Review of major Issues in the Field of Information Society Studies by draft
By Alexandra Yarrow
In his paper on information society studies, Alistair Duff quotes from Eugene Garfield’s 1979 definition of the term information society. An information society, wrote Garfield, is one in which “the rapid and convenient delivery of information is the ordinary state of affairs” (Duff 139). We commonly speak today of information societies, recognising that there is no one global information society: rather, a few privileged information societies exist mostly in the West, while much of the rest of the world exists in a state of information poverty. Attempts made in scholarly articles to explain the reasons for this digital divide, and suggestions made for overcoming the divide, are influenced by how we in the West define and construct a modern information society in our own world. Our writings on information societies are often concerned with the conditions necessary for the development of an information society, as well as the ethical dilemmas surrounding information societies in terms of both access to information and the protection of the integrity of this information.
Articles on information societies can thus be divided into three broad subject areas: in-depth definitions and redefinitions of what constitutes an information society, the impact of political involvement and national policies on the development of information societies, and the ethical issues stemming from the activities of an information society, including the extension of resources to developing and third world countries. A review of some of the recent literature on these topics follows, placing particular emphasis on how the four themes outlined above are treated by various experts in the field of information society studies.
Definitions and redefinitions of an information society
Definitions of the term information society can be found as early as Garfield’s writings in the 1970’s and are in almost every article written on the subject today. This literature review began with Garfield’s rather open definition, which still remains fairly accurate. In her paper, “Navigating the information society”, presented at the IATUL 2000 conference, Joyce Kirk proposes a definition of the information society that encompasses the work of a few writers in the field of information studies; her inclusive approach is perhaps representative of recent attempts to include multiple ideas and perspectives in the evolving concept of an information society. Kirk begins with Michael Buckland’s definition of the word information. As Kirk summarises, information is categorised by Buckland as a thing, as a process, and as knowledge itself (8). Kirk combines these categories with Frank Webster’s five perspectives on an information society. A full information society thus offers access to all aspects of information, Kirk implies. “Most of [Webster’s] perspectives focus on information-as-thing,” Kirk admits, but “technologies are continually evolving to provide access to information in different forms and to facilitate the sharing of tacit knowledge” (8). Thus, while Kirk concludes that our information societies are largely in the beginning stages, her definition of the terms also allows for, and indeed points towards, expansion beyond these limits into the realm of information-as-process and information-as-knowledge.
Evelyn Kerslake and Margaret Kinnell posit a more simple definition of the information society in their article, “Public libraries, public interest and the information society: theoretical issues in the social impact of public libraries”. They refer to the definition used by the National Working Party on Social Inclusion in Britain, which emphasises heavy use of information by most individuals, the use of compatible technology, transmission of information, and ease of communication across geographical distances (163). According to this definition, current information societies are, as Kirk would agree, in the developmental stages: access to information for most individuals in most places is still largely up for debate.
The effect of national policies on the development of an information society
Nick Moore, in his article entitled “Policies for an information society”, posits two models of the modern information society with respect to national policy. The first model Moore explores is based on the market-led economy. In this model, the state is merely a catalyst for the development of the information society: the private sector directs the development, placing the general public in the position of consumers of privatised sources of information. This inevitably leads to competition; moreover, since the private sector “mobilizes the capital [and] makes the investment decisions,” they also reap the profits by targeting consumers, even “shaping individuals’ consumer preferences” (22). The second model, which Moore endorses, relies on a definition of the information society as an interaction of factors, and as a co-operation between political figures, private industry, and the general population. Moore believes this model is more supportive of true growth and a stable future, reasoning that information has become “a key element in the whole fabric of a society,” and the development of this society should be regulated to include everyone who is a part of it (24). Moore closes his article by referring darkly to the situation in the market-led economy of his home country, Britain. By continuing to follow what he calls the “dogma of de-regulation,” Britain has failed to produce the properly inclusive political and economic infrastructure that supports an information society (24).
Martin Dutch and Dave Muddiman expand on Moore’s criticisms of the British government’s approach to the information society in their article, “The public library, social exclusion and the information society in the United Kingdom”. They propose that the information society, as it currently exists, re-enforces and even exacerbates social exclusion in Britain, and that the only response is government intervention to regulate resources and facilitate both access to information resources and education about the uses of these resources. Evelyn Kerslake and Margaret Kinnell agree that the British information society can exacerbate social exclusion in their article, but add that the solution to this need not be direct government intervention. Rather, they argue that libraries, particularly public libraries, need to fill the gaps of the current information society. In Kerslake and Kinnell’s opinion, the current information society’s focus on economic profit and market operations in general leads the government to ignore the basic right of citizenship providing universal access to information: the development of technology beyond the means of many inhibits them from participating in the world of information resources that Britain and other information societies are developing (164). The library has a responsibility to offer access to and instruction in information technology to all, countering the predominant, and government-endorsed, view that information is largely a commodity (164).
The national policies of the Canadian government are explored in a brief article from a 1997 edition of Feliciter. Canada, according to Michelle J. Schoffro and Samantha Boswell, has a reasonably clear protocol for government involvement in order to ensure that “all Canadians … participate in the emerging information age” (30). National organisations also recognise that this is not necessarily the case: the fact that the Information Highway Advisory Council speaks of the fact that “anyone should be able to access” resources indicates that the exclusion of some is a reality that must be addressed (30). The government responded with state-sponsored, professionally run social and educational programs. These include LibraryNet, a web-based program designed to link Canadian libraries to one another and to the information highway, and to guide the creation of further information resources, and community access programs, which help to connect rural Canadian communities with the Canadian information world affordably, and to teach them the skills they need to become a part of Canada’s information society. Agreeing with Kerslake and Kinnell, Schoffro and Boswell believe that librarians, with the aid of governments, “are information navigators, creators of content, allies of the local community, and, above all, teachers” (31).
Sung-Gwan Park’s article on Korea offers another perspective from Moore’s, with respect to the theory that government regulation is a necessary part of information society development. Park posits a threefold approach to the development of a healthy information society, encompassing human, social, and political factors. He then explains how over-regulation by the authoritarian Korean government has thwarted the development of a healthy information society despite technological advancement and access to the Internet. “The problem of information society,” Park explains, “does not solely exist in the matter of technological provision” (191). Often, a particular government’s preoccupation with prestige leads, as it has in Korea, to an inordinate amount of money and resources being put towards technological expansion, resulting in inadequate development of other areas of an information society. As Ben Patrazzini and Mugo Kibati further argue in their article, “The Internet in developing countries”, some countries that have accessibility to the Internet in capital cities do not even extend phone lines into rural areas, perhaps believing that the appearance of connectivity in major areas is adequate (36). The fact that in some places local phone service, if it exists, is under monopoly conditions, does little to further advance Internet access and lower prices (33).
Park, Petrazzini and Kibati’s views are echoed, somewhat strangely it might seem, by Seamus Grimes in his article about Ireland, “Rural areas in the information society: diminishing distance or increasing learning capacity?” Grimes blames what he calls “technological determinism” for Ireland’s sluggish information resource development, which is similar to Park’s criticism of Korea’s focus on technology at the expense of adequate social infrastructure and education (11). Grimes also argues that the country’s citizens receive little or no support on their path down the information highway, citing the predominance of competition rather than collaboration between companies as an example of how the information society, unsupervised, can divide people perhaps more than it brings them together (8)
In his article, “UNESCO and human resource development for the ‘Information Society’” Ian Johnson reviews the situations in a number of developing countries with respect to information access and technological advancement. Specifically, Johnson focuses on the aid provided by UNESCO, which helps to provide some countries with both money to invest in education and technology, and an educated workforce to guide their country’s development. UNESCO and affiliated organisations help set up academic information science programs, maintain curriculum guidelines for these, as well as meetings of professionals in the field to compare research, study, teaching, advances in the field. UNESCO, then, can step in where individual national governments fail, or fall short, of the guidance necessary to develop a country’s information resources.
Ethics: Implications of life in the information society and international development
From the literature thus far, equal access to resources in the information society is closely related to national policies regarding information technology. Those who are prevented access, both in the developed and in the developing world, are those in rural areas, those from lower income brackets, and those who do not have the literacy or education tools to participate in the information society. Considering that the information society and information technologies have the most to offer these areas with respect to communication and education tools, most articles that address this issue agree that this is a problem that must be resolved.
Rafael Capurro writes, “the freedom of information, at the core of every free human society, is an important ethical, legal and political question with a worldwide impact” (258). His involvement with UNESCO’s forum on information ethics and the International Center for Information Ethics leads him to conclude that there are grave problems with information societies, as they currently exist. These include language barriers (information resources being predominantly in English), lack of availability and affordability of technology, abuse of information for criminal purposes, lack of information literacy, and abuse of privacy (263). He also proposes, however, that information resources such as the Internet, when they are accessible to all through the work of some of the international organisations Capurro himself supports, offer possibilities for the expansion of information societies to include all citizens. “Due to its interactive and decentralised nature,” writes Capurro, “the Internet can provide the framework for a new kind of world society” (275).
Ben Petrazzini and Mugo Kibati briefly allude to information society ethics in their article, expanding on one of Capurro’s stated problems with the development of a global information society. They attribute lack of access to information resources to, most importantly, the high cost of Internet service providers. The high costs of both setup and operation, coupled with the reality that some countries must connect through a leased line based in the United States, mean that, in countries where a lack of government regulation prevents market competition, access to the Internet comes at a price many cannot afford (36). The question of government intervention thus becomes more nuanced: some regulation is necessary to protect access to information resources (this can backfire in places like Korea, Park reminds us), but so is some free-market competition, both locally and internationally, to ensure that the price of information access is reasonable. Ethical issues in information society studies thus also include not only an evaluation of government support and funding, but also an evaluation of how particular governments or types of governments may exacerbate the digital divide.
Grimes’ article on the information society in Ireland offers a final, valuable perspective on ethical issues in information society studies. He offers user resistance as another obstacle to be overcome in order for the information society to advance and expand. Not only are many people in many places reticent to trust something that relies so heavily on lack of face-to-face contact, but many people in smaller societies fear assimilation into a global society. They further fear that inclusion in the information society will mean embracing technology without social and economic context (7). Any information society will have to address these issues before they hope to reach all people and engage them in a new information environment.
To conclude, current debate about life within, and without, information societies centers around three broad subject areas: the problem of defining the term information society, the national and political concerns about supporting a developing information society, and the ethical dilemmas that even a fledgling information society uncovers, the most glaring of which is the digital divide. There is much yet to be written on the conditions necessary to build an information society, and on how the emerging information societies can be used to facilitate information exchange, education, literacy, and some measure of global information equality.
Works Cited
Capurro, Rafael. “ Ethical challenges of the information society.” International Information and Library Review 32 (2000): 257-276.
Duff, A. S. “The status of information society studies in the information science curriculum.” Library Review 51.3/4 (2002): 139-148.
Grimes, Seamus. “Rural areas in the information society: diminishing distance or increasing learning capacity?” Journal of Rural Studies 16.1 (2000): 13-21.
Johnson, Ian M. “UNESCO and human resource development for the ‘Information Society’.” Education for Information 16.3 (1998): 237-242.
Kerslake, Evelyn and Margaret Kinnell. “Public libraries, public interest and the information society: theoretical issues in the social impact of public libraries.” Journal of Librarianship and Information Science 30.3 (1998): 159-167.
Kirk, Joyce. “Navigating the information society.” Virtual Libraries; Virtual Communities: IATUL Conference, Queensland University of Technology, 3-7 July 2000. Ed. J. F. Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, 2000. 1-15
http://educate.lib.chalmers.se/iatul/proceedcontents/qutpap/kirk_full.html
Moore, Nick. “Policies for an information society.” ASLIB proceedings 50.1 (1998): 20-24.
Norris, Pippa. “Information poverty and the wired world.” The Harvard International Journal of Press/Politics 5.3 (2000): 1-6.
Park, Sung-Gwan. “Disarticulations in the information society: barriers to the universal access to information highways in developing countries.” International Information and Library Review 29.2 (1997): 189-199.
Petrazzini, Ben and Mugo Kibati. “The internet in developing countries.” Communications of the ACM 42.6 (1999): 31-36
Schofford, Michelle J. and Samantha Boswell. “The library: the heart of the information society.” Feliciter 43.6 (1997): 30-33.
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