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Prof Johannes Britz and Dr Andries du Plessis of the Department of Information Science |
Prof Johannes Britz, Dean and Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA, and Professor Extraordinary at the Department of Information Science at the University of Pretoria, delivered a thought-provoking public lecture at Unisa entitled "Information poverty and social injustice".
Sketching a scenario of the ideal information-rich society, Prof Britz explained that he used this scenario as the premise from which to develop the following definition of an information-poor society: "Information poverty is that situation in which individuals and communities, within a given context, do not have the requisite skills, abilities or material means to obtain efficient access to information, interpret it and apply it appropriately. It is further characterised by a lack of essential information and a poorly developed information infrastructure." |
| He further pointed out that a lack of essential information, financial capital to pay for information, technical and other abilities to access information, and intellectual capacity to filter, evaluate and benefit from information, further contributes to a society staying information-poor. In this scenario, social exclusion and marginalisation are obvious consequences for the information-poor society.
Prof Britz is a former Unisa lecturer who left for the US in 2001. He is co-editor of the International Review of Information Ethics (IRIE) and serves on the editorial board of the Library and Information Science Research Journal of the University of Bucharest. Prof Britz is also the author of numerous articles in the field of information ethics and his latest research focuses on information poverty and social justice.
The lecture was hosted by the Department of Information Science. |
