Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
and release new titles. Thus, occasionally, web information was turned into a
narrative.
Nevertheless, were the two 'narratives' weaved into one or did they run
separately side-by-side? Did the story of Agneta & Frida provide the narrative
context in which the narrative of film production was understood?
On the one hand, the interviews indicated that this had not been the case.
Out of the 18 interviews, 55% completely separated their description of Ag-
neta & Frida and the contents of the web pages. Typically, subjects would first
talk about the web information and then they would talk about the lives of
Agneta & Frida:
There were lots of names of different film production companies and so I went
in and looked at different . . . what they did, what projects they were currently
involved in and suchlike. [—] Yes, Agneta and Frida, they... it was a mother
and her daughter who was sitting in a wheelchair and they were around all the
time and commented on the pictures.
(Subject 18)
Only four subjects described situations in which the web page content was
connected to what Agneta & Frida had said.
A qualitative analysis of the interviews, however, sketched a somewhat
more complex picture. Rather than incorporating the Agneta & Frida story
with the web content story, the presence of the two characters tended to be
incorporated into the
browsing behavior
and subjects'
interactions
with the
web pages.
I can't remember the name, but there was some site I was at and looked at and
then I probably sat there for a quite long time and read, I think, and then, like
that, they turned around towards me and then 'But hey, what is going on here.'
Now I can't remember which one of them is which, but she said that 'this little
gray thing here on the side, that's the mouse - we want to see some action
here!'. They make lots of fun comments.
(Subject 15)
Some subjects would even change their navigation because of Agneta and
Frida's comments:
I cannot claim that they really helped but. . . they are sometimes quite amusing
and sometimes funny, as when I was at
Alcatraz
and then, just as I was about to
leave [the site] they commented on people hanging in ropes and then I became
interested so I went back to have a look at what it was, who was hanging in
which ropes, and quite right, they were hanging in ropes. So that was kind of
amusing.
(Subject 12)
One does react on what they say, if they whine then you think that 'aha, this is
a boring page' and so then you quickly move away from it. (Subject 13)
