Unit 1- Information and Communication

The word ‘data’ is Latin in origin, and literally, it means anything that is given.

UNESCO defines data as ‘facts, concepts or instructions in a formalized manner

suitable for communication, interpretation or processing by human or automatic

means’.

For categorizing data in sciences, certain parameters are used.

There are six parameters using which six basic types of data are derived. Within

each of these types there are two or three classes.

The parameters for categorization used in sciences are:

1) time factor,

2) location factor,

3) mode of generation,

4) quantitative values,

5) terms of expressions, and

6) modes of presentation.

Information:

information, late 14c., "act of informing," from Old French informacion, enformacion 

"information, advice, instruction," from Latin informationem (nominative informatio) 

Brookes, the well known British Bibliometrician and Information Scientist, calls the

fundamental equation of information science.

K [S] +D I = K [S+ D S],

which states in its very general way that the knowledge structure K[S] is changed to the new modified structure K[S + D S] by the information I, the D S indicating the effect of the modification. 

In other words, K is a knowledge structure and [S+ DS] is modified knowledge structure caused by the absorption of the increment of information DI to K [S]

The barriers to communication of information flow are of the following kinds:

Language ,Jargon, Presentation,Over Population Pollution (Noise), Delays in Handling,

Economic, Political, Legal Barriers.

Communication:

The word ‘Communication’ is derived from the Latin word ‘Communis’, which means ‘sharing’.

Elements of Communication Process

Most of the communication systems, whether sophisticated or not, are perceived to possess the following basic elements:

l Information source

l Encoder

l Message

l Communication Channel

l Noise

l Decoder and

l Receiver/Destination.

Shannon and Weaver Model of Communication 1949

Lasswell’s Model

Lasswell, a U.S. Political Scientist developed this model in 1948.

The model is summarised as “Who says what in which channel to whom with what effect”?

George Gerbner’s Model

This model is conceptually different from the earlier two models. Gerbner  developed this model in 1956.

Schramm Model. 1971

Bits, nats and hartleys : Units assigned to dimensionless measure of information depending on the base of logarithm used. Bits when the base is 2, nats when the base is e and hartleys when the base is 10.