SESSION 6 Making Sense: Information, Disinformation, or Misinformation?

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SESSION 6Making Sense Information,
Disinformation, or Misinformation?

• A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains
  its original dimensions

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Taking technology too far?
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The Last Word on Cloning

• http//www.cnn.com/2002/HEALTH/02/14/cloned.cat.re
  ut/index.html
• It took the researchers 188 tries to clone just
  one kitten. Cc is two months old and "appears to
  be completely normal."

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Man held on Internet sex counts Sydney Morning
Herald/0202/20/

• A The 39-year-old from Wainuiomata, near
  Wellington, New Zealand faces extradition to
  Australia on sex charges involving a 14-year-old
  girl he met in an Internet chatroom.
• It was alleged the man initially began
  communicating with the girl through an Internet
  chatroom, which led to regular email contact.
• He then allegedly travelled to Perth, where the
  offences took place between January and June
  2000.
• New Zealand Detective Sergeant Grant Atkin said
  "This is just another example where people on the
  Internet are not who they seem, and are using the
  Internet to prey on young girls everywhere. This
  is a reminder to all parents that they should be
  more vigilant about what their children are doing
  on the Internet."

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Session Objectives

• Key Questions
• How do recognize and establish quality on the
  Internet?
• That requires understanding
• What is information?
• How do we know?
• What is truth?
• What is quality?

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• BRYCE HOFFMAN
• THE SAGINAW NEWS
• A demonic face stared out from the smoke at the
  World Trade Center, newspaper readers nationwide
  say.
• A front-page photograph on more than 13,000
  copies of Tuesday's Saginaw News has prompted
  some to believe that Satan himself presided over
  terrorist attacks on the United States.
• The picture, shot by an Associated Press
  photographer, captured the features of a
  seemingly demonic face -- eyes, nose, mouth,
  beard and horns -- as it emerged from the
  billowing smoke over the World Trade Center,
  observers say.

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Can we believe what we see?

• http//urbanlegends.about.com/library/blphoto-wtc
  .htm

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The deepest questions of human existence

• What is knowledge and how do we come to know
  anything? (epistemology) ? (web content)
• What really exists and how is reality organized?
• (metaphysics / ontology) ? (web organization)
• What is the right thing to do? (ethics) ? (work
  practice / access)
• What characterizes art and aesthetic experience?
  (aesthetics) ? (web design)
• What are the deeper implications of technological
  and cultural / social interactions with the
  world? (social informatics) ?(technology
  utilization)

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• What is information?
• Write down your definition.

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What is information?Professor Michael Buckland

• Information as Thing
• Information as Process
• Information as Knowledge
• http//info.berkeley.edu/
• buckland/
• http//info.berkeley.edu/
• buckland/thing.html

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What is information?John Perry Barlow

• Computers can crank out new data all night long
  without human help, but only a human being can
  actually recognize the meaning which separates
  information from data. Information consists of
  data which have been passed through a particular
  human mind and found meaningful within that
  mental context
• Barlow, J. A taxonomy of Information. Bulletin
  of the American Society for Information Science,
  June-July, 1994, pp. 13-17

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What is Information?Professor Nicholas
BelkinSCILS - Rutgers

• The structure of any text which is capable of
  changing the image structure of some recipient
• http//www.scils.rutgers.edu/belkin/belkin.html

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What is Information?Professor Carol
KuhlthauSCILS - Rutgers

• An active personal process fitting information
  in with what one already knows and extending this
  knowledge to create new perspectives
• Seeking Meaning Ablex, 1993, p.4

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What is information? Prof. Brenda Dervin

• Information is the sense created at a specific
  moment in time-space by one or more humans
• All information is subjective it is a personal
  construction created by human observers
• Peoples use of information
• technology are part of steps people
• take to make sense of world around
• them

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Is this information?

• Suppose that S is a Noetherian scheme and that G
  is a group scheme which is finite and etale over
  S. This note shows that G-torsors for the qfh
  topology coincide up to isomorphism with torsors
  induced up from the etale topology over such
  schemes S, in the sense that the obvious
  comparison function between isomorphism classes
  of torsors is a bijection. This is the
  non-abelian analogue of a comparison theorem of
  Voevodsky which identifies etale and qfh
  cohomology for coefficient sheaves represented by
  finite etale abelian group schemes. The method of
  proof is to show that the qfh stack completion of
  the group scheme G induces a local weak
  equivalence of classifying simplicial sheaves for
  the etale topology.

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Is this information?

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Is this information?
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Is this information?
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• What is the information of information
  technology?

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The Information in I.T.

• To process information electronically, data are
  stored in a computer in the form of binary
  digits, or bits, each having two possible
  representations (0 or 1)
• If a second or more bits are added to a single
  bit of information, the number of representations
  is increased, resulting in many different
  combinations of 0 and 1.
• Eight bits is called a byte a byte has 256
  possible combinations of 0s and 1s.
• http//www.ece.wpi.edu/infoeng/textbook/node30.htm
  l

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Bits and Bytes

• 1110010 r
• 1101111 o
• 1110011 s
• 1110011 s
• 1110100 t
• 1101111 o
• 1100100 d
• 1100100 d

• 1011001 1101111 1110101 0100000 0100110 0100000
  1001001 0101100

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The Information Problem

• The information explosion . Is to a great
  extent an explosion of misinformation and badly
  organised information. The digital revolution
  has only made the problems more acute
• (Gell-Mann)

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Access to vast amounts of information is not the
whole answer. The power to discover the right
information quickly and easily, to separate
nice-to-know information from need-to-know
information is essential if superhighway users do
not drown in electronic junk information. ... An
information flood does not necessarily mean that
people become informed (Kehoe, 1993)

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• THE TANGLED WEB WE WEAVE
• Information
• Misinformation
• Malinformation
• Messed up information
• Useless information
• (Burbles, 1997)

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Disinformation VS Misinformation

• Disinformation Deliberate attempt to mislead or
  deceive, resulting in inaccurate information
• Misinformation An honest mistake
• Result availability of inaccurate information

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Disinformation

• Arises whenever the process of information is
  defective
• Lack of objectivity eg. Propaganda
• Lack of completeness eg. Lack of evidence
• Lack of pluralism eg. Range of viewpoints
• Floridi, 1996

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Disinformation

• Involuntary Disinformation caused by some form
  of technical mishandling of information lack of
  updating, software virus, hacking, lack of
  knowledge ? Unpremeditated creation of
  disinformation
• Voluntary Disinformation deliberate
  manipulation of information

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• DISINFORMATION

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Misinformation

• Where information is not accurate because of
  honest / unknowing misrepresentation of facts
• Simply got facts wrong
• Facts wrong because they are out of date
• Sloppy documentation
• Linked information not accessible

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• MISINFORMATION

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The information challenges

• Being able to interact with this information and
  construct new understanding
• 2. Knowing that the information you decide to
  engage with is quality information

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Deciding what to believe

• Source 1 there is a significant and alarming
  correlation between abortion and breast cancer
  having an abortion raised a womans risk of
  contracting breast cancer 50 on average
• Source 2 A study on induced abortion and risk
  for breast cancer discusses whether an
  association exists, but the findings are not
  conclusive. Further research is needed to
  interpret the results

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What is truth?

• Something that corresponds to fact or reality?
• Static reality that can be discovered through
  science?
• Statement that is generally believed to be true?
• Accuracy in description or portrayal?
• Adherence to a standard or law?
• Unique for each individual?
• Truth is a function of a socially constructed
  communication system?

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What is truth?

• Knowledge that corresponds to reality?
• Knowledge produced by dialogue and debate amongst
  experts?
• Knowledge produced by dialogue and debate amongst
  all interested parties?
• Knowledge produced by coherent means? Logical
  means?

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What is truth?

• Only one truth?
• Multiple truths? (Relativism)
• No truth, only interests and power?
• Universals?
• Theories and concepts based on culture, social
  groups, etc?

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Creating Meaning

• Information on the Net represents peoples
  versions of reality, past, future, knowledge,
  culture, ideology, power
• Need to develop skills to look critically at
  information and to question and challenge the
  world of ideas on the net

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Creating Meaning

• Making clear the ideologies and ideological
  workings of texts
• Making explicit the belief systems inscribed in
  texts
• To enable people to read the world and the word -
  past, present and future
• (Misson, 1998)

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Why ?

• Seductiveness of technology Internet addiction,
  time, cost
• Integration of different media cognitive load
  multiple media vs multi media
• Captivating media hype shaping expectations
  the answer is in there
• Plausible presentation of of false / misleading
  information wysiwyg
• Everything looks authentic as an official
  publication

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Why ?

• Invisibility of web authors unknown authorship
• Assertions sourced in other unreliable sources
  origins of information less direct
• Boundaries blurred between rumour, gossip,
  credible, authentic
• Information stands without a functional context
  Indicators of credibility found in traditional
  sources removed
• Indiscriminate inclusion of material

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Why?

• Complexity of organization and linkages
• Volume and speed of access
• Potential for passive and isolated interaction
• Poorly organised information with limited advance
  organisers
• Indiscriminate inclusion of material
• Noise / overload bells and whistles to show
  designers flair
• Naïve users believe it is filtered, accurate,
  and like library materials

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Features of Electronic Texts

• Iconic language content, index, system and
  browser
• Mixed genres - multiple text types are integrated
• Navigational inefficiencies
• Predisposition to play / entertainment
• Visual literacy demands
• Hyperlinking rather than linear

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Empowering the UserMind over Matter and anEye
for Detail
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Providing people with

• . the critical skills and information handling
  skills to assist them in making decisions about
• ? what to believe
• ? what to doubt
• ? what to pay attention to
• ? what to care about

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Quality EvaluationAn Evaluation Model

• A Author Reputation and specialist knowledge?
• P Purpose Why written does it fulfill stated
  purpose?
• P Physical Format Do multiple medias
  complement text?
• A Arrangement Logical sequence, argument,
  evidence?
• R Recency Up-to-date? Revised? reviewed
  regularly?
• A Accuracy Can accuracy be established? Can
  biases, opinions, viewpoints be distinguished?
• T Treatment Does the level of disciplinary and
  technical language assume the reader is an
  expert?
• U Use Does the format facilitate use?
• S Scope Is subject coverage broad or limited
  to specific area? Balance of breadth and scope
  with detail?

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Key Readings

• Brave.Net.World The Internet as a Disinformation
  Superhighway?by Luciano Floridi, 3/2001
• On Evaluation of WWW Resourcesby Kay E.
  Vandergrift and Lin Lin, 3/2001
• Establishing and Maintaining Trust in Online
  Systemsby Claire McInerney