The Information Cycle

The Information Cycle

Dani Wellemeyer & Jessica Williams,

Information Literacy Librarians_____________________________________________

UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

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With the technology in the palm of your hand, it's easy to find information about, well...anything. But there's so much out there. How do you knowwhat's up with different information sources, what to trust, and what you should use for class? Some facts about the cycle of publication can help you understand the differences.

Let's start by looking at one event…

THE ARAB SPRING

The Arab Spring isn't really a season - it's a phrase used to describe the wave of protests, anti-government demonstrations, riots, and civil wars that washed over the Arab world beginning on December 18, 2010.

The protests were a reaction to economic troubles, oppressive ruling, and government censorship and corruption. The Arab Spring as a whole

resulted in significant social changes in the region.

AlgeriaBahrainDjiboutiEgyptIraqJordanKuwaitLibyaMauritaniaMorocco

OmanSaudi ArabiaSudanSyriaTunisiaWestern SaharaYemen

Countries involved in Arab Spring to date:

Reactions on social media appear immediately

Information Cycle TimelineSocial Media

December 17: Protests begin 2010 2011 2012 2013

The Arab Spring was different from other periods of civil protest

because of the important role that social media played in its organization.

Many young people were involved in the demonstrations, which

were sometimes organized over social media networks. For

instance, Facebook event pages were used to organize rallies.

90,000 people responded that they planned to attend one of

those events. It was unsafe to broadcast information supporting

the protest movement using other channels of communication,

so Twitter and social networks became the primary way for protestors to

spread information, and for those outside the Arab world to find out

what was happening on the ground.

SociaL MEdia

the revolution will be tweeted

Here's a short story from National Public Radio (NPR) about

how U.S. news outlets and individuals outside of Bahrain,

Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia found out what was going on as

the revolution spread to those countries in early 2011. An

NPR reporter found people in each of those locations who

could tweet about events as they were occurring. His

retweets of their comments became a source of

information for the western world.

(You can listen to it or read the transcript.)

http://www.npr.org/2011/02/21/133943604/The-Revolution-Will-Be-Tweeted




This quotation from the NPR story highlights some of the shortcomings

of social media as a news source:

People witnessing the events began sharing their experiences immediately. The "authors" of

social media posts were first-hand eyewitnesses, sharing their observations in real time

without stopping to edit their responses or reflect on what had occurred.

You really have to take some of it with a grain of salt, butat the same time realize they're doing their best. They'renot professional journalists. They're just trying to getinformation out as quickly as possible.

- Andy Carvin

“

”

Social MediaTelevision reports and online news

follow within hours

Information Cycle Timeline

Social Media

Social Media

TV & WEB


N e w sReporting of Arab Spring events by news professionals began soon after

observations from witnesses on the street appeared on Twitter.

A 60 second CNN clip about the Regime change in Tunisia.

Newspaper stories run within a day


Social Media

Social Media

Newspapers

TV & WEB


News reporters communicate to their audiences the details of events that

have occurred, to the best of their current knowledge. The label of "journalist"

implies that the source is reporting the facts as truthfully as possible, and

without bias. Because a lot of reporters work for each news source, most of

their credibility comes from the name of the organization they work for.

…is a famous and well-trusted source of news.

…is an equally famous news satire source that is more entertaining than trustworthy.

News stories may include interviews with or quotations from witnesses, but

they are unlikely to have outside references.

Sometimes news stories are cobbled

together so that they can appear on the

Internet or TV right away, even if all the

information can't yet be verified. The

news organization then has a

responsibility to update the story as

soon as they have more information.

For example, This story on the National Public Radio

website was updated every few hours as more accurate information became available.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/03/28/134917801/live-blog-monday-developments-in-libya

Social Media

Magazines cover the event over the

next few weeks


Social Media

Social Media

Newspapersmagazines

TV & WEB


Within a month of an event's occurrence, newsorganizations were beginning to publish articles inwhich both the event and its aftermath wereanalyzed.

M a g a z i n e s

TIME magazine published "Scenes from a revolution" on Monday, August 29, 2011.

The article discusses the strategic problems that Syrian revolutionaries were

experiencing. Beyond just reporting events, the article takes the time to discuss

how the activists would have trouble attempting to overthrow the oppressive

government of President Bashar al-Assad unless they found some strong leaders.

That same summer, the Atlantic Monthly published the article "Danger: FallingTyrants," when the Arab Spring was well under way. The 7 page article places the riots,revolutions, and government overthrows occurring in Middle Eastern countries in thebroader context of world politics. The title refers to the challenges the United Stateswould face in supporting democracy in the Middle East - introducing democracy wouldhave to follow the downfall of some monarchies and dictatorships.

Stories like these from TIME and the Atlantic Monthly quote many different

people and use information gathered from other news sources to show a

bigger picture.

“

Social Media

Popular books are published within

the year


Social Media

Social Media

Newspapersmagazines

popularbooks

TV & WEB


popular booksThe publishing world can move amazingly fast when there is money to be

made. Popular books can begin to appear in a matter of months after the

occurrence of an event.

Popular books are written for a broad

audience - you will generally find

them at Barnes & Noble, and on

bestseller lists. They vary in how

much reporting has been done and

whether or not outside sources are

referenced and cited. West has been a

reporter in the Middle East for many

years and wrote this book from the

perspective of a trained journalist

with a deep knowledge of the region

and its history.

This popular book came out in October 2011. Johnny West's book chronicles his travels throughTunisia, Egypt, and Libya, talking to ordinary people who live in each, hearing their stories andexperiencing history in the making.

Social MediaSocial Media

Scholarly articlestake longer to

research and review


Social Media

Social Media

Newspapers

Scholarly Articles

magazinespopularbooks

TV & WEB


academic journal articlesThe article "Why was the Arab world poised for revolution? Schooling,

economic opportunities, and the Arab Spring" was published in the Journal

of Economic Perspectives in the spring of 2012.

The authors make the case that education in the Middle East and the

economic climate were major conditions that set the stage for the Arab

Spring uprisings. They present statistical analysis to support their points, and

discuss how their findings can be applied to other situations.

You can view the article here:

(You don't need to read it!)

Language clearly intended for an

academic audience

Black and white

Includes tables and charts to present data

No photographs

Lots of in-text citations for

related studies

2 ½ pages of references at the

end

What do you notice about a scholarly article that differentiates it from the

information types that come earlier on the timeline?

After the authors completed their research they submitted it to The Journal of Economic

Perspectives, who then put it through a peer-review process before they published it. So we

know that other scholars of who study economics and have verified education and credentials

checked this article for truth and accuracy before it ever reached an audience.

JOURNALOF

ECONOMICPERSPECTIVES

AUTHORS

EXPERTREVIEWERS

READERS

Social Media

Social Media

Newspapers

Scholarly books

Scholarly Articles


TV & WEBScholarly books are

published after academics have time to compile research



scholarly booksScholarly audiences (professors, researchers, graduate

students) are more concerned with quality than with

speed. It may take several years for an academic

researcher to run experiments, compile data, analyze

results, and publish findings. This distance from events

also allows them to be examined, explored, and considered

in the context of larger trends or movements.

The Oxford University Press is the

largest and most prestigious scholarly

publishing house in the world. It only

prints high-quality academic writing.

The review and editorial process at

OUP lends extra credibility to works it

publishes. The authors of Democracy's

Fourth Wave? are both university

professors who research and publish

scholarly articles and books about

communication, information, and

political studies.

This scholarly book, Democracy's Fourth Wave?: Digital Media and the Arab Spring, talks about therole of social media in the events in the Middle East, analyzing the most immediate form of newsabout the events for its effects on the whole phenomenon of the Arab Spring. (Scholars build onthe research of others. The reference list at the end of this book is 8 pages long.)

Social Media

Social Media

Newspapers

Scholarly books

Scholarly Articles


TV & WEBReference works are

compiled after the facts of an event have become

verified by time



ReferenceWorks

reference worksReference works are encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other

materials designed to be consulted in research but not read

cover-to-cover. They provide background information on a

topic and contain only confirmed facts.

What's the reference work you're most familiar with?

Wikipedia?

That's what I thought you'd say.

Wikipedia is an amazing resource and it mostly fits the

definition of a reference work - except for the "confirmed

facts" part. Wikipedia entries are updated by the user

community almost immediately after events occur, without

waiting for enough time to pass for things to be confirmed.

Here's a sample of an article overviewing

the Arab Spring from an electronic

reference database called Credo

Reference. It cites a variety of sources

for the information it provides about

events in different Middle Eastern

countries. Since reference works come

out later than anything else, the writers

can wait to use other scholarly writings

as sources.

Published (not crowd-sourced, like Wikipedia) reference works are compiled by specialists and require research to authenticate the details of an event. The American Heritage Dictionary.

The Encyclopedia Britannica.

Trusted sources that summarize factual information.

Social Media

Social Media

Newspapers

Scholarly books

Scholarly Articles


TV & WEB



ReferenceWorks

The Cycle Continues…The Arab Spring had a definitive beginning, on December 17,2010, when Mohammed Bouazizi, a fruit-seller in Tunisia, lithimself on fire in protest of mistreatment by the police andgovernment. That single event sparked protests and revolutionsall over the region.

The information cycle connected to the Arab Spring began thatsame day.

The Arab Spring isn't over, and there will be no conclusive end.The information cycle continues indefinitely as more eventsoccur that influence the way we think about pasthappenings.

Image creditsCrowd in square via Sanford Journal of Public Policy http://sites.duke.edu/sjpp/ photograph by Diario El Tiempo, All Rights Reserved

Map of Arab Spring via Wikimedia Commons

Falling Tyrants via The Atlantic Monthly www.theatlantic.com

Book and magazine covers and images via Amazon, author websites, and magazine websites

Some icon images via Iconify.it

Website logos via the represented websites’ media download pages

The Information Cycle

Education