Many of the components of the mainstream discussions about the role of “fake news” in the wake of the 2016 U.S. elections should be familiar to librarians. Questions about authorized and/or authoritative sources, bias, and fact-checking from multiple sources are part of the instructional package of many information literacy programs. The profession has many models of information literacy instruction, from the recently-updated ACRL Framework for Higher Education to the Big6 skill set targeted to K-12 students. These models assume that librarians can perform critical interventions to information-seeking behavior that can take effect beyond the school setting.
This brought to my mind the work of Dr. Elfreda Chatman, a professor at the School of Information Studies at Florida State University who specialized in ethnographic research on the information-seeking behaviors of marginalized groups, including prisoners and the elderly. Her research eventually led her to formulate a theory of information poverty, based on socioeconomic status.
Chatman’s theory is grounded in the idea that a particular SES produces norms of behavior and expectations held by and mutually reinforced by members of that community. The information that is most relevant to people in that community is information that helps them maintain membership. Thus, an information barrier exists between people who are seen as members of that community, and everyone that exists outside of that community.
Chatman’s research suggests that, rather than lacking in information, members of low SES groups are making distinctions in usefulness in information coming from inside and outside the group. The usefulness of “outside” information — presumably among them the authoritative resources recommended by librarians and other professionals — is diminished in the context of immediate needs. For example, Chatman found that elderly women would hide serious health conditions rather than seek help because they were afraid of losing support from their family or risking removal from the retirement community. In this context, sharing accurate information is also a two-edged sword. People in a temporary employment program studied by Chatman did not socialize with other members of the program — whether to share leads for other jobs or just to chat — because of perceived competition. This situation also suggests that people are aware that information coming from outside of their immediate social and economic circle cannot always be trusted.
Chatman’s theory of information poverty is taken from observation of people in what might be deemed “extreme” situations, but her insights should be trenchant for anyone interested in better understanding the mechanics of delivering information to those most in need. However, it is also interesting in light of our current discussion about “fake news” and how socioeconomic conditions may predispose people towards certain cognitive biases and “filter bubbles” in the information they consume. In this case, librarians within the standard information literacy model are the assumed “experts”, but their effectiveness is blunted by the fact that these models do not address the attendant contexts of the information-seeker and that the librarian stands outside of the trusted group.
Chatman’s work also dovetails with the profession’s increasing awareness of how certain assumed practices for librarians can perpetuate unequal power relationships, as well as the introduction of methods that mitigate the effects of these hierarchies within the information-sharing context. These methods, however, can involve a great deal of investment of resources from institutions and librarians in terms of changing current practices and mentoring underrepresented groups*. Librarians may not be able to pierce all “bubbles” of information, but we can interrogate our practices to see whether we are actually reaching our patrons where they are, rather than asking them to always follow us.
*In this light, it is worth noting that UC Irvine credits its current success in increasing and broadening college access through programs tailored for high school students in nearby cities.
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