Information Creation as a Process

Information Creation as a Process Framework is an Framework as conceptualized by the Association of College and Research Libraries.

How information is developed and presented reflects how well developed the information is as well as how it is likely to be used. Discussion forums, tweets, podcasts, blogs, animations, white papers, peer-reviewed publications–the genres and media used to develop and disseminate information reflect the needs and expectations of rhetors and their audience. A quick tweet lacks the authority of a peer-reviewed monograph published by a university press.

Thus, one important aspect to assessing the authority of information is to consider it from a life-cycle perspective. For example, a thought leader in the academic world or business community may discuss an idea with a trusted colleague. She may then publish that idea on a Facebook page or Tweet. Perhaps after a bit of dialog with users, that idea might be further developed and presented at a conference. Later on, perhaps, that idea becomes a bit more developed and presented as an article or blog.

That said, how well an idea is packaged doesn’t necessarily equate with quality. Over time, ideas that once seemed prescient and insightful can be perceived as outlandish. In The Half-Life of Facts: Why Everything We Know Has an Expiration Date, Samuel Arbesman, a scientometrics (i.e., an expert about the evolution of scientific thought), found it took 45 years for medical researchers to reject incorrect facts about cirrhosis and hepatiti. Thus, Arbesman argued people’s innate confirmation bias–the tendency to look for evidence that supports your thinking and reject other information–has real world medical results: fatalities and lives of pain and suffering that might be otherwise avoidable.

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