Lesson 5 in Media and Information Literacy: Media and Information Sources

At the end of this module, I can:

1. Compare potential sources of media and information.
2. Assess information quality.
3. Interview an elder from the community regarding indigenous media and information sources.

Your information needs to dictate your choice of media and information sources. Sources are not
all the same and are not created equal. In an article written by Meyer (2005) on the nature and
the effective use of information in rural development, it was suggested that resources may be
evaluated by looking at the information that they contain. In other words, the content says a lot
about the source.
Judging the value of information is not as easy as it seems. It becomes all the more difficult for
you when you have a limited idea about what you are looking for. You may not realize it, but
there are occasions when you feel dumfounded when there is too much information This puts
you to a dilemma of whether to adapt the whole gamut of information or just ignore them and
look for some other sources that can provide you with simpler and more straightforward
information.
Information, unlike raw data, is processed and refined. It is an interpretation of the data by the
author or producer of the information. As a consumer, you have to exert more effort to look past
the information and check its validity and relevance to you. Information may also become
obsolete and may not be applicable to current contexts and utility. In your case as students, you
are expected to discern the changes in the content and claims of the information that you locate,
use, and share.
Uncertainty is a key driver for one to seek information. As someone curious about how things
work, you would like to reduce this uncertainty by consulting various materials that come from
different sources. These sources may be in the form of indigenous or community knowledge,
physical materials in archives such as libraries, multimedia texts, and objects found in the or
media messages from the different mass media forms.

Big Idea
Information is like food. It nourishes your hunger for knowledge. But not all food is
appetizing. Select information that is relevant to your information needs,

Indigenous Knowledge and Indigenous Media

A rather unconventional source for information is the so-called indigenous knowledge (IK),
Indigenous knowledge is defined by Warren (1991) as the "knowledge that is unique to a given
culture or society."
IK contrasts with the international knowledge system generated by universities, research
institutions and private firms. It is the basis for local-level decision making in agriculture, health
care, food preparation, education, natural- resource management, and a host of other activities
in rural communities. -Warren (1991)
Indigenous knowledge is relayed either through people media (which are the persons involved in
the use, analysis, evaluation, and production of media and information) or through indigenous
media. The Asia Indigenous Peoples Pact or AIPP defined indigenous media as media:
...owned, controlled and managed by indigenous peoples in order for them to develop and
produce culturally appropriate information in the languages understood by the community by
utilizing indigenous materials and resources, reflecting community needs and interests, visions
and aspirations, and independent from vested interest groups. It is highly participatory,
involving the community members in planning, management and production. -AIPP (2014)
Also known as community media, indigenous media is any form of media that is created and
controlled in the community, for the community, about the community and by the community
(either a geographic community or a community of identity or interest) [and] is separate from
commercial media, state-run media, or public broadcasting."
Indigenous communities are typically known to adhere to oral tradition of communication. This
means that they are not reliant on mainstream media. They store information in their memories
so the danger of losing the information is greater. Information exchange is characterized by face-
to-face interaction, limiting the transfer and access of information over long distances and
containing it within the borders of the community. And because of this. the creation and
maintenance of indigenous media helps in storing indigenous knowledge for posterity.
The AIPP observed that "the ASEAN media landscape is generally characterized by an urban-
centric media system in flow, content, consumption and ownership that limits indigenous
peoples' access to media and information and news coverage of their own issues and conditions."
Some of the other observations of the group includes the following:

-Flow of information starting from metropolitan areas, tending to be one-way as no effective

mechanisms are in place for media organizations to gather news from rural indigenous areas.
-Distant locations of many indigenous territories and poor infrastructures as big obstacles to
indigenous peoples' access to information from mass media. •

-Complex biases and serious lack of interest in the lives of indigenous communities in news
coverage and selection of mainstream media.
-Privately owned mainstream media catering more to interests of urban consumers rather than
the needs of rural communities, particularly indigenous ones.

Indigenous Media as Tool for Expression and Participation

Information offered by indigenous media is primarily to "open up other spaces for the discussion
of indigenous peoples' issues (AIPP, 2005)." New -O media and ICT infrastructures have
dramatically the ASEAN region "providing the opportunity for extending communication
outreach in remote rural areas." The AIPP added that the indigenous youth of some ASEAN
countries are exploring online platforms such as social media for their news and information
consumption.
In the ASEAN region, there are indigenous organizations that have initiated the promotion of
freedom of expression and have increased access to information among indigenous peoples (IPs).
An example in the Philippines is the Northern Dispatch Weekly, or NORDIS, which is a weekly
newspaper covering the Ilocos region, the Cordilleras, and the Cagayan Valley region places
where indigenous communities in Northern Luzon live. NORDIS extends its effort for media to
reach the IPs and the rural communities. The newspaper is nonprofit and promotes a more
democratic ownership of media facilities, and more reader-oriented industry practitioners.

The Library as Repository of Information

You know libraries to be places "in which literary, musical, artistic, or reference materials (as
books, manuscripts, recordings, or films) are kept for use but not for sale (Merriam-Webster
Online Dictionary)" Libraries came into existence because of the birth of printing press. .
Libraries are evaluated on the extent of their collection of materials and the kinds and quality of
services they offer to information seekers. Libraries are expected to select and provide you
contents that are easy to access. Libraries are considered to be stewards of good information
collection.
Libraries bought books (which they then owned), organized them, made them available through
library facilities, and took steps to ensure the longevity of the volumes for future use... Libraries
acquire and secure ownership of digital content (typically through license), store the content on
local servers, and make it accessible to a target community. Libraries attempt, as protocols
permit, to ensure long-term access to the digital collection through license conditions and
through practices to create backup and redundancy, and to migrate the content over time. In a
variation of the model, some libraries host commercial content or centrally manage content of
other campus units. In both of these cases, the classic collection stewardship model is sustained
largely intact. A defining characteristic of this traditional model is the library's ability to
exercise primary responsibility for and control over the content and future access to that
content. -Council on Library and Information Resources
The main role of a library is to organize and provide you access to information. This role is no
longer static or limited to purely collecting physical materials for archiving. It has extended to
acquiring new modes of providing information such as the use of digital sources and facilities
that utilize media. A library is one place where you can expect new search strategies to be
employed, thus, motivating information seekers like you to be more adept in effectively and
efficiently locating information.
Libraries are no longer limited to being repositories of informational materials. Modern libraries
are connected to the Internet to provide library users of a myriad of sources and databases from
various places in the world. According to the Council on Library and Information Resources,
"Library facilities also serve a social function, providing a common ground for users to interact
or a neutral site for individuals from different disciplines to come together."

Media as Information Tools

Apart from indigenous knowledge and library sources, media also provides information as
previously stated in the earlier modules in this unit. Media has been extensively discussed in
Module 2. For your purpose of understanding media as a source of information, ponder on the
advantages and disadvantages of each media type shown in Table 5.1 as outlined by the World
Heritage Communication and Media Training Workshop in 2013.

Table 5.1 Pros and Cons of the Different Types of Media as Sources of Information

Media PROS CONS

Type/
Form
BOOKS  Portable/transferable  “Print is dead” or is it?
information  Costly typesetting and design
 Affordable by volume,  Costly publication in multilingual
depending on size of print editions
run  Expensive storage and shipping
 Enduring medium that can  Prohibitively expensive
last for many years reprinting/revising of outdated
 Ideal for content that may information
not change drastically over  Environmental issues
time (historical, academic
works, catalogues of
cultural artifacts/works of
art)
MAGAZINE  Loyal (but shrinking)  Newspaper valid only for a day
S AND readership  Message can be lost (most papers
NEWSPAPE  Target a geographical area have more than 60% advertising
RS  Can be shared with others  Magazines have niche audiences
 Inserts and leaflets attract
attention
CINEMA  Reaches many  Expensive production
demographics, literate or  May or may not hold
illiterate interest/attention
 Can be entered in
local/international films
festivals and competitions
for further exposure
RADIO  Trusted medium with loyal  Niche market: stations cater to
followers specific types of listeners
 Community radio has  Audience will tune out
loyal audiences interested  Background medium (hard to
in local activities hold attention)
 National broadcasters can  Difficult to incite action (hard to
carry messages for remember broadcasted contact
nationwide events details or website URLs
TELEV  Quickly spreads the  Expensive
message on different  Short message that must be
ISION channels and times of day repeated to sink in
 Improves credibility  Advertisements can be skipped
 Best suited for large scale through PVRs (Personal Video
communications activities Recorder)

WORLD  Main point of contact  Perceived difficulty to set up

between user and audience  High cost maintenance (Constant
WIDE  Acts as a hub for all other updating)
WEB activities/content  Information control
(audio/video/text/events/so
cial media aggregator
)
 Easy to access from
multiple platforms
 24/7 interaction with target
audiences
SOCIAL  Reach the correct audience  Very time consuming to engage
through directly with followers
MEDIA hashtags/following  Need to keep content fresh across
relevant groups platforms to stay visible
 Attract large number of  Cannot control the message or
people in short time how people react to online
  Drive traffic to other contents
communication actions  Campaigns can get hijacked by
 Bring people together detractors
 Gather information about  Bad news can go viral
target  Mistakes can happen in real time
 Easy feedback with thousands of witnesses
 Place for real life  Negative feedback cannot be
experiences to be ignored
exchanged  Do not capture tone
 Give a voice to timid
people

Evaluating Your Information Sources

When the information suits your needs, it is considered of good quality. To measure information
quality, you may consider the following aspects.
1. The Information provided by a source is credible and reliable. One aspect of judging
credibility of information is the reputation of the source. The authoritativeness of the information
may not be useful.
2. Breadth and depth of the discussion on a topic is also a consideration. The extent of the
research done by the source to organize the information is an indication of rigor and
judiciousness. A lazy source is one who is content on providing secondary and tertiary sources as
well as popular and less academic information
3. The information can be cross-referenced. This means that the information can also be checked
in other sources and can be supported by them.
4. The manner on how the information has been dealt with by the source is ethical and legal.