Transformative and participatory information behaviours – for starters
Apr. 26th, 2026 03:49 amTransformative and participatory information behaviours – for starters
The premise of fandom studies is that fannish works and cultures are distinctive. So, in this case, fannish information behaviours are distinctive. One way, specifically that they are distinctive is that
fanworks, in both physical and digital form, are seen to take a central place in the information environment;
Price, L.; Robinson, L. (2017). ‘Being in a knowledge space’: Information behaviour of cult media fan communities. Journal of Information Science, 43(5), 649-664. doi.org/10.1108/JD-05-2020-0089
It is not the primary source that takes central space in fannish information systems but transformative works, this transformation being the unique way fans alter the information. (That the information is altered is in itself not in opposition to general information behaviours. Organisation and dissemination, for example, can also be framed as alteration of data without considering any other processes.)
In the same research, there were some statements that the majority of fans participating in the experiment agreed on:
Fans collect information for other fans in the form of creating rec lists, link lists, wikis, tutorials, guides, etc.
Other fans are an important discovery tool and source of information.
Certain fans act as information sources or gatekeepers for the wider fan community.
Price, L.; Robinson, L. (2017). ‘Being in a knowledge space’: Information behaviour of cult media fan communities. Journal of Information Science, 43(5), 649-664. doi.org/10.1108/JD-05-2020-0089
These statements also place fandom (other fans, fanworks as in rec lists, fan community) in the focus of these information behaviours. If we squint, we can also catch the participatory nature of fandoms, that of the active consumer: here are the tutorials and guides you can follow, here are the lists leading you to further information and here are the fanworks where you have to place together how it builds on canon yourself.
There is an old joke in humanities where a professor proclaims something to be a social construct. The audience finds that a really interesting starting point and urges them to keep talking. They say, no, that was the conclusion. So, let us start here and continue with the scholarship the researchers of both fandom studies and information sciences have provided us with.
Oosted by: Szabó Dorottya





