The information of story: the genre and information activities of ultrarunning race reports

Date17 July 2017
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-03-2017-0071
Published date17 July 2017
Pages460-474
AuthorTim Gorichanaz
Subject MatterLibrary & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management
The information of story: the
genre and information activities
of ultrarunning race reports
Tim Gorichanaz
College of Computing and Informatics, Drexel University,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore the race reportas a document genre in the serious-leisure
pursuit of ultrarunning. Despite the sports largely non-documental nature, race reports stand as an anomaly
in their importance. This exploration serves as a springboard to investigate the informativeness of story in
human life generally.
Design/methodology/approach A qualitative survey of the information behavior of ultrarunners was
conducted. The 46 participants were runners in a 100-mile footrace in 2016. Responses were first analyzed
through phenomenological theme analysis and then were subjected to a deductive audit using a framework of
information activities validated for use in serious-leisure pursuits.
Findings Race reports are bound up in information activities across the information-communication chain.
Race reports help athletes choose races, prepare for races, pre-experience races, communicate their race
experiences, gather new ideas, extend their training and, finally, find entertainment.
Research limitations/implications This discussion of genre is synchronic, largely limited to one
moment in time, and its findings were limited in depth by the survey method. Further research should
investigate race reports historically (diachronically) and infrastructurally.
Originality/value This work points to symbiosis between genre theory and information behavior theory.
It also legitimizes narrative reasoning as a way of knowing, which has been largely unrecognized in
information behavior. Some implications of this for information science and technology are discussed.
Keywords Information behaviour, Narrative, Story, Genre theory, Information activities, Ultrarunning
Paper type Research paper
Story has long been espoused as an essential facet of humanity a cultural object,
an expression of our cognition. Despite this, information science, which works to support
human reasoning and the preservation and access of cultural objects, has scarcely
considered story. Part of the reason for this lies in the privilege given to logico-scientific
ways of knowing in the scientific pursuits. However, today information science is seeking to
broaden its scope and impact to further reaches of humanity, and it is finally beginning to
acknowledge the informativeness of story.
In this paper, I seek to highlight this emerging and important research thread.
I present findings from a qualitative survey of the information behavior of ultrarunners as
pertains to a genreof story that ultrarunners tell: the racereport. Informed by recent work in
information behavior and genre theory, I characterize the race report according to the
information activities (Hektor, 2001)across the entire span of the information-communication
chain (Robinson, 2009). The findings from this study clear common ground between genre
theory and information behavior,pointing toward paths for futureresearch and technologyto
support human flourishing in a holistic way.
Background
Story and information behavior
For as long as humans have been around, we have been telling stories. Story has been a part
of every human culture (Agosto, 2001). As Gottschall (2012) writes in The Storytelling
Aslib Journal of Information
Management
Vol. 69 No. 4, 2017
pp. 460-474
© Emerald PublishingLimited
2050-3806
DOI 10.1108/AJIM-03-2017-0071
Received 16 March 2017
Revised 26 April 2017
Accepted 6 July 2017
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2050-3806.htm
460
AJIM
69,4

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