Fast-food information, information quality and information gap: a temporal exploration of the notion of information in science communication on climate change
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-03-2021-0072 |
| Published date | 01 July 2021 |
| Date | 01 July 2021 |
| Pages | 89-105 |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Records management & preservation,Document management,Classification & cataloguing,Information behaviour & retrieval,Collection building & management,Scholarly communications/publishing,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management,Information & communications technology,Internet |
| Author | Carin Graminius |
Fast-food information, information
quality and information gap:
a temporal exploration of the
notion of information in science
communication on climate change
Carin Graminius
Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences, Faculties of Humanities and Theology,
Lund University, Lund, Sweden
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this study is to discuss the concept of information in relation to temporality within
the context of climate change communication. Furthermore, the paper aims to highlight the empirical richness
of information as a concept by analysing its use in context.
Design/methodology/approach –The discussion is based on 14 semi-structured interviews with initiators
and collaborators of 6 open letters on climate change published in 2018–2019. By taking three specific notions
the interviewees introduced—fast food information, information quality and information gap–as the analytical
point of departure, the study aims for a contextual understanding of information grounded in temporal
sensitivity.
Findings –The paper finds that information in the context of open letters is informed by different, and at times
contradicting, temporalities and timescapes which align with various material, institutional and discursive
practices. Based on this finding, the paper argues that notions of information are intrinsically linked to the act
of communicating, and they should be viewed as co-constituting each other.
Originality/value –The paper contributes with an empirically informed discussion regarding the concept of
information as it is used in a specific context. It illustrates how “information”is far from being understood in a
singular fashion, but is made up of multifaceted and at times contradictory understandings. Ultimately, they
correspond to why and how one communicates climate change information.
Keywords Temporality, Climate change, Information, Materiality, Science communication, Open letters
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
This paper explores the concept of information as it is used and understood in the context of
researchers’public communication efforts regarding climate change. More specifically, the
paper highlights information and its temporalities, and how temporal understandings of
information can contribute to our understanding of science communication on the topic of
climate change.
Research on the subject of information has been described as concerned with the chain of
communications surrounding information. It is a field in which information cannot be seen in
isolation from people, technology, organizations and social events (Bawden and Robinson,
Information
quality and
information
gap
89
© Carin Graminius. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the
Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and
create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full
attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http://
creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode
The author would like to thank Jannica Heinstr€
om, Jutta Haider, Bj€
orn Hammarfelt and two
anonymous peer reviewers for their insightful comments on previous drafts of this article.
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0022-0418.htm
Received 26 March 2021
Revised 10 June 2021
Accepted 13 June 2021
Journal of Documentation
Vol. 78 No. 7, 2022
pp. 89-105
Emerald Publishing Limited
0022-0418
DOI 10.1108/JD-03-2021-0072
2012, pp. 6–8; Frohmann, 2001). Likewise, practice-inspired studies on information stress the
interconnections and entanglements of different elements—artefacts, materials, activities,
discourses, actors, contexts, emotions and situations—and how these entanglements
contribute to meaning-makings and perceptions (see Palmer and Craigin, 2008). Up to now,
however, the role of temporal aspects in communication and information activities has been
largely understudied despite being implicitly omnipresent in many research areas (Haider
et al., 2021). This is interesting since temporal aspects have been argued to be central to our
experience of everyday life (Adam, 2008;Rosa, 2013). A more thorough inquiry into
temporality and how it shapes ideas of information can furthermore illustrate how
information is operationalized in different contexts (Haider et al., 2021).
In relation to climate change and the communication of climate change information,
temporal perspectives emerge as particularly interesting. Although temporal aspects forego
our attention in everyday life, climate change has put time, and particularly the omnipresent
future, on the agenda. What is more, climate change has come to epitomizeconflicting notions
of time, where accelerated short-term time goals have been given precedence over long-term
cyclical time perceptions. Climate change is fundamentally about time, about changes that
occur too fast to accommodate the life cycles of a variety of earthly organisms (Adam, 1993).
In addition, time lags, characterized by the invisibility between cause and effect, also
constitute specific temporal aspects related to climate change (see Adam, 1993;Rosa, 2013).
While climate change as a topic has been explored in relation to temporality (Adam, 1993), the
concept of information and its temporal connotations in science communication on climate
change has received less attention. This study will provide an exploration of the temporal
aspects of the concept of information in relation to climate change communication
undertaken by scientists and academics. The term science communication, which generally
comprises formal or informal communication of scientific topics to a lay audience by various
actors, including academics (see Bucchi and Trench, 2014), will be used to denote researchers’
communication efforts to a wider public.
The paper is primarily a conceptual exploration that builds on empirical material from
research on science communication through open letters on climate change. Open letters on
climate change provide an interesting angle for temporal explorations of the concept of
information. First, public communicationon the topic of climate change is generally characterized
by a specific temporal dimension—that of urgency—and open letters as a formo fcommunication
feed into this urgency by their specific genre characteristics, such as appealing for public
awareness and understanding (see Graminius, 2020). Second, open letters are often described as
political tools and not typical sources of information, which makes academics’involvement in
open letters as part of their science communication efforts an interesting angle to explore.
Duringthecourseofinterviewinginitiatorsto open letters on climate change, the notions “fast-
food information”,“informationquality”and “information gap”emerged as concepts interviewees
used when explaining their activities. When analysed, these qualifiers to the word information
situated “information”in a field of activities, materials and discourses linked to temporality. This
paper takes these three notions the interviewees used—fast food information, information quality
and information gap–as a point of departure, and asks, “How do different temporal aspects and
their integration in materials and discourses inform the interviewees’ideas of “information”?
Furthermore, the paper seeks to understand how the interviewees’conceptualization of
information is shaped by the communication event: What can an investigation intothe temporal
aspects of the concepts of information used in one communication initiative tell us about
researchers’view of their activities and the general environment in which they are situated?
Time, academia and climate change communication
According to Rosa (2013), contemporary society is foremost an experience related to temporal
structures and specifically that of acceleration. To Rosa, there are three types of temporal
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