If information quality includes criteria for veracity, then information which deceives can be considered information of poor quality. Information quality perceived as an objective truth provides a useful component in the utilitarian model of information quality
"Information Quality and Truth: Consumerism, Deception and the Postmodern Age"
Extended abstract by Arthur R.
Taylor
IS4IS Summit - The Information Society at the Crossroads, Vienna, 2015
Churchman
recognized the importance of information (knowledge) in the systems approach
and cited the potential for deception throughout (Churchman, 1968). If
information quality includes criteria for veracity, then information which
deceives can be considered information of poor quality. Information quality
perceived as an objective truth (through Churchman's guarantor perhaps)
provides an useful component in the utilitarian model of information quality.
But when viewed from a subjective perspective, the concept of information
veracity raises complex philosophical questions concerning the ethics and
values of the subject.
Image Attribute: A Classic Example of Consumerism linked with Deception in the Postmodern Age
Impact Of Unethical Cigarette Advertising, Misleading Information Or Deceptive Advertising On Customer Purchasing Intention With Mediating
Representations
of information quality imply a clear and understandable presentation of the
information (Arazy & Kopak, 2011; Lee, Strong, Kahn and Wang, 2002; Liu,
2004). Information quality criteria include accuracy and objectivity of the
author and source. Information which is accurate is considered reliable and
correct, and information that is complete provides all necessary information
from a utilitarian perspective. Information which is objective provides an
impartial view of the topic. However, information which is false is still
considered information, but evaluated under various objective criteria may not
be considered quality information. Information quality is one dimension of
relevance as part of information consumption (Taylor, 2012a).
Relevance theory
in information science examines information use from a user's perspective as a
utilitarian concept. A document retrieved from an IR system is considered
relevant if it has utility in fulfilling the information requirement of the
user. Evaluations of relevance by the user involve the use of various relevance
criteria for document evaluation which include characteristics of information
quality. This is by definition a subjective view of the document's relevance.
Interpretations of the characteristics of the document are also subjective in
this approach, and information quality characteristics including veracity,
authenticity, qualifications of the author and bias are also subjective. These
documents and their constituent information are therefor evaluated in the
context of the subject's worldview. The notion of truth value becomes part of
this evaluation. In the utilitarian view of information consumption, a false
document may in fact have value and be considered relevant Additionally, a
document evaluated as true based on a subject's world-view, may have an
objective evaluation of false (perhaps biased) but still be considered relevant
and useful to the subject.
Information
production and consumption as part of a market add additional complexities and
create a further perversion of the information gathering process as part of a
systems approach. When information consumption is viewed from the perspective
of consumerism in a market it is cast into a capitalistic economic model where
information consumers may view information as yet another market product to be
consumed at the lowest cost. Information producers seek profit by lowering the
cost of production and enticing consumption through production of information
which suits the bias of a particular audience. Due to the confluence of these
forces, information quality, including veracity, may be of limited concern
where information is simply a product in a market transaction. Evidence from a
variety of sources would suggest that information distributed in an economic
system which values capital and subsumes or possibly ignores ethics and
morality, the valuation of truth in information becomes even more suspect.
Further analysis
can consider dimensions of information quality in relation to consumerism and
post-modernism. Postmodern thought embraces the market and consumerism.
Information production (journalism, mass media) is yet another cultural product
in the market. Information production cast into the market framework is
influenced by the revised sequence of capital consumer markets where demand
controls through advertising and marketing and pursuit of additional surplus
value impact the quality of information. This leads to biased and fragmented
dissemination of information. Breakdown of traditional control structures is
another side effect of this convergence, leading to prosumerism (amateur)
information dissemination with similar impacts on information quality.
Information is
consumed from a source. Media products provide information and in a world with
ubiquitous technology the Internet increasingly provides access to these media
sources and thus represent a significant nexus of control. Managers at Google,
the most popular Internet search engine in the world, claim to answer more than
one billion search queries a day (Google-1, 2013; Sullivan, 2013). For a
significant demographic segment of the general population, almost any
consumption of information is filtered through an Internet search engine
operated by a private business (Rowlands et al, 2008; Pew, 2012). That these
search engines are owned and operated by private, for-profit businesses is yet
another problematic dimension of the consumption of information.
In a world where
information is produced and distributed across vast information networks,
information production time has been drastically shortened and the information
produced has become increasingly fragmented. As an extension of the postmodern
age, current technology creates a world where information from dubious sources
surrounds us and pervades our senses. Interpreting this fragmented and
disjointed information in relation to an internal system of values is
increasingly challenged leading to further questions of truth value.
Capitalism is an
amoral economic system for the distribution of scarce resources, and thus the
unregulated system itself has no recognition of truth value for the information
which has become a product in a market transaction. In businesses which are
managed and operate with little regard for social consequences, the ethics or
value of truth or information quality may be greatly reduced. In a business
with profit motive, veracity or quality of information may be secondary to
profit, or without social pressure to the contrary, information quality may not
even be a consideration. Postmodernism acknowledges the consolidation of
knowledge, technology and production and recognizes the power that information
holds in this scenario.
The
post-modernists readily acknowledge the subjective truth and find difficulty in
the pursuit of objective truths. Consumerism converges with post-modernism in
the production of knowledge in a capitalistic society. Jean-Francois Lyotard
saw the growing connection between knowledge production and capital markets and
saw the potential for problems. As he foresaw, knowledge is now a salable
commodity in an environment where it has lost its truth value and is consumed
largely on the basis of its utility value (use-value) (Lyotard, 1984). It is
possible that those who have come of age with the pervasive information
cacophony of the Internet gather information from fragmented, disjointed
information sources of dubious value and have little concern about the veracity
or authority of those sources. They evaluate information sources as subjective,
not objective, and regard critical evaluation of the information and the source
as a task to be managed by some other individual or by the technology involved
(Gross and Latham, 2011; Taylor, 2012b, Harley et al, 2001).
Conclusion:
This article provides some evidence that the convergence of consumerism, post-modernism and
broad technical access to a variety of information sources has had an impact on
both the perception of what information is and on the quality of information
being disseminated and consumed. The question of moral, ethical and spiritual
values within this convergence were examined. It provides a basis for further
discussion and examination.
About The Author:
Arthur R. Taylor, Ph.D. Rider University, 2083 Lawrenceville Rd., Lawrenceville, NJ 08648
Publication Details:
This work is an extended abstract of author's paper - "Information
quality and truth: consumerism, deception and the postmodern age"/ © 2015 by the
authors; licensee MDPI and ISIS. This abstract is distributed under the terms
and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution license.
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