Information Excess Pollution Cover Image

Zagađenje preobiljem informacija
Information Excess Pollution

Author(s): Neda Todorović
Subject(s): Media studies, Social history, Sociology of Politics
Published by: Fakultet političkih nauka Univerziteta u Beogradu
Keywords: information; data smog; „new“ new media; infotainment; happy news;

Summary/Abstract: The contemporary reader faces more information daily than his ancestor obtained during their entire lifetime in the XVII century. Up until only fifty years ago, information was an insufficiently available, rare, and very expensive “commodity”, and literally had its worth in gold, because to those who possessed it, according to the philosopher Francis Bacon (1561–1626), it guaranteed power. Today it is ubiquitious, available to everyone, and democratised to the extent that there is discussion of inhumane pollution with information, of data smog, and legitimately, of its total depreciation. Even though the global availability of information in the contemporary world is still uneven and injust, the developed parts of the world are exposed, owing foremostly to „new“ new online media, to a surplus of information that arrive and become obsolete at such a rate that the question of their reception, selection, and understanding arises. Simultaneously, the nature of information changes, which, due to commercial reasons, circulation, and ratings, increasingly gains the form of infotainment, so nowadays there is mention of happy news and junk information. The paradox is evident: more information leads to a decrease of understanding the events that we are informed of.

  • Issue Year: 5/2010
  • Issue No: 17
  • Page Range: 87-93
  • Page Count: 7
  • Language: Serbian