Frame 2: Information Creation as a Process

Information Creation

It’s fair to say: “Everyone is a creator of information.” When you write an essay, you’re creating information. When you record your body’s weight for later reference, you’re also creating information. Every Word Doc, Google Doc, survey, spreadsheet, Tweet, and PowerPoint that you’ve ever had a hand in created information!

Processes

The Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) established that:

The dynamic nature of information creation and dissemination requires an ongoing understanding of the evolving creation processes. Recognizing the nature of information creation, students should look to the underlying processes of creation as well as the final product to critically evaluate the usefulness of the information. With practice, students will recognize the significance of the creation process, leading them to increasingly sophisticated choices when matching information products with their information needs.

Let’s break that down. First, critically thinking or critically evaluating information is not necessarily negative. Because of the word, “critical,” critical thinking is sometimes misinterpreted as meaning to find fault with something or view things negatively (for example: “she was critical of me”). In fact, critical thinking is a process of examining potential information sources in an objective, analytical way. That means considering information impartially, evaluating the true nature of the information under consideration, and setting aside your own opinions, biases, and prejudices. And analytical simply means looking at information in a deeper, more thorough way.

Next, lets break down the underlying creation process. One process familiar to most college students is the process associated with writing a Research Paper. This generally includes writing about five to eight pages consisting of an introduction that ends in a thesis statement; a few paragraphs that each touch on a piece of evidence that supports a thesis statement; and then, a conclusion paragraph at the end, which starts with a rephrasing of the thesis statement. It’s also important to think about the organizing process, that is, how are thoughts organized in a research paper, and in what order are they presented? Typically, when you are writing a research paper, you will organize your thoughts by creating an outline. You will:

• Write down all the ideas you want to include or discuss in your research paper
• Organize the related ideas into sub-groups
• Arrange your ideas into some logical order or a hierarchy, for example, what should the reader learn first, second, and last? What is most important? Where should any numerical data go?

The final step in the process is to save the research paper to a hard drive or Google Drive and then submit it to the professor. The was a process!

Some professors will even provide you with strategic steps they want you to include in the process. For example, your professor may provide you with a list like the one below and tell you to follow the steps in the order they are listed:

1. Determine the extent of the information needed
2. Access the needed information effectively and efficiently
3. Evaluate information and its sources critically
4. Incorporate selected information into one’s knowledge base
5. Use information ethically and legally to accomplish a specific purpose

Successfully following these steps will improve the quality of a research paper and demonstrate your critical thinking skills.

Part of the research process may include identifying articles or studies that have gone through the peer review process. This process is typically associated with the academic world. It involves the evaluation of an article or report by one or more people identified as a peer. These people share similar knowledge with the author(s) and their work. The peer reviewers are given the authority to scrutinize an article or report because they are recognized as experts and because they are great at identifying mistakes. After this process is successfully completed, and no mistakes are found, an article or report will undoubtedly be published in a scholarly journal and its value will increase. Unfortunately, no process is perfect and some problems with the peer review process have been identified. For example, one issue of concern is the bias of reviewers and a tendency to intrinsically devalue women’s work. When the process works it has a positive impact, but when it doesn’t real damage may be done.

Outside of the classroom the information creation process looks different because it can use different steps; but there are still lots of things to do and choices to make. One of the choices you’ll probably need to make is the mode or format in which you present your information.

When you create information (outside of a course assignment), it’s up to you how that information is going to be packaged. It might feel like a simple or obvious choice, but some information is better suited to some forms of communication, and some forms of communication are received in a certain way, regardless of the information.

For example, if you tweet “Susan Brown knows nothing about vaccines,” it won’t carry with it the same authority as my peer-reviewed scholarly article that meticulously outlines every instance in which Susan Brown displays a lack of knowledge. Both pieces of information may be accurate, but the process I went through to create and disseminate my information will influence how my information is received.

And that is perhaps the biggest thing to consider when creating information: how do you want your information received?

The Audience Matters

If you just want your Twitter followers to know Jon Smith knows nothing about climate change, then a tweet is the right way to reach them. If you want your professor and other various scholars to know Jon Smith knows nothing about climate change, then you would want to create a piece of information that will reach them, like a college research paper or a peer-reviewed scholarly article.

Often, we are not the ones creating information, we are the audience members. When we are scrolling on Twitter, reading a book, or watching a PowerPoint presentation, we’re the audience observing the information being shared. When this is the case, we must think carefully about the ways information is created.

Car advertisements are a good example. Some are designed to reach a 20-year-old woman in Corpus Christi TX through Facebook, while others are designed to reach a 60-year-old man in Hoboken, NJ over the radio. Both advertisements might be selling the same car and use the same information in the ads, but because their audiences are different, the information creation process is different. In this example, a car for sale requires two different advertisements for two different audiences.

Be a Critical Audience Member

When we are the audience member, we might automatically trust something because it’s presented a certain way. We may trust information that is formatted as a scholarly article more than information that is formatted as a blog. Unfortunately, this is biased thinking and it’s a mistake to make that assumption.

It’s risky to think like that for a couple of reasons:

1. Looks can be deceiving. Just because someone is wearing a suit and tie doesn’t mean they are not a car thief, and just because something looks like a well-researched article, doesn’t mean it is one.
2. Automatic trust unnecessarily limits the information we expose ourselves to. If you only read peer-reviewed scholarly articles, think of all the trustworthy blogs and credible news articles you’re missing out on!

If you have a certain topic that really excites you, try to expose yourself to information regardless of the format, and then decide which pieces of information are reliable and which pieces of information match your needs.

Likewise, as you conduct your research, consider how best to share your new knowledge. If you can, consider the options and decide how best to reach your audience. Maybe it’s through a research paper, or a tweet, or maybe it’s a PowerPoint presentation. Keep in mind, the mode you choose will convey assumptions about you, your information creation process, and your audience.

The Takeaway

• You create information all the time. The way you package and share it will influence how others perceive it.
• Value the process of matching an information need with an appropriate information product.
• There are established steps you should follow when writing a research paper.

Ask Yourself

• Is there a form of information you’re likely to trust at first glance? Either a publication like a newspaper or a format like a scholarly article?
  • Can you think of some voices that are not represented in that source of information?
  • Where might you look to find some other perspectives?
• If you read an article written by medical researchers that claims chocolate is good for your health, would you trust the article?

Would you still trust the medical researchers’ authority if you found out that their research was funded by a company that sells chocolate bars? Funding and stakeholders have an impact on the creation process; it’s worth thinking about how both can compromise authority.