A Beginner’s Guide to InformationGrounds

This article is a brief survey of the information science literature in regards
to the conceptual development of Karen Fisher’s (née Pettigrew) information
grounds framework. To keep things simple, I am not going to talk about every aspect of information grounds; to do so would result in a mere
list of names and dates; with little room for explanation. Accordingly my
intention is to present a few particular examples of more general trends.
The concept of information grounds is now a well-understood and validated theory that is built upon research in physical spaces. Information grounds theory is a viable conceptual framework for understanding how social media can be perceived as place. Information grounds is also an emergent and significant area for future study.

The Key Influences on the Development of Information Grounds

A key influence on Fisher’s early work was the epistemological approach of
social constructionism, particularly as it was conceptualised for
information seeking by Tuominen and Savolainen. Social constructionism contends that the categories of knowledge and of reality itself are actively created by and are the products of social and symbolic interactions, all within the given temporal and spatial boundaries of a cultural context.

The idea of social reality being created through conversational networks
had clear influence on both information behaviour research in general and on Fisher as she developed the theory of information grounds.

Fisher has drawn on a range of sources such as Granovetter’s (1973) Strength
of Weak Ties and Ray Oldenburg’s (1999) The Great Good Place, which proposed the concept of third place.

1. Brenda Dervin: The work of Brenda Dervin has had a tremendous impact and influence on the field of information science. Worrall (2010) tells that Dervin directly influenced Fisher’s early work on information grounds. Pettigrew (1999) specifically cited Dervin’s landmark review (with Nilan) of information needs and uses (Dervin & Nilan 1986), her development of the timeline sense-making interview technique (Dervin 1992), and her discussion of information in context (Dervin 1997) as key influences.
2. Elfreda Chatman
   Elfreda Chatman’s small worlds attaches more emphasis on spatial factors as constraints, while information grounds thematises spatial factors as open arenas. As to social factors, the small world focuses on normative
   constraints of information seeking. The construct of information grounds
   emphasises the co-presence of other people as an opportunity to serendipitous seeking and sharing of information. Both approaches share interest in the social types as constructs that provide clues about the relevance of individual people as sources of information (Savolainen 2009).

Information Grounds: Case Studies

The concept of information grounds has been elaborated in a series of field
studies which have looked at new immigrants in New York, the general public
in Washington, migrant Hispanic farm workers, college students, tweens and
stay-at-home mothers.

The main research strategy adopted by Fisher was inductive and is heavily
grounded on empirical surveys using qualitative and quantitative approaches
focusing on diverse study populations. Based on the findings of these
investigations, the picture of social qualifiers of information grounds is
gradually enriched.

1. Waiting for Chiropody (1999)
   While investigating foot clinics as information grounds, Pettigrew studied the conversations of nurses and elderly customers as a context of
   information seeking. She found that the information exchanged could be considered a communicative construct involving the nature of local services that is produced in a social community based context. She conceptualised the clinic as an information ground, defining it as an environment temporarily created by the behaviour of people who have come together to perform a given task, but from which emerges a social atmosphere that fosters the spontaneous and serendipitous sharing of information. Drawing on Granovetter’s (1973) Strength of Weak Ties framework, Fisher hypothesised that the nurses provided the seniors with everyday information that the seniors could not obtain from other network members. Consistent with Chatman’s ethnographic approach, Fisher kept extensive field notes of all forms of information sharing at the clinic. Fisher argued that social settings contain varied sub-contexts, which can be studied from the perspectives of its different actors. Pettigrew further asserted that these sub-contexts form a grand context and that it is through studying these elements both individually and collectively that one arrives at a deep understanding of the information-related phenomenon (Fisher 2006).
2. Migrant Hispanic Farm Workers (2004)
   Fisher et al (2004) studied the information habits and information grounds of new and recent immigrants from Mexico who were working as migrant farm workers in the Pacific Northwest’s of the United States.
   Significant barriers were found to the migrants’ information seeking
   abilities. Their study revealed that most of the participants referred to
   an interpersonal source while they were asked about their source preferences (Fisher et al 2004). The migrant workers used information they received from friends and workmates who shared similar interests and concerns, such as fellow Hispanic Catholic church members.
   The study was one of the earliest to explicitly consider information grounds alongside other frameworks. It shows the growing influence of information grounds on information behaviour research and its application within an everyday-life, immigrant-focused context.
3. Queens Borough Public Library Programs
   Fisher, Durrance and Hinton (2004) looked at immigrants’ use of literacy
   skills programs run in New York. It focused on a context-based, outcome
   evaluation approach. The theory of information grounds was used to examine how immigrants used and benefited from these programs, what role context played in shaping outcomes, and in what ways these programs qualified as information grounds. The study served as an introduction of information grounds to a broader audience. It has proved to be influential, especially in terms of stating the key propositions of the theory for use by others.
4. College Students, Surveys, and a Typology: Fisher, Landry, and Naumer (2007) developed a questionnaire to be used by LIS graduate students to ask questions of students on a college campus (Fisher 2007). The questions asked what information grounds the students visited, what types of information they obtained, and why these grounds provided good information flow. Worrall (2010) notes that the development of this survey was a key turning point in the evolution and influence of information grounds. It developed a typology of categorical characteristics of information grounds. This typology, was broken into three categories: people, place, and information (Fisher 2007). Place characteristics included the focal activities taking place at the ground, the atmosphere, the location and permanence of the ground, the level of privacy, and the noise levels. Information characteristics included the significance of the information shared, the frequency given topics were discussed, how information was created and shared within the ground, and the topics of information shared.
5. Tweens: Meyers, Fisher, and Marcoux’s (2009) study was significant for its integration of multiple theories in one study of information behaviour.
   Dervin’s (1992) Sense-Making timeline interviews, Chatman’s theory of
   normative behaviours and Fisher’s information grounds were drawn upon.
   Worrall (2010) suggests that this is an indication of Fisher’s growing
   influence on information behaviour research. The study examines the information behaviour of tweens (children aged between 8 and 12 years). The results presented the types of everyday information tweens felt they needed, how they sought this, the barriers they faced, how they managed this information, the criteria they used to assess and share it, the role played by different social types in their information behaviour, and the role of information grounds in their everyday lives.
6. 2005 Telephone Survey & Structured Interviews: Fisher et al (2005) presented preliminary results of a telephone survey/structured interview of 612 residents from Washington, USA. The information grounds questions were open-ended, while the information sharing questions had fixed responses. Results indicated that the most popular information grounds were gender and income. Also rating highly were the reasons information grounds were found most useful; the people they brought together, their overall diversity, and the quality of the experience.
7. Stay-at-Home Mothers: Fisher and Landry (2007) studied the information behaviour of 20 stay-at-home mothers. They examined their information worlds, employing unobtrusive observations and semi-structured interviews. As with the tweens study (Meyers et al 2009), multiple theories were used to inform methodology and
   analysis. Chatman’s (1996) information poverty, Wilson’s (1999) information behaviour model and Fisher’s information grounds were employed. Fisher developed a picture of stay-at-home mothers’ information behaviour as it relates to information grounds. It was another study that showed the growing influence and widening application of information grounds.
8. Online Information Grounds: Counts and Fisher (2008) conducted the first known study to apply the theory of information grounds specifically in an online setting. They examined social messaging system for cell phones, to see if it served as an information ground and to examine its social and informational impacts on users. The findings showed that social messaging did act as an information ground and met most of the criteria of the theory (Counts & Fisher 2010). It is possible that Counts and Fisher’s (2008) study will play an influential role in future, as additional research explores online information grounds and how the theory may need to change to fit such environments.

Social Media as Information Grounds

Traditional physical information grounds facilitate people to come together
physically for reasons other than information exchange. However information
exchange happens nevertheless, albeit in a dynamic and unplanned manner. It is restricted to physical space and time; and hence to the number of
participants that can be part of the communication (Fisher et al 2007).
Social media allows us to experience and share our world with others by
transcending not only just spatial distances, but also temporal distances.
Of course there is no physical space in cyberspace; it is a de-centred
network of computers that span spatial and temporal boundaries, with no
hierarchy. It allows immediate connections between any nodes.

Narayan et al (2013) argues that the tools employed by social media users
correspond to the criteria of information grounds in so much that “people
gather at information grounds for a primary, instrumental purpose other than
information sharing” and that “social interaction is a primary activity at
information grounds such that information is a by-product”.

Pettigrew (2002) suggests that we move social settings to the forefront of
and study them holistically as an equal and motivating partner in the phenomenon of information exchange, that we study information flow as a by- product of social interaction.

Social networks have become tangible places where people gather; this has
the potential to nurture democracy and civil society, sometimes in unexpected
ways. Narayan (2013) puts forward that social media shares the
characteristics of being online information grounds; that all the pieces
together make information flow in a much less restrictive way than in
physical information grounds, as they are unbounded by temporal and spatial
restrictions.

Talip (2013) agrees that social media has the qualities of information
grounds. People participate in information grounds from separate places in
cyberspace in a synchronous manner in real-time, making it almost as dynamic and unplanned as physical information grounds.

Of course not everything about social media is positive. Narayan (2013)
points out that social media users can tend to expose themselves to
information that is in accordance with their prevailing beliefs, and actively
avoid contradictory information.

The Future for Information Grounds

Fisher, Landry, and Naumer (2007) propose a number of future research questions. One of them concerns the life cycles of information grounds. They ask how information grounds emerge, how are they sustained, and how they might cease to exist. The study of such issues is important in elaborating the construct of information grounds not merely as physical places but also as temporally sensitive.

Fisher & Naumer (2006) suggest that researchers might explore the idea of
information grounds and Chatman’s small world as complementary constructs.

Conclusion

Fisher’s information grounds have matured into one of the most prominent theories of information behaviour. The strongest influence of information grounds has been on qualitative, social constructionist information behaviour research. However it has also had some impact on qualitative research from other epistemologies and on quantitative research.

While the studies theoretically support information grounds, Fisher (2007)
admits that this is still work required to understand the in-depth nature
of information grounds. By having a better understanding of the
characteristics of information grounds, we are able to develop social spaces
in support of better information flows and human interactions.

The concepts raised in the of information grounds around space and time are important in understanding how we inhabit social media in our everyday lives and also how we use it to engage with information, with society, with the civil sphere, and with the world at large.

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