Modern society is increasingly called information. Indeed, we are increasingly becoming dependent on various sources of information and news. They affect our lifestyle, habits, relationships. And this impact is only growing. Modern man spends more and more of his resources (money, time, energy) to satisfy informational needs, his own and others. Attitude to information of various kinds becomes the cornerstone in the difference between generations. We will talk about what information needs are, what they are and how they are satisfied.
Concept of needs
Man is constantly in need of something. A feeling of deficiency is always perceived as discomfort. And in any case, whether it is a lack of food or the approval of others, the need causes a feeling of inconvenience that I want to overcome. And the stronger the feeling of lack of something, the sooner a person will find a way to get rid of it. This deficit condition is called need. Our physiology manages life support systems and through needs signals that it is necessary to "put" into the body: food, water, information. The need state informs a person about a change in the functioning of some systems, and this entails the commission of some actions. Needs and needs are the main motivating factor in human behavior. They do not allow us to stop there and are the basis for the development of all living things. It should be understood that need is not equal to need. Only when a person realizes the need for something, then does the need appear. Need always has an objective basis, and need is subjective.
A person has options for relieving discomfort, he builds needs in a hierarchy in importance, and specific personal characteristics are manifested here. In this regard, the process of forming needs is manageable. The society forms approved and taboo unwanted desires. So, until recently, a person without hesitation satisfied hunger with the help of wheat bread. But today, when enormous propaganda work is underway to discredit fast carbohydrates, we often choose not to white, but whole or whole grain bread to remove the same food need. In modern society, this behavior management is often carried out through information needs. A person receives information about how he is better to satisfy his desires.
Types of needs
Due to the fact that the needs are extremely diverse, there are several approaches to their classification. The most convincing are the following. In the first case, the needs are divided into three large groups: biological, social and ideal. Human biology is associated with many needs: it needs food, water, sleep, reproduction, safety. Without this, a person’s life is exposed to great risks, therefore physiological needs are met in the first place. Although the characteristics of the human person are that the individual is free to choose which need to remove first. We know that a mature person can deny himself biologically significant things in the name of spiritual needs. For example, during the war in besieged Leningrad, people maintained a strategic supply of grain, although they suffered terrible hunger pangs.
Social needs are connected with the existence of society, these include belonging to a group, recognition, self-affirmation, leadership, respect, love, affection, etc.
The third group includes the so-called needs of a higher order: self-realization, self-esteem, aesthetic and cognitive needs, the meaning of life. These desires, according to A. Maslow, are at the top of the pyramid and are satisfied after the needs of the first and second levels are generally removed. Although man is certainly more complicated than any schemes, and in some cases he is able to sacrifice biology in the name of ideals. Actually, in this he differs from the animal. To meet each type of needs, a person needs a variety of information. Using information as a tool to satisfy needs is a specific human way of doing things.
The second approach divides the needs into those that are needed to preserve something and for growth.
Concept of information
The whole world around us is a large information base. Its infinite variety leads to the complexity of the formulation of the definition of this concept. In the most general sense, information refers to various information about the surrounding reality in various forms of presentation. This information is the object of storage, processing, copying, transmission, processing, use. The term “information” is used in many fields of activity: communication theory, cybernetics, computer science, bibliography, and others. In each case, the concept is filled with additional meanings.
The specificity of information is that it can be presented in a variety of forms. Including in the form of texts, diagrams, images, radio waves, sound and light signals, gestures and facial expressions, energy and nerve impulses, smells, taste, chromosomes. And these are only the discovered forms of the existence of information. Scientists suggest that in the future, when additional information appears, new forms will be found.
The characteristic of such a diverse phenomenon is usually given through a description of its properties. These include:
1. Completeness. This property is related to understanding. If the meaning contained in the message can be decoded, then the information is considered complete.
2. Reliability. Information should reflect the true, and not far-fetched or distorted state of affairs.
3. Objectivity. Information does not change its meaning depending on the individual who perceives them.
4. The accuracy. The information should reflect the real state of objects and phenomena.
5. Availability. It must correspond to the level of understanding of the addressee.
6. Brevity. Information should be transmitted in the shortest possible form, but without prejudice to understandability.
There are other properties, such as value, relevance, etc.
Types of information
In its most general form, information can be divided into two large groups: objective and subjective. The first group is related to the ability of objects of reality to transmit information that does not change depending on the perception of the subject. And the second, on the contrary, changes its characteristics in accordance with the perceiving or transmitting person. For example, information on the chemical composition of water does not vary in any way, no matter who considers it. But the party’s official information about its activities may change its meaning depending on who perceives it.
Also, information can be divided into analog and discrete. The first is a continuous form of existence of information. For example, a person’s body temperature is constant (in a healthy state) all year round and from year to year. The second type, on the contrary, is associated with discontinuity, the time dynamics of the flow of information. For example, crop statistics change annually.
According to the form of presentation, it is customary to highlight graphic, textual, visual, audio and video, numerical information.
In terms of accessibility, a wide circle of people is allocated general, limited access and classified information. There are also data in this series for which there is no storage form yet: tactile, organoleptic, gustatory, etc.
At the place of origin of information, elementary, biological and social information is distinguished.
By purpose, it can be classified as personal, mass and special, that is, created for a certain circle of people.
Background information is also highlighted as a separate functional view.
The concept of information needs
In general, information needs are understood as the need for information about the surrounding reality, which may be useful for carrying out any actions. Since childhood, a person needs various information to make some decisions. At the initial stages of human development, others provide them: family, friends, teachers. But there comes a time when people need information that they cannot get from habitual sources (from memory, from close circle), and then that very deficit state arises that motivates us to recognize a new need - informational. People feel a discrepancy between the available information and the necessary, and this pushes them to search behavior. It is from this gap between knowledge and ignorance that scientific information needs arise. Once upon a time, people wondered where everything came from. In response to a request, mythology first appears as an explanatory system, but gradually there is more knowledge about the world, and science, philosophy, etc., arose in response to new questions.
The term "information needs" appears only in the middle of the 20th century. It is introduced as part of the science of information systems. But this does not mean that before that people did not have such a need. It is an essential part of cognitive activity and appears at a certain age. Every child in childhood asked questions, learning the world. And at that moment when the answers of loved ones cease to satisfy him, there is a conscious need to find new knowledge.
Information Needs Properties
Journalist Robert Taylor said that information needs have a number of distinctive characteristics. They are always associated with cognitive activity and with language. Outside of these systems, they cannot exist. The properties of these needs directly follow from the properties of information. Any information that people need for life must be reliable, complete, valuable, etc. People who need background information have their own needs, and this is the first property - they are subjective. They are also flexible: a person usually does not have very strict requirements for the source of information if it meets the main criteria for assessing the quality of the information received. He is ready to accept any affordable and suitable way to satisfy his need for information. Also, these needs are characterized by irreversibility. Once appearing, they do not disappear, but only increase. True, for some time a person can postpone the satisfaction of these needs if some others are updated. Another property is potential dissatisfaction. The knowledge is endless, learning something new about the object, a person may begin to feel the need to obtain additional information, and this process has no end. The latter property is associated with the motivating function of needs. The need for information always becomes an incentive for some kind of human activity.
Classifications
There are several approaches to highlighting the varieties of people's need for additional knowledge. Traditionally, the types of information needs are determined by their main characteristics. There is an approach in which they are divided into objective and subjective. The former exist outside of personal needs and desires, and the latter depend on them. But this approach seems to be incorrect. Since information needs are always the result of a person’s personal experience, they cannot be produced by an objective environment. There is a practice of highlighting collective, social, and individual needs for information and knowledge.
Public arise as a kind of social request, it does not have specific subject groups. For example, such can be called the need for knowledge about the state of the environment, about the situation in the country and the world, etc.
Collective belong to specific target groups, united on various grounds. For example, doctors need knowledge about new diseases, epidemics, treatment methods, etc.
And individual, respectively, arise in individuals as a result of their practical activities.
There are also attempts to highlight such types of information needs of a person as real and potential, expressed and latent, permanent and temporary, professional and unprofessional. Some researchers suggest dividing the needs into groups according to the type of information: visual, textual, methodical, etc. There is a proposal to classify them based on the subject’s profession and occupation: scientific, reference, educational, medical, pedagogical, etc.
There is a relatively universal classification within which organic, spiritual and professional information needs are highlighted. The first is a variety of sensory information about the environment. The second is the need for various social information. Including, for example, this includes attention to rumors, the need to find out news, etc. The third is the knowledge that a person needs to conduct his professional activity. None of the classifications are comprehensive and comprehensive. Therefore, searches in this direction will continue for a long time.
Stages of the process of satisfying information needs
Feeling the need for information, a person performs certain actions that can fit into a relatively typical algorithm. In general, the process of satisfying information needs is divided into several stages:
1. The emergence of motive. A person begins to feel discomfort from the appearance of discrepancies between existing and necessary knowledge.
2. Awareness of need. The subject begins to formulate a question to which he will seek an answer. Information requests may vary in clarity and certainty. Typically, a poorly formatted request is allocated when a person cannot verbalize his need; conscious, but not formalized - in this case, the person understands what he wants to know, but he needs the help of a specialist in verbalizing the request; a formulated question is when a person can explain what he wants to know.
3. Search program. A person develops a strategy for “obtaining” the necessary knowledge, determines the sources of information.
4. Search behavior. A person turns to a chosen source of information, if necessary, to several, until he removes his state of cognitive deficit.
Ways to Meet Information Needs
A modern man can eliminate the emerging information deficit in various ways. There is an approximate general algorithm that people follow when they want to know something. The first stage is an internal search. It is human nature to first turn to available resources. First, he will try to remember what he knows, to make comparisons and analogies. If this search does not lead to a feeling of satisfaction, a person turns to his “inner circle” for help. That is, he asks relatives, colleagues, acquaintances. He compares the information received from them with his internal cognitive resources, and verifies. If this stage does not give the desired result, then the person proceeds to the external search. It is very diverse and almost unlimited. A person is trying to get access to information that is stored in some kind of “banks”. Today, this role is increasingly played by the Internet. And more recently, a man was going to the library. Authoritative people are also external sources of information: experts, specialists, experienced people. They can be contacted in person or through various means of communication: Internet, mail, telephone. Secret information can be sought through special channels: archives, close databases. Another source of information is the media. Often they try to predict the potential information needs of society and provide people with information in advance. So, for example, any news release does not do without a weather forecast. Because people are always interested in this information. In some cases, the source of information is educational organizations. So, if a person lacks knowledge in a certain field of activity, he can go to courses and get the necessary knowledge.
Search for information
« » . . , . , , , , . :
- ;
- , ;
- ;
- .
. (, ). , . . , .
Humanity today is becoming increasingly dependent on information. For many people, finding information on the Internet is an everyday activity. This tendency is associated with a decrease in the impact on society of traditional media - television, radio, and the press. And the increasing role of electronic media. Online search capabilities greatly simplified the process of obtaining information, made many sources more accessible. But also problems arise in the reliability and quality of the information received. On the Web, every user can become a small media outlet, but far from all bloggers or authors are capable of delivering verified and valuable information. Today, society is hastily developing new mechanisms for regulating electronic sources of information, new laws are being enacted, and special social regulators are being sought that would protect human privacy and comply with generally accepted moral standards.