Characteristics of Information
Nelson Poynter Memorial Library

Characteristics of Information

Welcome to the Characteristics of Information learning module. In this module you will:

1. Learn about the various characteristics and types of the acquisition and dissemination of information
2. Practice answering questions designed to help you assess and use the various types of information resources.

Self-assessment activities include:

• Probing questions to help you gain mastery of these concepts and skills

This module is designed to be completed in 15 minutes.

What is Information? And Why Do I Need to Know?

Information (n.):

1. Knowledge gained through study, experience, research, or instruction
2. The act of communicating knowledge of a particular fact, event, or circumstance.
3. Interpreted, processed, stored, or transmitted data.

However we may choose to define information, we know that it is growing at an exponential rate and the ability to locate, evaluate, select, and make meaning of this flood of information is one of the defining skills of the knowledge economy and the 21st century. Knowing about the various types and characteristics of information will help you focus on the valuable information as you sort through and judge the vast array of resources out there.

The Difference Between Historical and Current Information

Always look at the publication date and think critically about whether you need the most current information, historical information, or both. This can be discipline based:

• In the physical sciences, the most up-to-date information is often needed,
• In the health sciences, frequently need current information but retrospective searches are also necessary particuarly in biomedicine
• In the humanities, historical information may be the most important.
• In the social sciences, historical and current information are equally important.

For example:

• If you are writing a paper on new methods to treat cancer, the most current information would be the most useful.
• However, if you are interested in cancer treatments during the middle ages, you will probably need to review historical information.

The Difference Between Objective and Subjective Information

Objective information

• Factual, unbiased information
• It is information that can be seen, heard, touched, smelled or tasted
• It is information that can be measured or counted
• Its description is the same from multiple people

Subjective information

• Is one person's opinion, interpretation, judgment, or perspective
• Can vary –> person-to-person, day-to-day
• It is ephemeral and subject to emotion or context

The Difference Between Factual and Analytical Information

Factual Information:

• Usually brief.
• Gives indisputable answers to specific questions
• Does not require an explanation or analysis

Examples Include: Encyclopedias, Statistical Compilations and Almanacs.

Analytical Information:

• Analyzes and interprets facts to form an opinion or come to a conclusion
• Addresses and answers "Why" and "How" questions

Examples include: books and articles.

Research papers usually provide analytical discussion and interpretation of a topic. But most often facts are required to back up ideas.

Practice

 Based on these research topics, what type of Information is needed? Drag the cards to the categories of Historical, Current, or Both

Informal Communication

We frequently first hear about an event or an issue through informal communication. A classmate may whisper a rumor that he or she heard, you receive a text or phone call about breaking news. Informal communication is person to person communication.

Where can you find Informal communication?

• Informal communication are usually not published or broadcasted
• However, sometimes phone transcripts or images are published in the newspaper

When is this appropriate for your assignments?

• Informal communications are not a scholarly source; as such they are generally not acceptable for a paper

There are exceptions:

• If your assignment asks you to conduct interviews or consult an expert,
• If you are studying topics such as the transfer of rumors, how students represent themselves on social networking sites, the changing nature of journalism, or political scandals

Formal Communication

Formal communication is connected with the formal organizational arrangement and the official status or the place of the communicator and the receiver. The format of formal communication can either be oral or written; both forms adhere to rules and conventions and the flow of the information by the lines of the authority are accepted. Thus, it is a purposeful effort to influence the flow of communication to guarantee the information flows effortlessly, precisely, and timely.

Where can you find formal communication?

• The Nelson Poynter Library provides access to a various types formal communication, ranging from scholarly literature, political rhetoric, laws, and legislation, to newspaper articles, images, video.

When is this appropriate for your assignments?

• Formal communications may be scholarly or popular sources
• Whether you are directed to scholarly or popular sources in your research and assignments depends upon you topic and your professors' requirements.

Social Media: Blurring the Line Between Formal and Informal Communication

The information cycle is continually evolving to include social media; depending upon the source, these sites can be considered either as formal or informal communication, or involve a blurring of the distinction between these categories.

For example:

• Public posts on sites such as Facebook or Twitter are retrievable by search engines
• Blogs can range from personal diaries to news sites conducting investigative journalism.
• YouTube videos can record your personal observations, but can also go viral and provide breaking coverage of an important event.
• Political campaigns actively monitor Twitter feeds to immediately respond to a breaking issue

When is this appropriate for your assignments?

• Social Media sources are generally not considered scholarly;
• However, an examples of scholarly research that use social media could be to use facebook posts, twitter texts, and other emergent modes of communication as primary sources

Practice

Scenario: A politician sends explicit emails to an attractive college student. Drag the card from the bottom to the correct category of Formal or Informal Communication or Both 

Cycle of Information: Moving from Events into Scholarly Research

Broadcast & Online News

News is generally given in quick reports and regularly updated as more information becomes available. These reports present the emerging facts or descriptions of events intended for general audience. Frequently, news reports provide primary and subjective points of view. Generally little background information or analysis is provided.

Where can you find Broadcast and Online News?

• Most news organizations have webpages for articles usually from the past 2 weeks. Some online news organizations provide their content for free while others require a subscription
• Library newspaper databases such as Access World News and Lexis Nexis contain articles, transcripts, and videos ranging from the news to day and extending back in time.

When is this appropriate for your assignments?

• Broadcast news is appropriate when you want very current information or you want information local events and issues
• It is generally not considered as a scholarly source

Newspapers & Popular Magazines

Newspapers and popular magazines are published daily or weekly and report on events after they happen. They generally include some context to the society, economy, and some background information on the topic or story, and the local newspapers might cover local events that might not be covered by larger news outlets. Articles are typically written by journalists for the general audience of a particularly city or region and tend to include eyewitness accounts, quotes, and photographs.

Where can you find Newspapers and Popular Magazines?

• Library databases such as Access World News, Academic Search Premier or General OneFile

When is this appropriate for your assignments?

• When you need background information on a current events from the past few months, when you need to find primary sources providing a eyewitness account of an event, or if you need photographs or advertisements of an event, person or place
• It is generally not considered as a scholarly source

But what about online newspapers and magazines? Online news magazines are blurring between the more cutting edge online news sources and the more traditional print counterparts. Online news magazines may contain all the stories from the print edition, but are updated more frequently and frequently contain features not included in the print edition.

Unpublished Reports & Conference Presentations

Unpublished reports and conference presentations are usually the first means of dissemination within the scholarly research cycle. These present a developing idea or may contain initial results or preminary analysis of a research topic. The purpose of these unpublished presentations is for the researcher to get feedback from his or her peers. Conference presentations are scholarly in nature, but resources have not gone through the academic editorial process called Peer Review. For a more detailed understanding of the peer review process, complete the How to Recognize Scholarly Research learning module.

Where can you find unpublished reports and conference presentations?

• Subject specific library databases

When are they appropriate for your assignments?

• These reports and presentations are generally scholarly in nature, but because they have not gone through the complete academic editorial and publishing cycle, your professor may not accept them as appropriate for you paper or presentation. Be sure to vet these sources with your instructor to be sure they are acceptable.

Scholarly Journal Articles

Scholarly journal articles generally consist of original research, including a literature review, description of methodology, results, discussion and conclusions. There are several types of scholarly articles such as theoretical articles, case studies, and methological articles.

Where can you find Scholarly Journal Articles?

• Subject specific library databases

When are they appropriate for your assignments?

• Scholarly journal articles are appropriate for most academic assignments. They are very reliable and professors often require their students to use them.
• If you choose a very current topic, you might have to be creative in your search and find articles on a related topic to satisfy your professor's requirements for scholarly articles

Books

While books provide thorough coverage on a topic, their information might not be the most current. Books frequently provide secondary analysis on a subject, perhaps trying to objectively describe and explain the event. Books can be either Scholarly or Popular in nature; this focus depends upon the audience and the purpose of the book.

Where can you find books?

• The USF Library catalog

When is this appropriate for your assignments?

• Appropriate for most academic assignments, in cases where topic is too current that no book has been published yet, you can usually find relevant information in books on a broader or similar topic.
• Most of the time, your professor will require you to use scholarly books.

Practice

Information Cycle

Below are publications representing steps in the information cycle for an Event. Place a number from 1-5 in front of the citation indicating where it belongs in the cycle.

how/hide comprehension question...

Below are publications representing steps in the information cycle for Scholarly Research on climbing Robots - robots that climb, crawl, and slither over rough terrain or squeeze into small spaces. 

Choose among the following types of sources  -- Dissertation, Conference Presentation,  Journal Article, Book, Newspaper Article -- to identify the following items:

Show/hide comprehension question...

The Difference Between Scholarly and Popular Sources

For Example:

Practice

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Primary Sources

Are first-hand accounts or original records of events created at the time of study. They are from the time period involved and have not been filtered through any interpretation or commentary. They are the materials that allow researchers to get an inside view of what was happening at that point in time.

• Audio recordings
• Census reports
• Diaries
• Letters
• Newspaper articles
• Photographs
• Laws
• Treaties

For Example: Josie Underwood's Civil War Diary is a firsthand description of the Confederate army's occupation of Bowling Green, Kentucky from the perspective of a southern white woman sympathetic to the Union. 

Disciplinary Based Primary Sources

What is a Primary Source can vary by discipline or context.

For Example:

• In the Sciences – your primary source may be the data contained in an original research study.
• In Social Sciences – your primary source may be the original document that proposed a new theory.
• In Humanities – your primary source may be the original documents or artifacts from a particular historical event.

Secondary Sources

Secondary Sources….use primary sources to synthesize, analyze, and interpret historical events. Secondary sources are not evidence, but rather commentary on and discussion of evidence; they are generally second hand accounts of an historical event.

• scholarly articles
• magazine articles
• biographies
• critiques
• textbooks

For Example: The book Jeb Stuart and the Confederate Defeat at Gettysburg is one authors description and explanation of the Battle at Gettysburg based upon his use and interpretation of the primary sources from that time.

Which Is Better? It all Depends

Research is more than the accumulation of data. While you will probably rely mostly on secondary sources, it is always important to go back to the original source. As you gather information and examine the original sources and the secondary interpretations, you will continually go through a process comparing the old information against the new interpretations.

Practice