Information-related behaviour as meaning-making processes: a study of science centre visitors

Abstract

Introduction. This paper studies the science centre visitor experience from an information behaviour perspective. The study contributes to the area of casual-leisure information behaviour. Method. The qualitative walk-along method rooted in ethnographic research was applied to study the in-situ visitor experience of forty-four families (seventy-four children and seventy adults) at a science centre in Denmark. An inductive content analysis approach was adopted focusing on three analytical themes. Analysis.The concept of mediational means was used to analyse how the different exhibit features facilitate visitors’ meaning-making processes. Results. Results from the study show how different exhibition features facilitate visitors’ information use and meaning-making processes in multiple ways providing rich opportunities for meaning-making. The results further illustrate, how visitors’ meaning-making processes become informed through a duality of cognitive and corporeal ways of knowing. Conclusions. In the immersive and highly interactive exhibition, visitors mainly become informed about the importance of movement and health through corporeal information that is experienced through the situated body.