H6513 Information Organisation
Discussion Forums
Users, User Behavior & Content
Copyright By PowCoder代写 加微信 powcoder
Online discussion forums
Began as bulletin boards and Usenet newsgroups in the 1980s
Internet discussion forums are Web-based versions of Usenet newsgroups
Not concentrated on a small number of hubs, but widely distributed
Consumer review sites and social question-and-answer sites are often structured as discussion forums
Product manufacturers set up discussion forums as part of product support
Online discussion forums
Characteristics
Usually focused on particular topics and user communities
Characteristics of users and use depend on the topic, the user community, …
Health discussion forums are more studied than other forums
serve a useful function in helping patients of chronic and severe diseases to manage their condition as well as psychological state
Discussion forums are used mainly for posting questions (i.e. requests for information), responding to questions with information, and unsolicited sharing of information.
% of posts that contain questions : between 10% and 20%
Responses to questions: between 20% and 50%.
Discussion forums
Types of questions
Savolainen (2011) analyzed a Finnish discussion forum focusing on posts related to depression
Users mainly asked for opinions and evaluations of an issue, and less for factual and procedural information
Responses drew heavily on personal knowledge, and sometimes on experts or expert organizations, but rarely on traditional sources such as newspaper, magazines and books
Dissolving hierarchical barriers
Discussion forums help to breach hierarchical barriers so that healthcare professionals feel more comfortable to interact with their seniors or juniors than in face-to-face interactions
Helps healthcare professionals to share literature searches, collaboratively appraise evidence, interpret research evidence and its implications, and share their experiences in using the evidence (Dobbins et al., 2009)
Types of information on social media sites
Chuang & Yang (2012) found two types of social support in an alcoholism online community on the MedHelp social networking site:
informational support, including facts, personal stories and opinion, advice, information referral
nurturant support, including emotional support, esteem support, network support.
A higher proportion of informational support on the discussion forum.
Among the three subtypes of nurturant support, expression of emotional support was the most common.
Expressions of emotional support include stressing the relationship the recipient has with others, physical affection, assurance of confidentiality, sympathy, indication of listening or attention, understanding and empathy, encouragement and prayers.
Types of information on social media sites
Hughes & Cohen (2011) compared the side effects of 2 psychotropic drugs reported on 4 consumer drug review sites compared to those listed on two authoritative websites:
Both kinds of sites mentioned similar side effects
Authoritative websites merely listed the side effects
Reviews provided rich descriptions of various manifestations of the side effects in context
User perception of the severity of side effects in the review sites was different from what was portrayed on authoritative sites.
E.g., the sexual effects of a drug were labelled in the authoritative sites as less severe or severe, whereas reviewers used the expressions “extremely frustrating” and “can’t perform sexually so you get depressed and anxious.”
Types of information on social media sites
Chew & Khoo (2015) analyzed consumer reviews for 9 drugs on 3 drug review sites, in comparison to 3 authoritative health information sites:
Types of information found only on drug review sites: drug efficacy, drug resistance experienced by long-term users, cost of drug in relation to insurance coverage, availability of generic forms, comparison with other similar drugs, difficulty in using the drug, and advice on coping with side effects
Side effects were vividly described in context, including severity based on discomfort and effect on their lives
Authoritative drug information websites do not provide an indication of how efficacious a drug is, whereas user posts can provide an indication of how fast a drug works and what kind of improvement the patient can expect
Knowledge translation
Experiential and practice knowledge is important in many professions, notably the healthcare profession
Knowledge translation has been defined as “a dynamic and iterative process that includes synthesis, dissemination, exchange and ethically-sound application of knowledge to improve the health of [people] …” (Canadian Institute of Health Research, 2014)
Stewart and Abidi (2012) noted a growing recognition of practice knowledge in medicine as a vital supplement to evidence-based knowledge, to address complex or rare clinical situations
Facebook groups
Facebook groups appear to serve the same function as discussion forums.
Greene et al. (2011) analyzed a sample of posts from 15 largest Facebook groups focusing on diabetes:
The majority of the posts sampled described users’ personal experiences with diabetes management.
13% of the posts contained a question, 66% provided information (whether solicited or unsolicited), and 29% provided emotional support.
24% of the posts shared sensitive aspects of diabetes management based on personal experiences, unlikely to be revealed in doctor-patient interactions.
E.g., one post explained how to count carbohydrates in Type I diabetes to enable extended alcoholic drinking sessions without risking ketoacidosis. These discussions provide socio-emotional support for patients to live the life they wish, with recognition of human limitations and daily life issues.
Types of user behavior
Burnett (2000) and Burnett & Buerkle (2004) divided online behaviour on social media sites into non-interactive behaviour (e.g., lurking) and interactive behaviour. Interactive behaviour can be divided into:
Hostile interactive behaviour, subdivided into:
flaming, trolling, spamming and cyber-rape
Collaborative non-informational behavior:
neutral (pleasantries and gossip),
humorous (language games and play behaviour) and
empathic (emotional support) behaviours
Collaborative informational behavior:
subdivided into announcement (including personal updates and pointers to external information sources)
query (which may be directed to the community or to an individual),
response to a query
group project (e.g., summarizing threads and creating an FAQ document)
Hostile behavior
Hostile behaviour is often assumed to be unproductive.
However, Irvine-Smith (2010) found that hostile posts can be informative.
some participants found flame wars quite informative and memorable, and that the range of opinions expressed broadened their views.
She suggested that Burnett’s category of hostile behaviour can be subdivided into informational and non-informational hostile behaviour
Types of user information behavior
Social media content allows researchers to study 3 kinds of information behaviour that is otherwise difficult to study:
Critical information behaviour, including evaluative behaviour and biases
Information integration, including information summarization and knowledge synthesis
Use of information in changing opinion and sentiment, and in decision making.
These 3 types of behaviour are often intertwined. When a user posts evaluative comments on another user’s post, this can trigger a discussion and stimulate other users to contribute related information. Subsequent posts may attempt to make sense of the available information and synthesize the best possible answer.
Cross-country differences
Information profile of discussion forums can differ from one country to another
Donelle & Hoffman-Goetz (2009) compared cancer-related posts in a health discussion forum hosted by a Canadian and an American association for retired persons.
The American forum carried more information about the economic management of the patients’ condition, and difficulties in navigating a healthcare system where insurance companies play a major role
The Canadian forum carried more information about cancer and cancer treatment
The authors suggested that the content of the discussion forums reflected needs not adequately addressed by the healthcare system
Product reviews: Korean vs US
Cheong & Mohammed-Baksh (2020) compared information-seeking behavior in US and Korean discussion boards of 6 digital camera review sites (3 in each country).
Korean discussion board users — more likely to engage in information-seeking (more direct requests for digital camera recommendations)
Fong & Burton (2008) had found that China-based discussion board users engaged in more information-seeking than U.S.
U.S. discussion board users do more information-giving than Korean (based on no. of online responses which had camera recommendations)
Fong & Burton (2008) had found that users from “individualistic” cultures (U.S.) posted more responses for camera recommendations than “collectivistic” cultures such as China.
U.S. and Korean Consumers: A Cross-Cultural
Examination of Product Information-Seeking and –
Hyuk and -Baksh
JOURNAL OF PROMOTION MANAGEMENT
2020, VOL. 26, NO. 6, 893–910
https://doi.org/10.1080/10496491.2020.1745985
Product reviews: Korean vs US
U.S. discussion board users wrote camera recommendations with more words than Korean forums.
Hall’s (1981, 1990) theory of cultural contexts: users in low-context cultures more likely to provide clearly articulated opinions with more information than those from high-context cultures (Ko et al., 2006)
U.S. and Korean Consumers: A Cross-Cultural
Examination of Product Information-Seeking and –
Hyuk and -Baksh
JOURNAL OF PROMOTION MANAGEMENT
2020, VOL. 26, NO. 6, 893–910
https://doi.org/10.1080/10496491.2020.1745985
Differences across topics
O’Connor (2013) and O’Connor & Rapchak (2012) found:
investment discussion forums tended to have more information-oriented posts, and fewer posts that functioned as social (e.g., humour) and hostile
political forums were much less information dense and had more hostile posts.
Biases in information behavior
Biased information behaviour is prevalent in financial and political social media sites.
Park et al. (2010) analyzed posts on a Korean finance discussion forum and found that:
investors exhibited confirmation bias in the selection and use of information posted
investors with stronger confirmation bias were found to be more confident, had higher expectations of their performance, traded more frequently, and realized lower returns.
O’Connor (2013) analyzed posts in 3 investment discussion forums:
investors tended to rely on personal sources of information, blogs and investor guru sites
tended to use information without critical evaluation.
Biases in information behavior
Health social media sites:
more critical and evaluative behavior
more integration of information
much less hostile behaviour.
Esquivel, Meric-Bernstam & Bernstam (2006) studied the accuracy of posts on an online breast cancer mailing list:
very small proportion (0.22%) of false or misleading statements
most of which were corrected by other users within an average of four and half hours
Information integration and knowledge synthesis
Users’ information integration and knowledge synthesis can be observed through the following types of interactive behaviour:
contribution of related, complementary or contrary information, experience and opinion
reference or linking to external sources of information
evaluation of information or critical comment
linking or comparing information in two or more posts
summarizing a set of posts
drawing inferences and conclusions from a set of posts.
Knowledge synthesis on a health forum
Kazmer et al. (2014) studied the types of knowledge synthesis in a discussion forum for patients of ’s disease
many instances of sharing, linking and pooling together of related information on the causes, treatments, symptoms and co-occurring conditions of the disease, based on personal experiences.
3 types of knowledge synthesis:
Distributed knowledge – no single person has all the relevant pieces of information, but pieces of information from different people are pooled together
Undiscovered public knowledge – linking pieces of information and adding a missing relationship, or applying an operation, to infer new knowledge
Authoritative knowledge – “that knowledge taken to be legitimate, consequential, official, worthy of discussion and useful for justifying actions”. Authoritative knowledge “co-constructed” by users by examining evidence from a variety of sources.
Information integration in a risky situation
In a risky or ambiguous situation — information integration is needed to arrive at a considered decision, when the quality and trustworthiness of the available information is in doubt.
Case (2010) analyzed posts from a few discussion forums for coin collecting, focusing on questions from users who were trying to make a decision to purchase a coin for their collection or to authenticate purchased coins.
the community of collectors is an important source of information as information in individual posts is generally not definitive
the set of posts cumulatively help the user to make sense of the problem and arrive at a decision
also obtain some emotional support from knowing that “one is not alone and that others are willing to help.”
Social construction of identity
A kind of information integration takes place when a user community attempts to socially construct its identity and self-perception.
Greene et al. (2011) studied Facebook groups focusing on diabetes, and found that users actively seek to figure out their identity as a diabetic and as a diabetic community:
Many discussion threads initiated by posters who claimed to be “new” diabetics, and received replies from “seasoned” diabetics helping to frame their expectations, alternately encouraging them that their lives would be manageable, while warning them to expect the routine difficulties of the diabetic life
Other discussions initiated by seasoned diabetics and debated what it meant to be, and at what moment one became, a diabetic
Users shared personal stories of their life with diabetes, and referenced each other’s story elements — group storytelling weaved a tapestry of life as a diabetic.
Case study: SNA & leader identification
Online forum for cancer survivors & caregivers
Objective: to identify leaders in an online forum for cancer survivors and caregivers
Extracted user features: including contributions, network centralities, and linguistic features.
Generated new neighborhood-based and cluster-based features
Classification results found that these features helped to identify leaders
Leader identification in an online health community for cancer survivors: a social network-based classification approach
• Greta E. Greer • • •
Inf Syst E-Bus Manage (2015) 13:629–645
DOI 10.1007/s10257-014-0260-5
Case study: Analysis of breast cancer symptoms
Objective: Compares and contrasts symptom cluster patterns derived from a breast cancer forum with those from a symptom checklist completed by breast cancer survivors
Cluster analysis of words based on co-occurrence in posts
Word clusters in forum: menopausal/psychological, pain/fatigue, gastrointestinal, miscellaneous
Word cluster in checklist: menopausal, pain, fatigue/sleep/gastrointestinal, psychological, and increased weight/appetite
Symptom clusters in women with breast cancer: an analysis of data from social media and a research study
. Marshall • . Yang • Qing Ping • • . Avis • . Life Res (2016) 25:547–557
DOI 10.1007/s11136-015-1156-7
Concept clusters from forum
Concept clusters from checklists filled by patients
Thank you!
程序代写 CS代考 加微信: powcoder QQ: 1823890830 Email: powcoder@163.com