Transcript: The Information Cycle

In our world, we are surrounded by information. Books, blogs, Tweets, videos, news…it can be quite overwhelming. In this video, we’ll make sense of all of these information sources. We’ll look at these in the context of the information cycle. Specifically, we’ll discuss the difference between popular sources, like magazines and radio broadcasts, and scholarly sources, like peer-reviewed articles and academic books.

To understand the difference, it’s helpful to think about how information is created.

Okay, let’s say you are the first person ever to spot the elusive but magical horned squirrel. You might take a photo, add a hashtag, and post it on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter. All of your friends and followers then share the photo. The local TV station might see your photo and come interview you about what you saw. Heck, you might even get a radio interview! Over the next few days, your story appears on news stations, and, after weeks and months, you get a featured story in a national magazine. Oh, the fame!

Let’s pause here. All of the sources that emerged from your initial sighting of the elusive but magical horned squirrel are what we call “popular” sources. From your first posts to the magazine articles, the purpose has been to describe what happened and maybe even to entertain. Because popular sources are usually accessible to anyone with the Internet or TV or radio, they use casual language that everyone can understand. Finally, these popular sources are created fairly quickly after an event happens.

After about six months or so, we begin to see the emergence of a whole new type of source. These are called scholarly sources because, well, they’re just that. Rather than simply describe an event, these peer-reviewed articles, academic books, and data, study it in depth, provide additional context, and even generate more questions. They are typically created by experts like your professors, and are thus often considered more authoritative than say, a magazine article written by a journalist. Because they are academic, they use more formal language and are meant for researchers, faculty, and students like you.

Whereas popular sources are created fairly quickly after an event, scholarly sources will not be produced for months or even years later. If, for example, your professor wants to publish a peer-reviewed article on the way middle-aged men incorporate the myth of the elusive but magical horned squirrel into the stories they tell their children, it will take a while. First, your professor would need to explore existing literature on the topic, interview a group of middle-aged men, look at artifacts they have created, and then submit the article for peer review. All of this work can take a long time!

So what does this have to do with your college research? Well, the sources that are created following an event fall into what we call the information cycle. Because you will at some point need to use a source that fits a particular need, you’ll need to determine whether you should use a popular source, a scholarly source, or both. Remember - each uses a specific type of language and has its own purpose, perspectives, level of authority, and audience.