The Information, Media and Ownership Cover Image

Informacija, mediji i vlasništvo
The Information, Media and Ownership

Author(s): Željko Ivanković
Subject(s): Philosophy, Media studies, Communication studies, Philosophy of Science, Theory of Communication
Published by: Centar za filozofiju medija i mediološka istraživanja
Keywords: information; economics; coding of information; market; information as commodity; access to information; media and ownership;

Summary/Abstract: The article consists of four parts. In first part, we present an introduction to modern philosophy of information and describe main directions of research – qualitative and quantitative theory of information. In second part, we explore several specific issues, such as the difference between instruction and proposition, difference between information and signal, and discuss the questions of how does a signal acquire meaning (symbol grounding problem) and whether information must be true. In third part we discuss how is information understood in economics and how it behaves in the market. In fourth part we investigate what is ownership over information based on and how is it enforced. We conclude that media coding of information is the basis of establishing ownership over information. By analyzing strictly ontological characteristics of information and proofs about non-material nature of information, we conclude that it is not suitable to establish property rights over information and consequently that the information is not suitable to be traded in the competitive market.

  • Issue Year: 1/2012
  • Issue No: 1
  • Page Range: 49-67
  • Page Count: 19
  • Language: Croatian