scholarly journals Describing Vernacular Literacy Practices to Enhance Understanding of Community Information Needs

2009 ◽  
Vol 49 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
Denice Adkins ◽  
Jenny Bossaller ◽  
Kim M. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Information Needs ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Community Information ◽  
Vernacular Literacy

Intelligent Portals for Supporting Medical Information Needs

Web Portals ◽  
2011 ◽  
pp. 270-296 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Moon ◽  
Frada Burstein
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Web Sites ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Medical Information ◽  
Care Delivery ◽  
Internet Usage ◽  
Medical Decisions ◽  
Community Information ◽  
Decision Making Processes

The aim of this chapter is to review the way portal technology can assist users seeking medical information. There has been an increase in health Internet usage, and better health-care delivery outcomes are predicted as users are better informed when making medical decisions. At the same time, there is much concern about the need for medical portals to meet community information needs. This chapter discusses what constitutes an intelligent portal, discusses desirable portal components and attributes of intelligent portal features, and how these can be implemented to meet the needs of diverse users. Seven Australian medical Web sites have been analysed according to intelligence features. The results and analysis are presented and discussed, in particular, with respect to their functionality as defined for intelligent portals. The discussion is focused on the extent to which these attributes help users with their information seeking and therefore support their decision-making processes.

The Community Event Research Method

2011 ◽  
pp. 355-365
Author(s):  
Sarai Lastra
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Context ◽  
Participatory Design ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Cultural Meanings ◽  
Community Information ◽  
Diasporic Community ◽  
Knowledge Objects ◽  
Community Information System

During the process of designing a community information system for my dissertation study using ethnographic and grounded theory methods in a Latino diasporic community from Paseo Boricua in Chicago, Illinois, between 1999 and 2001, I experienced the efficacy of community events as tools for educating me about the essence that was organizing a community’s way of life. The process of achieving the dissertation goal generated a new method based on the traditions of community informatics (CI) and participatory design (PD). This chapter presents the method—the Community Event Research Method (CERM)—and explores issues in developing and applying it. CERM reasons that community events are knowledge objects which embody social processes, cultural meanings and information needs of a community and that a selected set of community events, which are related in some larger cultural context (in one way or another), can serve as a valuable unit of analysis for systematically uncovering strong and weak voices in a community. The method not only focuses on understanding the community ethos, but also presents alternatives for recasting knowledge into design.

Women Artisans' Information Needs, Sources and Seeking Behaviour and the Implication for Empowerment in a Semi-Urban Area in Nigeria

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 47-63
Author(s):  
M.C. Nwosu ◽  
K.N. Igwe ◽  
N.A. Emezie
Keyword(s):  
Urban Area ◽  
Information Seeking ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Sources Of Information ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Accessible Information ◽  
Information Accessibility ◽  
Community Information ◽  
Seeking Behavior ◽  
Good Number

This study examined the information needs, sources, information-seeking behavior of women artisans and the implications for empowerment in Offa, a semi-urban area in Kwara State of Nigeria. Survey research method was adopted with questionnaire as tool for data collection, involving 210 women artisans. Findings revealed that women artisans have information needs related to their work, but with information accessibility challenges due to unavailability of accessible information sources like libraries, as well as absence of empowerment programmes from government. It further revealed that the major sources of information for most women artisans were verbal or face-to-face mode of communications. The paper concludes that women constitute a vital asset of Nigeria and are a resourceful group with a good number practicing artisanship. Therefore, there is need to develop the information consciousness of the women artisans by the provision of efficient, effective and reliable formal information delivery mechanisms to them, such as community information centres.

scholarly journals Journalism and the political structure

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 63-89
Author(s):  
Helle Sjøvaag ◽  
Truls André Pedersen ◽  
Ole Martin Lægreid
Keyword(s):  
News Media ◽  
Information Needs ◽  
Latent Dirichlet Allocation ◽  
News Coverage ◽  
The Political ◽  
System Perspective ◽  
Media System ◽  
Community Information ◽  
Local Journalism ◽  
And Performance

Abstract This article assumes a media system perspective on the local news media structure in Norway, using a dataset of 847,487 news articles collected from 156 Norwegian news outlets in 2015–2017. Using a series of hypotheses, the analysis uses Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) topic modelling to ascertain to what extent local journalism meets community information needs through infrastructure, output and performance. The analysis finds that the size of the publisher and the size of the community covered matter more for hard news coverage than regulatory factors. To that end, the results indicate that the Norwegian local media system is somehow shaped by the geography of the political landscape. The results and their contributions are discussed in light of media systems theory and local journalism structures.

scholarly journals Letramento digital na educação a distância: reflexões sobre o Ambiente Virtual de Aprendizagem (AVA) Solar

2015 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Raimundo Nonato Moura Furtado
Keyword(s):  
Distance Education ◽  
Learning Environment ◽  
Digital Literacy ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Virtual Learning ◽  
Virtual Learning Environment ◽  
Diagnostic Character ◽  
Digital Format ◽  
Vernacular Literacy

Resumo Neste trabalho apresentamos algumas reflexões sobre as práticas de letramento digital vivenciadas por uma turma de Educação a Distância usuários do Ambiente Virtual de Aprendizagem – AVA SOLAR da Universidade Federal do Ceará – UFC. Fundamentamos nosso trabalho principalmente nas reflexões de (CASSANY, 2005; ESHET-ALKALAI, 2004; SOARES, 2002; XAVIER, 2002; Buzato, 2001; LÉVY, 1999). Situamos essa investigação como uma pesquisa explicativa de caráter diagnóstico (GIL, 2002) situada no paradigma qualitativo-interpretativista (BORTONI-RICARDO, 2008). Construímos nossa amostra por meio de duas fontes: dois questionários e a análise das atividades do SOLAR. Os resultados apontam que as práticas de letramento digital recorrente nos dados são diversas e estão, principalmente, relacionadas às práticas vernaculares de letramento. Essas práticas estão vinculadas às diferentes agências de letramento com as quais estes participantes estiveram e estão relacionados.Os dados revelam  que ser letrado digital implica assumir mudanças nos modos de abordagem do texto com a utilização e com interação das múltiplas semioses em textos que estão em um suporte digital, no geral, a tela.  Palavras-chave: Letramento digital. Educação a distância. Novas tecnologias. Abstract In this work, we make some reflections on the practices of digital literacy experienced by a group of Distance Education users of Virtual Learning Environment - VLE SOLAR, Federal University of Ceará - UFC. We base our work mainly on r83eflections (CASSANY, 2005; Eshet-Alkalai, 2004; SOARES, 2002; XAVIER, 2002; Buzato, 2001; Lévy, 1999). We situate this research as an explanatory research diagnostic character (GIL, 2002) located in the qualitative-interpretative paradigm (BORTONI-RICARDO, 2008). We construct our sample by two sources: two questionnaires and the analysis of the activities of SOLAR. The results show that the practices of recurrent digital literacy in the data are diverse and are primarily related to vernacular literacy practices. These practices are linked to different agencies of literacy with which these participants were and are related. Our data indicate that being literate digital implies taking changes in the modes of approaching the text with the use and interaction of multiple semiosis in texts that are in a digital format, in general the screen. Keywords: Digital literacy. Distance education. New technologies.

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