Examples of objective information and biased

Information surrounds us everywhere. It is presented in different forms, obtained from a variety of sources and serves a variety of purposes. Information exchange is necessary for society for education and management. Information as the most important component of modern life has certain properties that characterize it from a qualitative point of view. These properties depend on various factors and determine the possibilities of its use.

Interrelation of the basic properties of information

Thanks to information exchange, the successful functioning of public relations is carried out: knowledge is accumulated, stored and distributed among members of society, and management takes place in various social structures. However, effective use of information is impossible without understanding its properties and the ability to use them.

Correct evaluation of incoming data is especially important in the field of management and in decision-making situations. Errors in management can lead to technogenic catastrophes and social explosions. Therefore, in this area it is important to distinguish and correctly use the properties of information. They are presented in the table.

Different properties of information can in some cases echo and complement each other, but this does not mean a complete correspondence between them. You need to be able to distinguish seemingly similar properties when you have before you examples of objective information and adequate, reliable and objective, etc.

Since many properties are interrelated, it is sometimes possible to compensate for the insufficiency of one by the redundancy of the other.

Information and Reality

In this context, objective and non-objective information is distinguished. Objectivity of information reflects the extent to which this information is correlated with reality.

Real reality is all that exists in nature, regardless of the will or desire of man. For example, in the Middle Ages, most people preferred to believe that the Earth is flat. However, neither the desire of the uneducated masses nor the will of the all-powerful Church could cancel the objectively existing fact that the globe has a completely different, much more complex form.

Thus, information becomes biased when reflected in the individual consciousness and undergoes changes of varying degrees. These changes depend on the characteristics of a particular person: education, life experience, psychological characteristics of the individual.

What does "objective information" mean?

Objective information can be called only one that reflects the real picture of reality, regardless of someone's personal opinion or assessment.

Why do people need it so much? The fact is that at this stage of the development of mankind nothing gives such an accurate picture of the surrounding world as maximally objective data. This is necessary in the field of education and management. If there is no objectivity, then knowledge can not be considered scientific, and management can not be effective.

How to get objective information? For this purpose, useable and the most accurate instruments, sensors and other measuring devices are used. When it comes to scientific information, it is important that it is reproducible. Reproducibility in science means the possibility of obtaining the same data in any other place and with other devices. If the results of a scientific search are reproducible, then such data are considered objective. Proceeding from this criterion, physics, psychology and astronomy are objective sciences, and esoterics, parapsychology and astrology are not.

Examples of objective information

As such examples, data of scientific research, indications of serviceable devices can act. A particularly clear picture is given by examples of information that is objective and biased, set side by side for comparison. "On the street is warm" - biased information, which is an estimated judgment of an individual. At the same time, the information "on the street +20 ^о C" can be considered objective, since a thermometer was used to obtain it. Similar examples are presented in the table below.

Thus, subjective information carries an element of evaluation, while the objective information simply communicates the facts existing in the real world. You can control the degree of objectivity, as exemplified by the above examples of information. Objective and biased can be any set of data. Everything depends on how accurately they convey the surrounding reality and how little they depend on someone's personal judgments or desires.

What hinders objectivity

For all the importance of such a property of information, the objective component is practically impossible to achieve by 100%. This is due to the dual nature of any information. On the one hand, information exists and is stored in the form of data, which are in themselves material and objective. But on the other hand, when transmitting information, various information methods are used, which by their nature are subjective, because they are directly connected with sources and consumers of information. Thus, the information process is a twofold phenomenon, and the information transmitted as a result can have a different degree of objectivity, depending on the prevalence of one of the two components: methods and data.

How to increase the objectivity of information?

The main way is to increase the completeness of the information. It is for this purpose that a jury of creative and sports competitions, examining commissions and juries are created. The more independent arbitrators, unrelated information links, the higher the objectivity of information - in this case, evaluation or verdict.

Also, to obtain information that is closest to reality, it is necessary to use objective sources of information. If we are talking about scientific research, then preference should be given to the results, which were confirmed by several scientists. If this is a media message, first of all it is necessary to find the original source of information, and it is also necessary to compare how the same fact is submitted in different publications. Psychologists emphasize the advantage of text in front of video clips: when reading, the ability to think critically is better, which is the most important tool for obtaining objective data.

When objectivity is not needed

The above examples of objective information may suggest that a person always seeks to obtain such information about the world around him. But this is far from the case. For example, the artistic perception of the world does not imply objectivity. Any creative work to some extent is the embodiment of the subjective personal view of the author. Of course, creations in the genre of realism represent many objective details, but in general the work remains artistic and can not be placed on a par with scientific research.

Creative works in the genre of cubism, symbolism, impressionism, primitivism, etc., are even less similar to examples of objective information, because they reflect not the surrounding reality, but the different approaches and methods of its depiction. Authors of such works sacrifice objectivity in favor of expressiveness. Or, speaking in the language of informatics, the data is put on the second place, and on the first - the method of information transfer.

Objectivity and reliability

Information can be distorted for various reasons. The degree of its undistortedness is called reliability. This property must be distinguished from objectivity. Of course, biased information can not be considered reliable. However, unreliable information can be objective provided that the degree of unreliability is accurately known. In the modeling of objects and phenomena, objective, but unreliable information is used. Examples: mathematical and physical constants (number "pi", acceleration of free fall), objects on maps, exact number of particles, distances in space, etc. All the listed data scientists operate with errors. Thanks to this information can be considered objective.

Objectivity and relevance

If the information corresponds to the current time, then it is relevant. Aging information occurs at different rates and depends on its type. For example, the data on the air traffic controller monitor is losing its relevance very quickly, and information on the structure of the earth's crust is much slower.

If we talk about objective and relevant information, examples can be found in the transport schedule, weather reports, current news, currency quotes, road conditions and similar information of value at a particular moment.

Knowledge and understanding of the properties of information, as well as the ability to use them - guarantee the effectiveness of any activity in society.