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User-centered categorization of mood in fiction

Hyerim Cho (School of Information Science and Learning Technologies, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA)
Wan-Chen Lee (School of Information Studies, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA)
Li-Min Huang (School of Information Sciences, The University of Tennessee Knoxville, Knoxville, Tennessee, USA)
Joseph Kohlburn (School of Information Science and Learning Technologies, University of Missouri, Columbia, Missouri, USA)

Journal of Documentation

ISSN: 0022-0418

Article publication date: 23 August 2022

Issue publication date: 4 April 2023

439

Abstract

Purpose

Readers articulate mood in deeply subjective ways, yet the underlying structure of users' understanding of the media they consume has important implications for retrieval and access. User articulations might at first seem too idiosyncratic, but organizing them meaningfully has considerable potential to provide a better searching experience for all involved. The current study develops mood categories inductively for fiction organization and retrieval in information systems.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors developed and distributed an open-ended survey to 76 fiction readers to understand their preferences with regard to the affective elements in fiction. From the fiction reader responses, the research team identified 161 mood terms and used them for further categorization.

Findings

The inductive approach resulted in 30 categories, including angry, cozy, dark and nostalgic. Results include three overlapping mood families: Emotion, Tone/Narrative, and Atmosphere/Setting, which in turn relate to structures that connect reader-generated data with conceptual frameworks in previous studies.

Originality/value

The inherent complexity of “mood” should not dissuade researchers from carefully investigating users' preferences in this regard. Adding to the existing efforts of classifying moods conducted by experts, the current study presents mood terms provided by actual end-users when describing different moods in fiction. This study offers a useful roadmap for creating taxonomies for retrieval and description, as well as structures derived from user-provided terms that ultimately have the potential to improve user experience.

Keywords

Citation

Cho, H., Lee, W.-C., Huang, L.-M. and Kohlburn, J. (2023), "User-centered categorization of mood in fiction", Journal of Documentation, Vol. 79 No. 3, pp. 567-588. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-03-2022-0071

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited

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