide-Related Online Information Seeking

Crisis ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 207-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
Florian Arendt ◽  
Sebastian Scherr
Keyword(s):  
Suicide Prevention ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Search Queries ◽  
Related Information ◽  
Search Terms ◽  
Celebrity Suicide ◽  
Online Information Seeking ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Background: Research has already acknowledged the importance of the Internet in suicide prevention as search engines such as Google are increasingly used in seeking both helpful and harmful suicide-related information. Aims: We aimed to assess the impact of a highly publicized suicide by a Hollywood actor on suicide-related online information seeking. Method: We tested the impact of the highly publicized suicide of Robin Williams on volumes of suicide-related search queries. Results: Both harmful and helpful search terms increased immediately after the actor's suicide, with a substantial jump of harmful queries. Limitations: The study has limitations (e.g., possible validity threats of the query share measure, use of ambiguous search terms). Conclusion: Online suicide prevention efforts should try to increase online users' awareness of and motivation to seek help, for which Google's own helpline box could play an even more crucial role in the future.

scholarly journals Share to Seek: The Effects of Disease Complexity on Health Information Seeking Behavior (Preprint)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ashwag Alasmari ◽  
Lina Zhou
Keyword(s):  
Health Information ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Experimental Studies ◽  
Mixed Data ◽  
Disease Development ◽  
Health Information Seeking ◽  
Alternative Source ◽  
Types Of Information

BACKGROUND Online Questioning and Answering (Q&A) sites have emerged as an alternative source for serving individuals’ health information needs. Despite the amount of studies concerning the analysis of user-generated content in online Q&A sites, there is an insufficient understanding of the effect of disease complexity on information seeking needs, and the types of information shared, and little research have been devoted to questions that involve multimorbidity. OBJECTIVE This study aims to investigate online sharing of health information at different levels of disease complexity. In particular, this study gains a deep insight into the effect of disease complexity in terms of information seeking needs, types of information shared, and stages of disease development. METHODS We first selected a random sample of 400 questions from each site. The data cleaning resulted in a final set of 624 questions, 316 questions from Yahoo Answers and 308 from WebMD Answers. We used a mixed data approach, including qualitative content analysis followed by statistical quantitative analysis. RESULTS The analysis of variance One Way ANOVA showed significant differences in the disease complexity (single versus multimorbid disease questions) only on two information seeking needs: diagnosis (F1, 622 =5.08, p=0.00), and treatment (F1, 622 =4.82, p=0.00). There were also statistically significant differences between the two levels of disease complexity when considering the stages of disease development, the general health stage (F1,622 =48.02, p=0.00) and chronic stage (F1,622 =54.01, p=0.00). Moreover, our findings showed significant differences among the two types of disease complexity on all types of shared information, demographic information (F1,622 =32.24, p=0.00), medical all (F1,622 = 16.75, p=0.00), medical diagnosis (F1,622 =11.04, p=0.00), as well as treatment and prevention (F1,622 =14.55, p=0.00). CONCLUSIONS The findings present implications for designing online Q&A sites to better support health information seeking. Future experimental studies should be conducted to verify these findings and provide effective health information from Q&A sites. CLINICALTRIAL

scholarly journals Health Effects Associated With Electronic Cigarette Use: Automated Mining of Online Forums (Preprint)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
My Hua ◽  
Shouq Sadah ◽  
Vagelis Hristidis ◽  
Prue Talbot
Keyword(s):  
Health Effects ◽  
Electronic Cigarettes ◽  
Health Effect ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Online Forums ◽  
Unified Medical Language System ◽  
Organ Systems ◽  
Negative Sentiment ◽  
Specific Symptoms ◽  
Medical Concepts

BACKGROUND Our previous infodemiological study was performed by manually mining health-effect data associated with electronic cigarettes (ECs) from online forums. Manual mining is time consuming and limits the number of posts that can be retrieved. OBJECTIVE Our goal in this study was to automatically extract and analyze a large number (>41,000) of online forum posts related to the health effects associated with EC use between 2008 and 2015. METHODS Data were annotated with medical concepts from the Unified Medical Language System using a modified version of the MetaMap tool. Of over 1.4 million posts, 41,216 were used to analyze symptoms (undiagnosed conditions) and disorders (physician-diagnosed terminology) associated with EC use. For each post, sentiment (positive, negative, and neutral) was also assigned. RESULTS Symptom and disorder data were categorized into 12 organ systems or anatomical regions. Most posts on symptoms and disorders contained negative sentiment, and affected systems were similar across all years. Health effects were reported most often in the neurological, mouth and throat, and respiratory systems. The most frequently reported symptoms and disorders were headache (n=939), coughing (n=852), malaise (n=468), asthma (n=916), dehydration (n=803), and pharyngitis (n=565). In addition, users often reported linked symptoms (eg, coughing and headache). CONCLUSIONS Online forums are a valuable repository of data that can be used to identify positive and negative health effects associated with EC use. By automating extraction of online information, we obtained more data than in our prior study, identified new symptoms and disorders associated with EC use, determined which systems are most frequently adversely affected, identified specific symptoms and disorders most commonly reported, and tracked health effects over 7 years.

Negotiating new racism: ‘It’s not racist or sexist. It’s just the way it is’

2018 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Whitney Hunt
Keyword(s):  
Comic Books ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Comic Book ◽  
White Men ◽  
People Of Color ◽  
Online Forums ◽  
Film And Television ◽  
Historical Processes ◽  
American Society ◽  
Book Culture

Comic books are being adapted into film and television series, encouraging underrepresented voices to become more prominent in comic book culture. White men continue to dominate the culture as creators and principle characters. Yet, women and people of color are consuming comic books and films at increasing rates prompting fans to use social media outlets and online forums to engage in conversations about race in pop culture. Employing a qualitative content analysis of an online forum tailored to comic book culture, this research investigates how fans negotiate their continued fandom of comics amid claims that the industry is discriminatory toward people of color. Findings reveal forum discussion is adopting framings of new racism when accounting for a lack of diversity in comic book films. Specifically, this research shows how fans rely on White racial framings throughout discussion. Central themes indicate most forum participants suggest only overt discrimination implies that race matters and minimize the effects of historical processes. Moreover, few fans challenge traditional representations normalizing White dominance. This study contributes to research on new racism and the prevalence of White racial framings in contemporary American society.

E- Resources Searching Behaviour of Research Scholars of Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith, Varanasi: A Case Study

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 9-13
Author(s):  
Vijay Kumar Bharati
Keyword(s):  
Information Seeking ◽  
Word Of Mouth ◽  
Information Sources ◽  
Steady Increase ◽  
Online Information ◽  
Searching Behaviour ◽  
Mahatma Gandhi ◽  
Use Of Internet ◽  
Widespread Dissemination

E-resources are revolutioning academic libraries. E-resources available via the Internet are increasing exponentially, leading to steady increase in the use of Internet for education and research. Since past few years, free online information sources like e-journals, e-books, e-databases have increased considerably. Earlier information and knowledge were passed by word of mouth or through manuscripts and communication was a slow process. Today it is passed from one individual to an infinite number of other users through a number of media and formats which makes rapid and widespread dissemination of information possible. The information seeking behaviour of the users are also changing due to availability of e-contents. This paper discusses searching behaviour of E-resources by research scholars of Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidyapith, Varanasi.

Dentistry Website Analysis: An Overview of the Content of Formulated Questions and Answers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peivand Bastani ◽  
Fatemeh Niknam ◽  
Mahboobeh Rezazadeh ◽  
Giampiero Rossi Fedele ◽  
Sisira Edirippulige ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Dental Health ◽  
International Classification Of Diseases ◽  
Communication Styles ◽  
Middle Income ◽  
Questions And Answers ◽  
Classification Of Diseases

Abstract Background: Analyzing the online medical questions and answer can be considered as a valuable tool for better comprehending mutual contractions between the patients and the caregivers in an online environment. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the content of questions and answers posted on dentistry websites.Methods: A mixed-method study was conducted in 2020. A total of 1182 related questions and answers were included. The data was analyzed quantitatively according to the classification of the questions, main complaints of the subjects and length of the questions and answers using Excel2013. A qualitative content analysis was carried out also for data robustness and triangulation. Results: Of the 1354 questions, 866 of them were categorized into 38 categories according to the main sub-classes of the International Classification of Diseases to Dentistry and Stomatology. Furthermore, the inquiries were allocated to 3 communication styles to present the users` main complaints that included contextual (52.33%), emotional (6.79%) and focal (40.89%) strategies. Results of the qualitative content analysis have led to 6 main themes: seeking the related recommendations of any actions, treatment seeking, information seeking, seeking for causes and reasons, seeking for oral and dental health recommendations and seeking for the dentists’ diagnosis or comments.Conclusions: The present study can be used for designing specific customized websites of dentistry and help the website managers for better optimization of the websites. All these interventions can pave the way for developing teleconsulting in dentistry for middle-income countries.

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