Culture in the continuum: YouTube, small stories and memory-making

The objective of the thesis is to explore how continuum theory and models can be used to address the complexity of online cultural heritage as evidence, and as a result develop new theoretical dimensions about archives, culture and technologies. Using a complex, iterative multiple method research design, this study explores YouTube from a continuum perspective as an emergent archival space. The specific continuum model used to develop and analyse the YouTube case study is the Cultural Heritage Continuum Model (CHCM). Research outcomes include: •Multiple interpretations of the CHCM and extension of continuum understandings of online cultural spaces. •Presentation of a new cultural heritage continuum model titled: Mediated Recordkeeping: Culture-as-evidence. •Interpretation of the Information Continuum Model (ICM) to support research design and knowledge generation. •Presentation of a continuum-influenced Research Design Model This research is significant to the archival discipline as it addresses a gap in the research and theory concerning the applicability of continuum theory and continuum models in an emergent, complex social phenomenon as it exists in online cultural heritage. This research also demonstrates that continuum theory can be applied to research design, opening up possibilities for a more critical, inclusive and participatory model for community-based and tools-oriented research in archival science.