Information in any format is produced to convey a message and is shared via a selected delivery method. The iterative processes of researching, creating, revising, and disseminating information vary, and the resulting product reflects these differences.
What this can mean for Hostos students:
- Students, when asked what Google does, will usually say it finds "information" or "answers"; rarely do they say it "finds websites."
- However, any critical interrogation of information has to begin with awareness that any text, be it a peer-reviewed article, an editorial, the "about us" page of any company, or a "clickbait" web article--has been produced by specific people and institutions, and has undergone an identifiable process of creation before being shared for particular purposes.
- Without the awareness of information creation as a process, readers take all content at face value, or at best develop an unrealistic, strait-jacketed belief that all they read is simply "true" or "fake."
