Information and Communication

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Information and Communication

• Theories and definitions

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Outline

• Theories of Information
• Theories of communication
• Semiotics
• Codes

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Theories of Information

• Information Theory
• Information as commodity
• Cognitive interpretation
• Constructivist view

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Information Theory

• Quantifies information
• Developed by Claude Shannon, Bell Laboratories
• Information decreases uncertainty
• Messages consist of
• Redundancy what is already known
• Entropy what is new information

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Information as commodity

• Profit motivates individuals to create more
  information
• Requires information marketplace
• Information industry
• Information like physical commodities
• can be marketed
• sold and kept

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Intellectual Property

• Based on individual ownership
• Opposed to information as a public good
• Different philosophies of access
• Open access movement open archives, open
  repositories, open digital libraries

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Cognitive view of information

• People have individual mental knowledge
  structures that mediate their processing of
  information
• Individuals have different cognitive structures
  and their interaction with texts provides
  different interpretations of information

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Brenda Dervins Information

• Information1 - objective, external reality
• Information2 - subjective, internal reality
• Information3 - information seeking creating
  behaviours - information processing
• Useful theory for librarianship communication,
  not information. Drexel library quarterly 133
  (July 1977) 16-32.

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Constructivist views of information

• Information is mediated or constructed by
• Medium
• (e.g., Marshall McLuhans The medium is the
  message)
• Language
• Context
• Information is created by initiators and
  interpreters/ importance of social and cultural
  context

1911-1980
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Theories of communication

• Communication theory
• Semiotic
• Poststructural approach

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Communication Theory

• Claude Shannon (1948)
• Linear, quantitative, technological origins
• Relates to Information Theory
• Information reduces uncertainty
• Message Redundancy Entropy

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Shannons Communication Theory
channel
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Discuss Shannon Communication Theory model

• How might reading a textbook fit this model?
• How might surfing the Internet fit this model?
• How might watching a film on video fit this
  model?
• How might interaction with a social networking
  site fit this model?

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Semiotics

• Study of signs
• Focuses on how meaning is constructed not what
  the meaning is
• A sign's meaning and value derives through its
  difference from and relationship to other
  signs--from its relative position in the system
• Examples a word in a sentence, or shots in a
  film scene

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Sign Signifier Signified
sign
Signs take the form of words, images,
sounds, odours, flavours, acts or objects
external reality
Signifier (the form which the sign takes)
Signified (the concept it represents)
No parking sign
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Different signs

• Signifier
• father
• father
• father

• Signified
• Parent figure
• Clergyman
• Supreme being

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Different signs

• Signifier
• father
• dad
• John

• Signified
• Parent figure
• Parent figure
• Parent figure

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Signified Signifier example

• The word 'Open' (when it is invested with meaning
  by someone who encounters it on a shop doorway)
  is a sign consisting of
• a signifier the word open
• a signified concept that the shop is open for
  business.

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Signifier Signified discussion

• Thinking of reading a textbook, surfing the
  Internet, watching a film, or using a social
  networking site, what are examples of confusing
  signifiers and/or signifieds that could arise?

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Codes

• Code
• System of signs
• Organized
• Shared by a community

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Types of codes

• Broadcast
• Simple
• Accessible to many
• Reflect dominant values
• Stress similarities

• Narrowcast
• Specialized
• Limited audience
• Reflects values of a specific group
• Stresses differences

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Discuss Codes

• What examples of broadcast and narrowcast
  services can you think of?

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Poststructural approach

• Any system has limits that include some and
  exclude others (Drucilla Cornell, The Philosophy
  of the Limit)
• Therefore, communication systems are limited

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Philosophy of the Limit
INSIDE the ONE
the constructed Limit
outside the Other
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Philosophy of the Limit
the ONE has a relation of responsibility to the
Other
a permeable Limit
the Other may or may not choose to relate to the
system
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Discussion of the other

• Who is Other?
• In an information venue such as a library,
  bookstore or the internet, who is included?
• Who is excluded?
• How would these questions affect our judgments
  of
• what is broadcast and what is narrowcast?

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Knowledge Information
Communication
Knowledge
Information
Cognition
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information
analysis
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information
create surrogates
analysis
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information
analysis
create surrogates
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information
analysis
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information
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information
LIS 502
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