Understanding Information: Meaning, Semiotics, and Communication, Lecture notes of Computers and Information technologies

Download Understanding Information: Meaning, Semiotics, and Communication and more Lecture notes Computers and Information technologies in PDF only on Docsity! 1 I f ti S tn orma on ys ems Engineering information, communication and meaning additional reading 0415146726 Fiske Introduction to Communication Studies Routledge 1990 0415265940 Chandler Semiotics – The Basics Routledge 2002 1578517081 Seely Brown & Duguid The Social Life of Information Harvard Business School 2000 Press 0749397055 Eco The Name of the Rose Vintage 1992 0140282688 Toole The Confederacy of Dunces Penguin 1981 0099450259 Haddon The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time Vintage 2002 0571216420 Pierre Vernon God Little Faber & Faber 2003 0552771155 Ali Brick Lane Black Lane 2004 Interpreting the meaning • How do we interpret? • How do we know the interpretation is correct? meaning and understanding What does this sign mean? meaning and understanding What does this sign mean? meaning and understanding What does this sign mean? 2 meaning and understanding What does this sign mean? meaning and understanding What do these signs mean? 1 2 3 The meaning of information • what do we mean by information engineering? i i t f f t t l– a s n s er orm o governmen con ro – telling lies or is that telling the truth? – What is information? – What is engineering? so what is information? • come up with your own definition… so what is information? Information is knowledge communicated concerning some particular fact, subject, or event Oxford English Dictionary 1. The Communication or reception of knowledge or intelligence 2. Knowledge obtained from investigation, study or instruction Webster’s Information is data with meaning Information is only a measure of the difficulty in transmitting the sequences (i.e. messages) produced from some information source Shannon and Weaver The distillation of data through its being processed results in the creation of information Clifton what is information? • information cannot exist independently of the receiving person • reaction to information is some kind of analysis or at least interpretation • differences between data and information must be preserved 5 saussurean model of a sign Signified Signifier peircean model of a sign sense Sign vehicle: the form of the sign Sense: the sense made of the sign Referent: what the sign 'stands for' sign vehicle referenta semiotic triangle Sign hidden meanings pragmatics consideration of the context of activity characteristics of: • people • organisations • and acts of communication which affect information Pragmatic analysis will look at: • shared assumptions • "common knowledge" • how ambiguities arise and dealt with an understanding of the informal nature of human interaction culture and context • Culture - the set of beliefs and assumptions associated with a community th t t i d f th lt d• e con ex s compose o e cu ure an its most important feature is language. shared thought • People who share a common culture see the world in a similar way Wh d h d th ht f• ere oes s are oug come rom and how does it exist? • Norms… 6 categories of norms • Perceptual - the way we see the world; recognising patterns • Cognitive - standardised beliefs and "common" knowledge • Evaluative - agreement about how objectives can be reached • Behavioural - predictability of human actions; including etiquette • Denotative - choices of signs and what they signify • example - electronic mail, blogs, etc. semantics • the analysis of the meaning of information • turning data into information i f th ld f i t th• mov ng rom e wor o s gns o e world of actions • example - "How many books are there in the Library?" a framework Charles Morris' framework for understanding signs: v sets up in w the disposition to react in a certain kind of way, x, to certain kind of object y (not yet the stimulus) under certain conditions z , . v - the sign w - interpreters x - interpretants y - significations z - contexts example example a "No Smoking" sign. • sign - notice on wall • interpreter - any person in the room • interpretant - readiness to refrain from smoking • signification - refraining from smoking • context - the room (outside of the room the sign does not apply) semantic analysis Semantic Analysis is the analysis of the semantic content of a situation to carry out semantic analysis we need to have: • a schema - a framework or structure for all the terms in a universe of discourse and identify: • agents, objects and events 7 syntactics • study of the rules which govern communication • vocabulary, grammar and a syntax (also phonetics for verbal communication) • logical analysis • propositional logic • predicate logic • Objective and subjective theories empirics • Understanding the code used • the study of communication theory and information theory l ki t th h i l t f• oo ng a e p ys ca aspec s o communication • modulation - noise, distortion, accuracy, speed and redundancy Different kinds of systems • Hard systems – Technology based – Easy to predict – Little complexity • Soft systems – Human based – Hard to predict – Complex hard systems approach and soft systems approach Ontological Approach to Systems Analysis • the branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature of being • (from the Greek ont - being) • “There is the system” Epistemological Approach • the theory of the method or grounds of knowledge • (from Greek episteme - knowledge) • “I can consider any collective set as a system”