Seeking and sharing information dialogically. A conversation analytic study of asynchronous online talk

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/JD-09-2018-0140
Published date13 May 2019
Pages530-549
Date13 May 2019
AuthorReijo Savolainen
Subject MatterLibrary & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet
Seeking and sharing
information dialogically
A conversation analytic study
of asynchronous online talk
Reijo Savolainen
Tampere University, Tampere, Finland
Abstract
Purpose Drawing on the ideas of conversation analysis (CA), the purpose of this paper is to elaborate the
picture of dialogical information seeking and sharing. To this end, information seeking and sharing are
approached as interactive online talk occurring in an asynchronous discussion forum.
Design/methodology/approach The conceptual framework is based on the elaboration of Schegloffs
model for sequence organisation in spoken conversation. As a result, ten categories constitutive of
asynchronous online talk were identified. It was further examined how online talk of this type is structured by
expanded question answers adjacency pairs and how such pairs are constitutive of dialogical information
seeking and sharing. This question was explored by scrutinising 20 discussion threads downloaded from a
do-it-yourself related online forum.
Findings Four ideal typical patterns of asynchronous online talk were identified. Answering the question
is a basic pattern of online talk, based on the provision of responses to an individual request. Specifying the
answer, broadening the discussion topic and challenging the answer represent more sophisticated patterns
incorporating post-expansions of diverse kind.
Research limitations/implications As the study focusses on four patterns constitutive of online talk
occurring in a particular domain, the findings cannot be generalised to depict the phenomena of dialogical
information interaction as a whole. Further research is needed to scrutiny the particular features of
asynchronous online talk in the context of dialogical information interaction.
Originality/value The paper pioneers by exam ining the potential of C A in the micro-level stud y
of dialogical information seeking and sharing structured by expanded adjacency pairs. The findings
also identify the limit ations of the conversatio n analytic methodology in the study of asynchron ous
online discourse.
Keywords Interaction, Information sharing, Information seeking, Dialogue, Information interaction,
Conversation analysis
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The forums of social media such as question and answer services and online discussion groups
enable a new type of interaction between information seekers and information providers. More
specifically, these forums exemplify sites of dialogical information interaction which is based
on written discourse. Distinct from spoken conversation, discourse of this type can be
approached in terms of online talk a novel term advocated by researchers interested
in the conversational and dialogical features of computer-mediated communication (CMC)
(Paulus et al., 2016).
Recently, there is a growing interest in the phenomena of information interaction in
studies on information searching and retrieval (Fidel, 2012; White, 2016). Along with the
breakthrough of the internet, interactive has become a pervasive qualifier of information
systems; therefore, almost all information searching and retrieval is nowadays interactive
in nature (Ruthven, 2008, p. 45). So far, there is no consensus among researchers about the
nature of information interaction. The topics of studies examining interaction of this kind
vary widely, ranging from dialogue between the reference librarian and the client to query
reformulation performed by the end user. Despite the variety of topics, many of these
studies suggest that the question about the fundamental nature of information interaction
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 75 No. 3, 2019
pp. 530-549
© Emerald PublishingLimited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-09-2018-0140
Received 3 September 2018
Revised 5 November 2018
Accepted 8 November 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0022-0418.htm
530
JD
75,3
boils down to dialogue occurring between human actor(s) and information system
(Savolainen, 2018).
Unfortunately, so far, there is a dearth of in-depth studies examining dialogue as a
constituent of information interaction. The present study was inspired by the need for filling
research gaps in this field by examining the nature of dialogue in one of the main domains of
information interaction, that is, information seeking and sharing. To sharpen the research
focus, the study was concentrated on dialogue-based information seeking and information
sharing occurring in asynchronous online discussion forums. Dialogical information
seeking and sharing of this kind was approached as a form of online talk (Giles et al., 2015).
It was scrutinised by means of conversation analysis (CA) because this method enables a
micro-level examination of dialogue occurring in conversation. To this end, an attempt was
made to specify the nature of asynchronous online talk by scrutinising question answer
adjacency pairs constitutive of information seeking and sharing. This issue was examined
in an explorative empirical study by analysing discussion threads downloaded from an
online forum where people seek and share information about do-it-yourself (DIY) projects.
The study departs from the assumption that online talk relevant to information seeking is
constituted by the questions posed by the participants, while responses offered to such
questions represent information sharing. Dialogue occurs when questions are responded,
potentially giving rise to additional questions and answers. In the present study, dialogue of
this kind is examined by making use of one of the key constructs of CA, that is, adjacency
pair (Schegloff, 2007) More specifically, the attention will be devoted question answer(s)
adjacency pairs constitutive of asynchronous online talk.
The rest of the paper is structured as follows. First, to provide background, the concepts
of dialogue and online talk are characterised, followed by the introductory review of CA.
Thereafter, the conceptual framework is specified, followed by the description of the
empirical research setting and the communication of the findings. The last chapters discuss
the research findings and draw conclusions about their significance to research on
information interaction.
Literature review
Approaches to dialogue and asynchronous online talk
As a fundamental constituent of human interaction, dialogue is a subject to diverse
definitions. According to Booth (1989, p. 46), dialogue may be generally understood as the
exchange of symbols between two or more parties, as well as being the meanings that the
participants in the communicative process assign to these symbols. Markova and Linell
(1996, p. 353) proposed a more detailed definition by characterizing human dialogue as
an interaction between two or more co-present participants using a system of signs,
while dialogical interactions are such discursive processes and their products that
are conceptualized as joint, coordinated and mutually interdependent activities of both
(all) participants.
Many of the classic studies of human dialogue focus on spoken (face-to-face)
conversation between two individuals. Portraying arguments in a dialogue framework, in
which two parties engage in an exchange of orderly questions and replies, is an old idea in
philosophy, perhaps best known through the dialogues written by Plato to represent the
philosophical activities of Socrates (Walton, 2000, p. 328). On the other hand, classic studies
on dialogue have mainly approached it from the perspective of the speaker. For example,
Austins (1962) speech act theory is primarily interested in how the speaker can do things
with words, rather than how the hearer reacts to the utterances generated by the speaker.
The limitations of traditional approaches to dialogue as a face-to-face conversation
between two speech partners have become even more evident in studies on CMC.
This is because online discussions are often characterised by the complexity of multivocal
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Seeking and
sharing
information
dialogically

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