MEDIA AND INFORMATION SOURCES Key Elements of Information Sources: • Reliability of information - Information is said to be reliable if it can be verified and evaluated. Others refer to the trustworthiness of the source in evaluating the reliability of information. • Accuracy of information - Accuracy refers to the closeness of the report to the actual data. Measurement of accuracy varies, depending on the type of information being evaluated. Forecasts are said to be accurate if the report is similar to the actual data. Financial information is considered accurate if the values are correct, properly classified, and presented • Value of information - Information is said to be of value if it aids the user in making or improving decisions. • Authority of the source - Much of the information we gather daily do not come from a primary source but are passed on through secondary sources such as writers, reporters, and the like. Sources with an established expertise on the subject matter are considered as having sound authority on the subject. • Timeliness - Reliability, accuracy, and value of information may vary based on the time it was produced or acquired. While a piece of information may have been found accurate, reliable, and valuable during the time it was produced, it may become irrelevant and inaccurate with the passing of time (thus making it less valuable). Other information may be timeless, proven to be the same in reliability, accuracy, and value throughout history. Sources of Information: A. LIBRARY – is the store-house of knowledge for later use. Human knowledge can be recorded and preserved in different media. Since knowledge and information are so vital for all round development, libraries that handle and manage knowledge and information are invaluable indeed. Types of Libraries: 1. Academic libraries serve colleges and universities, their students, staff and faculty. Larger institutions may have several libraries on their campuses dedicated to serving particular schools such as law and science libraries. Many academic librarians become specialists in an area of knowledge and can have faculty status. 2. Public libraries serve communities of all sizes and types. Wherever you live, there's bound to be a local public library nearby! As the name implies, public libraries serve the general public, "from cradle to grave" as more than one public librarian has been heard to say. Public libraries often have departments that focus on areas of service, such as youth, teens and adults. 3. School libraries are usually part of a school system, and serve students between Kindergarten and grade 12. Many are called media centers, and librarians are often required to have a second degree in education or a certificate in school media. 4. Special libraries offer unique opportunities to work in a specialized environment of interest, such as corporations, hospitals, the military, museums, private businesses, and the government. Special libraries can serve particular populations, such as the blind and physically handicapped, while others are dedicated to special collections, such as the Library of Congress or a presidential library. B. INTERNET - The Internet is a constantly expanding virtual library with over a million terabytes of data and information to be found and millions more gigabytes added daily. The Internet can provide you with a variety of sources including: scholarly databases and journals, online encyclopedias, books, and videos. Even social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook can provide you with unique and comprehensive sources of citizen journalism. Types of Information on the Internet: 1. Scholarly Journals and Databases The most common source of reliable, credible information you will find on the Internet is through scholarly journals and databases. These academic, peer reviewed collections provide you with extensive reports, case studies, articles and research studies to help bolster your research process. Most online scholarly journals are categorized by certain subjects, professions, and fields of study and allow you to seek out the most targeted information possible. Many online journals and databases will only let you preview an article abstract or summary, requiring a paid per-article or subscription fee to view the complete article. 2. Online Encyclopedias Several major encyclopedia publishers have online versions of their materials. Some charge an access fee to view full entries. In 2001, Wikipedia sought to change this by creating an open-source encyclopedia edited and curated by the Internet. With over 23 million articles, entries in Wikipedia are collaboratively written by volunteers around the globe. Because of this, the quality of writing may not make it the most reliable or accurate source of information. However, if you're just looking to get a handle on basic ideas about your speech topic, Wikipedia is a great first source to check out. Also, make sure to click through and investigate a Wikipedia's article's references list to find other, more quality and reliable, sources of information on the same subject. 3. Video With over 48 hours of content uploaded to YouTube every minute, YouTube has compiled more videos across every two week span (8 years of video per day) than total number of years that motion pictures have existed (117 years in 2012). Video can provide you a rich, visual depth to your Internet research, providing you with first-hand accounts, video tutorials and diaries, and citizen journalism. 4. Online Books Online tools such as Project Gutenberg and Google Books now allow you to access full books from the comfort of your Internet browser. Project Gutenberg is an open-source collective of full texts now in the public domain. Google Books offers both full texts and partial previews on millions of books. Because both of these resources index the content of each full text, they are searchable to find the exact content and information you need. 5. Social Media While many would dismiss the credibility and reliability of information garnered from social media sources, both Twitter and Facebook can provide intrinsic value to your Internet search. Most mainstream journalism outlets can no longer keep up social media's immediacy of information sharing, making some into a form of citizen journalism that provides real-time, first-person accounts of world events. If you were preparing a speech about the Arab Spring or the 2012 Presidential Election, social media would be invaluable to your research tracking populist sentiment and eyewitness accounts in real-time reporting. C. INDIGENOUS 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. In local communities in Africa, there is a rich body of information or knowledge which has been handed down by word of mouth from generation to generation. This is known as indigenous knowledge. It is neither written nor published but provides people in the community with strategies for survival. Indigenous knowledge is the sum total of knowledge and skills which people in a particular geographical area possess that enables them to get the most out of their natural environment. This information/knowledge is not systematically documented. It is oral in nature, usually transmitted through personal communication; it is culture-specific and often generated within communities [20] for local level decision-making in agriculture, healthcare, food preparation, education, natural resources management and other activities. Examples of areas where indigenous knowledge has been very useful include, among others, African traditional medicine, conflict resolution and culture - dance steps and traditional attire. Characteristics • oral tradition of communication • store information in memories • information exchange is face-to-face • information are contain within the border of the community FORMATS OF INFORMATION SOURCES Information is available and accessible in two main formats namely, print and non-print and these include published and unpublished sources. 1. Print Materials (Published sources) Information could be in print format and these include: all printed books, periodicals, maps, bibliographies, indexes and abstracts, photographs, government documents, technical reports, etc. Books are the most common type of printed materials. The Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary defines a book as ‘a set of printed pages that are fastened inside a cover so that you can turn them and read them [13]. A book is described by some people as a written work or composition that has been published, printed on pages bound together while others say it's just the content, separate from its container [14]. Books are categorized into two, namely: fiction and non-fiction. Fiction contains information that are not true and all the scenes and characters are made up by the author. Non-fiction books deals with information that is true, about real things, people, events and places. 2. Non-Print Materials In addition to printed materials, information is also produced in other formats (non-print) including audio, audiovisual, multimedia, microform and electronic books, journals, images, texts/records from the Internet. 3. Audio-Visual and Multimedia In the past decades, much of the information created by members of a given society is produced in audio, audiovisual and multimedia formats. Example of audio information is music recorded on CDs and books on audio or video tapes. Video information includes VCR tapes of TV shows, movies and documentaries [1]. Other examples are information on CD-ROMs, DVDs, Flash drives and Web documents etc. 4. Microform The American Heritage Dictionary defines microform as an arrangement of images reduced in size, as on microfilm or microfiche. Microforms are any form, either films or paper, containing micro reproductions [15] of documents for transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced about 25 times from the original document size, (miniaturized or compressed images) which cannot be read without special display devices (the reader). Archival materials are frequently placed in microform format because this medium is very stable and economical for storage of information for extended periods of time. There are two major types, namely: Microfilm and Microfiche. 5. Microfilm Microfilm is a roll of transparent film (approximately 100 to 200 feet in length) used to store microscopic images of documents [1]. A microfilm reader is required to read the images in the microfilm. Documents are recorded in microfilm because of the risk of damage to a fragile original or to save storage space. Microfilm when properly processed and stored within special envelopes and placed in a climate-controlled room, has a life expectancy of approximately 500 years [16, 17]. Most libraries have a collection of microfilm stored in their archives.