To Know or not to Know: A Moral Reflection on Information Poverty

@article{Britz2004ToKO,
  title={To Know or not to Know: A Moral Reflection on Information Poverty},
  author={Johannes J. Britz},
  journal={Journal of Information Science},
  year={2004},
  volume={30},
  pages={192 - 204}
}
  • J. Britz
  • Published 1 June 2004
  • Economics
  • Journal of Information Science
This article reflects, from an ethical perspective, on the problem of information poverty. Information poverty is defined as that situation in which individuals and communities, within a given context, do not have the requisite skills, abilities or material means to obtain efficient access to information, interpret it and apply it appropriately. It is further characterized by a lack of essential information and a poorly developed information infrastructure. It is argued in this article that… 
View on SAGE
155 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
18
Background Citations
66
Methods Citations
6

155 Citations

Eradicating information poverty: An agenda for research
TLDR
Four key dimensions of information poverty for collaborative future research are: information as an agent to eradicate poverty, the causal factors resulting in information poverty, creation and production activities to combat information poverty; and better understanding of areas of extreme disadvantage and aspects of information need.
Conceptions of "information poverty" in LIS: a discourse analysis
Purpose – To provide an analysis of the notion of “information poverty” in library and information science (LIS) by investigating concepts, interests and strategies leading to its construction and…
Measuring Information Deprivation: A Democratic Proposal *
There remains no consensus among social scientists as to how to measure and understand forms of information deprivation such as misinformation. Machine learning and statistical analyses of…
Pairing information with poverty. Traces of development discourse in LIS.
Purpose – The purpose of this research is to investigate and critically assess the notions of “information poverty” in LIS by highlighting its connections with development…
Distinguishing right from wrong : proposed ethical principles for the development of national information policies
Information policy formulation is not only a matter of politics and policies. In this article it is argued that national information policies are also about ethics and that the moral complexities and…
Linguistic diversity and information poverty in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa
TLDR
Unless war-footing action is adopted to generate relevant local language content (or effectively supported by software like Google Translation) in the linguistically diverse backward regions of the world, much of the benefits that could have been derived from increased reach of freely available online content would be lost, causing an escalation of information poverty to the ‘bottom of the pyramid’ section of people in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.
Towards enhancing the delivery of information for development with a special focus on addressing poverty and social exclusion.
Do South African libraries and information centres contribute to development? Such interventions would require the effective addressing of poverty and social exclusion. This article refers to a…
Re‐situating information poverty: Information marginalization and parents of individuals with disabilities
TLDR
A constructivist grounded theory is outlined that proposes information marginalization as a complimentary concept to describe the contextual conditions that contribute to a range of defensive information behaviors and suggests that assessment of these contextual conditions be a part of the system design process.
Neo-Rawlsian Co-ordinates: Notes on A Theory of Justice for the Information Age.
The ideas of philosopher John Rawls should be appropriated for the information age. A literature review identifies previous contributions in fields such as communication and library and information…
Making the global information society good: A social justice perspective on the ethical dimensions of the global information society
  • J. Britz
  • Political Science
    J. Assoc. Inf. Sci. Technol.
  • 2008
TLDR
The article discusses the application of social justice as a moral tool that has universal moral validity and which can be used to address the main ethical challenges of the Information Society.
...
...

References

SHOWING 1-10 OF 71 REFERENCES
Justice and the Politics of Difference
This book challenges the prevailing philosophical reduction of social justice to distributive justice. It critically analyzes basic concepts underlying most theories of justice, including…
Ioligtiogsarmoede: 'n Christelik etiese refleksie
Information poverty does not only pertain to the lack of essential information, but can also be defined as a condition of life where the majority of people within a specific context do not have the…
Information Ethics: An Environmental Approach to the Digital Divide
TLDR
An information ethics must be able to address and solve the ethical challenges arising in the new environment on the basis of the fundamental principles of respect for information, its conservation and valorisation and must be an ecological ethics for the information environment.
Information and Communication Technologies, Poverty and Development
Can information and communication technologies (ICTs) help to alleviate poverty in low-income countries? The paper investigates this question, focusing particularly on the role of ICTs in assisting…
Digital Divide: Civic Engagement, Information Poverty, and the Internet Worldwide
From the Publisher: Digital Divide examines access and use of the Internet in 179 nations world-wide. A global divide is evident between industrialized and developing societies. A social divide is…
Accessibility of information: a myth for developing countries?
Discusses the importance of information to personal and national development and emphasizes that apart from access problems created by the rapid growth of information for the world’s ever‐increasing…
The digital divide: a global and national call to action
TLDR
The paper examines strategies used in the USA and the UK at national and regional levels to address similar issues, including the use of libraries to reduce the digital divide, and compares these with New Zealand initiatives, to identify positive means of increasing participation in the knowledge economy.
The Impoverished Life-World of Outsiders
TLDR
The author’s findings indicate that the world of insiders is one in which outsiders are not sought for information and advice and is a world in which norms and mores define what is important and what is not.
What Information Society?
TLDR
Commentators are strikingly vague about the criteria used to define either information or information societies, and most definitions are concerned with quantitative measures, which fail to consider important qualitative dimensions of the criteria.
Indigenous Knowledge: A Moral Reflection on Current Legal Concepts of Intellectual Property
Indigenous knowledge of underdeveloped countries or of underdeveloped peoples within developed or developing nations is a sought after commodity in today's marketplace. These commercialisation…
...
...