{"id":{"repo_id":"uiuc","oai_identifier":"oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/26351"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uiuc/oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/26351","repository":{"repo_id":"uiuc","name":"University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign","base_url":"https://www.ideals.illinois.edu/oai-pmh"},"display":{"title":"\"\"\"It's a microcosm of life\"\": weaving a web of information and support in an online breast cancer community\"","abstract":"Item withdrawn by Mark Zulauf (zulauf@illinois.edu) on 2011-06-23T15:16:12Z Item was in collections: University of Illinois Theses & Dissertations (ID: 1) No. of bitstreams: 2 Rubenstein_Ellen.doc: 562176 bytes, checksum: fae8ee7babd8b8bb85fbf8ba6223eaed (MD5) Rubenstein_Ellen.pdf: 1160783 bytes, checksum: 104bb53158cb2de9ce9d93f4e5efcf16 (MD5)","abstract_html":"Item withdrawn by Mark Zulauf (zulauf@illinois.edu) on 2011-06-23T15:16:12Z Item was in collections: University of Illinois Theses & Dissertations (ID: 1) No. of bitstreams: 2 Rubenstein_Ellen.doc: 562176 bytes, checksum: fae8ee7babd8b8bb85fbf8ba6223eaed (MD5) Rubenstein_Ellen.pdf: 1160783 bytes, checksum: 104bb53158cb2de9ce9d93f4e5efcf16 (MD5)","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Rubenstein, Ellen L."],"institution":"University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign","degree_name":"Ph.D.","degree_level":"Dissertation","degree_discipline":"Library & Information Science","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Kendall, Lori S.","Smith, Linda C.","MacMullen, W. 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No. of bitstreams: 3 Rubenstein_Ellen.pdf: 1160783 bytes, checksum: 104bb53158cb2de9ce9d93f4e5efcf16 (MD5) Rubenstein_Ellen.doc: 562176 bytes, checksum: fae8ee7babd8b8bb85fbf8ba6223eaed (MD5) license.txt: 4066 bytes, checksum: 998c7208577e610cad52108fdd57e570 (MD5)","Item marked as restricted to the 'UIUC Users [automated]' Group (id=2) by William Ingram (wingram2@illinois.edu) on 2011-08-26T15:26:20Z Item is restricted until 2013-08-26T15:25:28Z","Item reinstated by Sarah Shreeves (sshreeve@illinois.edu) on 2013-08-27T10:00:25Z Item was in collections: University of Illinois Dissertations and Theses (ID: 204) Dissertations and Theses - Library and Information Science (ID: 449) No. of bitstreams: 4 Rubenstein_Ellen.pdf.txt: 419390 bytes, checksum: dfd0ca2ded040f1d2ec11a6d0a68d4b9 (MD5) Rubenstein_Ellen.pdf: 1160783 bytes, checksum: 104bb53158cb2de9ce9d93f4e5efcf16 (MD5) Rubenstein_Ellen.doc: 562176 bytes, checksum: fae8ee7babd8b8bb85fbf8ba6223eaed (MD5) license.txt: 4066 bytes, checksum: 998c7208577e610cad52108fdd57e570 (MD5)","Item released from any restrictions by Sarah Shreeves (sshreeve@illinois.edu) on 2013-08-27T10:00:25Z","This ethnographic study examines the interactions of an online breast cancer community to understand participants' information behavior, the role of social support in participants' lives, how being part of this community influences health decisions and practices, and how the community is integrated into participants' everyday lives. Using archives analysis, participant-observation, and interviews, I learned that this community is a microcosm of daily life, comprising a complex culture that has a significant impact on many participants' lives. Members of the community help each other as they deal with breast cancer, but the community also incorporates diverse interactions that exceed the boundaries of breast cancer, reaching into other health conditions as well as the challenges and joys of everyday life. Many participants noted strong emotional ties to others in the community, enhancing these ties through email, phone conversations, and face-to-face meetings. An important finding of this study is the social integration of participants beyond the scope of the online space through their communication practices as well as the lengths they go to when assisting each other. I also found that exchanges of information and social support in this community are interwoven, inextricably linked in such a way that most conversations are suffused with both, occurring in conjunction with each other. My analysis showed that interactions that initially appeared to be either information exchange or expressions of social support actually comprised elements of both, threaded together in such a way as to make it difficult to distinguish one from the other. This study offers insights about the richness and complexity of relationships that occur in this particular online forum as well as insights into the potential of online health communities. Community participants have built a web of relationships through conversations interwoven with information and social support, constructing an atmosphere that is helpful, supportive, and meaningful, and which often expands beyond the scope of an online community."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["\"\"\"It's a microcosm of life\"\": weaving a web of information and support in an online breast cancer community\""]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Kendall, Lori S.","Smith, Linda C.","MacMullen, W. 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Using archives analysis, participant-observation, and interviews, I learned that this community is a microcosm of daily life, comprising a complex culture that has a significant impact on many participants' lives. Members of the community help each other as they deal with breast cancer, but the community also incorporates diverse interactions that exceed the boundaries of breast cancer, reaching into other health conditions as well as the challenges and joys of everyday life. Many participants noted strong emotional ties to others in the community, enhancing these ties through email, phone conversations, and face-to-face meetings. An important finding of this study is the social integration of participants beyond the scope of the online space through their communication practices as well as the lengths they go to when assisting each other. I also found that exchanges of information and social support in this community are interwoven, inextricably linked in such a way that most conversations are suffused with both, occurring in conjunction with each other. My analysis showed that interactions that initially appeared to be either information exchange or expressions of social support actually comprised elements of both, threaded together in such a way as to make it difficult to distinguish one from the other. This study offers insights about the richness and complexity of relationships that occur in this particular online forum as well as insights into the potential of online health communities. Community participants have built a web of relationships through conversations interwoven with information and social support, constructing an atmosphere that is helpful, supportive, and meaningful, and which often expands beyond the scope of an online community."],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/2142/26351"],"dc:language":["en"],"dc:rights":["Copyright 2011 Ellen Rubenstein"],"dc:subject":["Social capital","Health communication","Online communities","Information behavior","Social support"],"dc:title":["\"\"\"It's a microcosm of life\"\": weaving a web of information and support in an online breast cancer community\""],"thesis:degree_discipline":["Library & Information Science"],"thesis:degree_level":["Dissertation"],"thesis:degree_name":["Ph.D."],"thesis:institution_name":["University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-22T22:25:26Z"}