Vetenskap och erfarenhet: en analys av kunskapsrepertoarer i gravidforum på webben.

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The aim of this Master’s thesis is to examine how health information is integrated into knowledge in an everyday health related context on the web. The more specific aim is, from a LIS point of view, to map knowledge related discourses with the focus on pregnancy, in discussion forums on Swedish health related web sites. The following main questions in this paper are: (1) a) What discourses on pregnancy knowledge can be found and b) how are they expressed? (2) What are the functions of the recognised discourses? and (3) what are the relations between the identified discourses? The theoretical and methodological starting-point is discourse theory with the main focus on discursive psychology according to Wetherell’s and Potter’s theoretical and empirical work. The methodology is text analytical and the material is collected from two discussion forums on pregnancy. The results show a highly complex context where two main discourses, or repertoires, are identified: “The science repertoire” and “The experience repertoire”. When people use the science repertoire they adopt rhetorical patterns such as: “eagerness to know and to learn”, “focus on facts and details”, “strive for control”, “elimination of health risks”. This repertoire is highly influenced by moral issues. When using the experience repertoire, people’s talk is dominated by strive for normality. The tendencies shown can be seen as signs of democra...