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‘Berrypicking’ in the Formation of Ideas About Problem Drinking Amongst Users of Alcohol Online Support Groups

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Information in Contemporary Society (iConference 2019)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNISA,volume 11420))

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Abstract

Beliefs held by individuals about the illnesses or problems that affect them have been shown to impact upon the health and other outcomes that they achieve. Online support groups (OSGs) are one source of information used by those with health problems which may influence or determine what they think about their particular issue and how to resolve it. Problem drinking remains a major source of significant costs to society. This article explores whether the discussion forums of alcohol OSGs that do not follow the 12-step philosophy of Alcoholics Anonymous influence the formation of these beliefs, reporting on the outcome of thematic analysis of interviews with 25 users from five groups. It argues that Bates’ ‘Berrypicking’ model of information searching is helpful in illuminating group members’ information seeking activities. It looks at the four key aspects of berrypicking identified by Bates – the nature of the search query, the information ‘domains’ drawn on, the information retrieved and the search techniques used. The study finds that users are typically berrypickers, selecting information from different sources and forming their own interpretations.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK

    Sally Sanger, Peter A. Bath & Jo Bates

Authors
  1. Sally Sanger
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  2. Peter A. Bath
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  3. Jo Bates
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sally Sanger .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA

    Natalie Greene Taylor

  2. University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Caitlin Christian-Lamb

  3. University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

    Michelle H. Martin

  4. University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA, USA

    Bonnie Nardi

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Sanger, S., Bath, P.A., Bates, J. (2019). ‘Berrypicking’ in the Formation of Ideas About Problem Drinking Amongst Users of Alcohol Online Support Groups. In: Taylor, N., Christian-Lamb, C., Martin, M., Nardi, B. (eds) Information in Contemporary Society. iConference 2019. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 11420. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15742-5_76

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15742-5_76

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-030-15741-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-030-15742-5

  • eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)

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