Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Unbreakable ethnic bonds: information-seeking behavior of Korean graduate students in the United States

2004; Elsevier BV; Volume: 26; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.lisr.2004.04.001

1873-1848

Wooseob Jeong,

Social Media and Politics

Everyday life information seeking (ELIS) is a relatively new branch of user studies that examines information behavior in daily life activities. In this study, as an example of ELIS, Korean graduate students' everyday lives in the United States are explored, focusing on their perspectives with respect to main stream society and the role of their ethnic church in their everyday lives. This study combines the grounded theory method with in-depth interviews of eight students and their spouses, as well as participant observation and informal interactions with others. The findings showed two dissimilation mechanisms in the typical Korean student's information-seeking behavior: language barrier and the strong bonds in their ethnic church. Their limited English prevents them from interacting with American society, and the students gather within the ethnic community in settings such as the Korean church for the receipt of information for their ELIS and for social comfort. However, the church maintains strong ethnic bonds with the students by monitoring them and impeding their assimilation into American society.