Human Information Sources Research Articles

Silicon‐based Life or Carbon‐based Life? An Exploratory Study on Visual Information Source Selection of Blind or Visually Impaired Persons

ABSTRACTThe development of generative AI and Large Visual‐Language Models, has the potential to overcome the reliance of blind or visually impaired (BVI) persons on human sources for visual information. Action research and semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 19 BVI persons to explore their visual information needs and source selection. This study categorizes their needs into description, navigation, and manipulation. Accessibility, credibility, and interactivity of information sources are the primary criteria for BVI persons in information source selection. When visual task demand high accurate information, BVI persons are more likely to select human information sources due to their accessibility and credibility. When tasks are less urgent and requiring less accuracy information, the use of AI information sources increases due to the special accessibility. The purpose of the study is to understand the impact of AI on BVI persons, and provide theoretical and practical insights for the development of human‐centered AI.

Public Perceptions of the Media Channels and Human Sources of Information about the COVID-19 Vaccine in Malawi

ABSTRACT This study assessed public perceptions of the accuracy and credibility of information about the COVID-19 vaccine transmitted by traditional media, social media and human sources, and how this information related to attitudes towards the vaccine. Theoretically, the study explored the concepts of media affordances and media literacy, broadly defined. The results showed that participants obtained information from both traditional and social media; however, participants were more likely to trust the accuracy and credibility of information they got from traditional media. Participants were unlikely to get the COVID-19 vaccine because of information they got from social media rather than because of information they got from traditional media. Participants were more likely to get vaccinated based on information they got from medical doctors and vaccine experts rather than based on information they got from government officials and politicians. Moreover, participants had concerns about intrinsic aspects of the vaccine, such as its effectiveness and the harm it could possibly cause to their bodies. Participants also underestimated their risk of getting very sick if they did not get the COVID-19 vaccine. Participants clearly had sufficient media and digital literacy skills to enable them to navigate both traditional and social media, and sufficient information literacy to, at least, question the credibility of the information they were getting from social media; nevertheless, information from social media induced vaccine hesitancy, meaning participants still lacked the information literacy to reject the hesitancy-inducing social media information and go get vaccinated.

On the Motivations to Seek Information From Artificial Intelligence Agents Versus Humans: A Risk Information Seeking and Processing Perspective

This study investigates how anticipating an artificial intelligence agent versus human information source moderates the risk information seeking and processing model. It focuses on a behavioral proxy of seeking intention—how long a participant waited for an online consultant whose identity was manipulated. In two samples ( N1 = 182 students and N2 = 800 mturkers), the source identity consistently moderated the model in two ways: First, informational subjective norms encouraged seeking from humans but discouraged seeking from AI agents. Second, information insufficiency drove favoritism toward humans–when perceived information-gathering capacity was high. When the capacity was low, AI agents were favored.

The differential effect of environmental jolts and information sources on dynamic capabilities

AbstractChallenges in the business environment are typically categorized as threats or opportunities. Firms develop dynamic capabilities to cope with these challenges and improve strategic fit. However, evidence of a causal relationship between unpredictable environmental challenges (jolts) and dynamic capabilities is inconclusive. This study explores how information about positive (opportunity) and negative (threat) jolts communicated via two information sources affects dynamic capabilities. A 2 × 2 experiment was conducted among 131 managers. The findings indicate that human‐based information sources dominate web‐based information sources, particularly when the information reveals potential threats. The use of human information sources is associated with stronger dynamic capabilities than reliance on web information sources. Moreover, the findings confirm that the manifestation of dynamic capabilities differs between opportunities and threats.

AI and the social construction of creativity

Artificial Intelligence (AI) encroaches on new terrains of human activity by dint of its efficacy and an expanding ability to autonomously incorporate information from many disciplines and sources. In this paper, we focus specifically on how AI affects the communicative practices associated with creativity. AI has the capacity to reshape discipline and taste communities by providing new content that competes with human production and by mediating between human activity and information sources. To frame these issues, we turn to the influential systems model of creativity devised by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1996) , which Csikszentmihalyi and Daniel Gruner (2018) recently extended to incorporate AI, redubbing it Creativity 4.0. The model assesses how AI affects the social structure of creative practice without overly accentuating the similarity between humans and AI, or questioning whether computational devices will replace creative jobs. The paper examines Gruner and Csikszentmihalyi’s revised systems model, arguing that it does not sufficiently take into account the variety of ways that AI can be incorporated into creative practice. Prompted by a theoretical reflection on the nature of the model and the emerging features of AI, we propose a new version of the model that highlights how embedded AIs play a key role in filtering and gatekeeping, as well as the importance of generative systems in informing creative practice. We propose that any discussion of AI and the future of creative practice should look at where and how AI supported technologies are used. We examine how AI can reduce and shape the qualitative diversity of sources of inspiration drawn into the creative process, with the associated technological biases, as well as provide an emergent platform for the development of novel ideas.

The social information needs of people with albinism (PWA): A case study of Khomas region, Namibia

This paper focuses on the social information needs of people with albinism (PWA) in Khomas region, Namibia, and the sources of information used PWA to meet their information needs. The study applies Moore's model of social information needs and Wilson's model of information behaviour to investigate and understand the information needs and sources used by PWA to find information. The study was carried out using a qualitative case design within interpretivism paradigm and semi-structured face-to-face interviews were used to collect data from participants. Sixteen participants took part in the study, eight were males, and eight were female participants. Among these participants, two were children with albinism. The following information was identified as being crucial to PWA namely: skin- and eye-related information, information on what is albinism and its causes, disability grants, educational information, and emotional and psychological support. Additionally, the study established that PWA use formal, informal, and human sources of information to find information.

Predicting healthcare professionals’ intention to correct health misinformation on social media

Few studies examine how human information sources correct health misinformation on social media. This study investigates the proportion of healthcare professionals who intend to correct health misinformation on social media using various social correction methods, such as private priming, public priming, private rebuttal, and public rebuttal. It also uses the Theory of Planned Behavior and Organizational Support Theory to predict factors associated with healthcare professionals’ intention to correct health misinformation on social media. An online survey conducted in October 2020 with 377 nurses and doctors in the U.S. shows that they mostly intend to perform public priming and public rebuttal when correcting health misinformation on social media. Moreover, mediation analysis showed that perceived organizational support indirectly predicts intention to correct health misinformation on social media through two sets of mediators. First, instrumental attitude and affective attitude mediated the association between perceived organizational support and intention to correct health misinformation on social media using private priming, public priming, and public rebuttal. Second, affective attitude, descriptive norm, and perceived behavioral control mediated the association between perceived organizational support and intention to correct health misinformation on social media using private rebuttal. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Tailoring competitive information sources to the sequence of dynamic capabilities

AbstractDynamic capabilities are central to firms' strategic decision-making and have received increasing attention in recent years due, in part, to the development of the information society. This research explores how web-based and human information sources interact and advance the development of dynamic capabilities. We use a mixed-methods approach executed in two studies. Study 1 reports insights gleaned from in-depth interviews with 12 senior managers. Study 2 provides the findings from a survey completed by 139 senior managers. The analysis indicates that the use of web-based and human information sources facilitates all dynamic capabilities types – sensing, seizing, and reconfiguring. Furthermore, sensing mediates the effects of the information sources on seizing and reconfiguring. This research highlights the strategic potential of using business information sources to advance dynamic capabilities while differentiating between the most commonly used information sources and inspecting their individual and synergistic effects on the advancement of dynamic capabilities.

Social capital or non-human sources? A cross-context study on information source selection of migrant farmer workers

Insufficient examination of social factors obscures the reason why non-human information sources are under-utilised by social groups with lower information literacy. This study explores the mechanism of information source selection (ISS) of Chinese migrant farmer workers (MFWs) in different industries by conducting a cross-context analysis. After iterative analyses of multiple cases, a theoretical model of information source selection within an individual’s information world is constructed. It explains why MFWs make more use of social capitals than non-human information sources in information seeking. Besides, the information needs are examined form both the needed information and the need itself. A classification of social capital as human information source is created and the roles that social capitals and non-human information sources play in ISS are identified. This study provides novel theoretical insights into the ‘old’ issue of ISS, and thus has practical implications for public information service providers and MFW-related policy makers.

A Study on the Improvement System of National COUNTER-INTELLIGENCE Activities

Purpose: Counter-intelligence means any act in response to hostile foreign intelligence activities. Since the activities of intelligence agencies inherently recognize security as the greatest virtue, it was not easy to ap-proach it in the academic field. However, the global information environment is changing rapidly. In the tradi-tional concept of espionage, espionage was carried out mainly in the political and military areas, but in com-prehensive security situations, information collection on various forms can take place, requiring a flexible strat-egy. Method: However, despite the fact that anti-spy operations can directly be involved in infringement of the basic rights of the people, the fact that minimal ground rules exist is a problem that requires improvement in terms of the rule of law of information activities. Furthermore, the problem of this study is that even assuming the objective consideration that anti-spy work is necessary to guarantee basic rights of the people, and that it is not appropriate to impose public and judicial control such as investigation procedures, it is unfortunately not. In response, this study proposed improvements to prevent concerns about infringement of the basic rights of the people by guaranteeing practical anti-spy work in a changing environment. Result: The first is the expansion of the concept and scope of the anti-spy. In other words, if the Framework Act on Anti-Spy is enacted, the concept of anti-spy should be set as an active and active anti-spy concept, not a passive or passive anti-spy concept, to diversify anti-spy operations and respond to both traditional and non-traditional threats. In addition, the government proposed the expansion of spy agencies to cope with the diver-sification of security threats due to changes in the information environment. Second, he pointed out existing problems and made some forward-looking suggestions regarding the smooth performance of anti-spy operations. The most important confirmation here is the stipulation of the means of collection and verification of anti-spy information. The method of collecting anti-spy intelligence can be distin-guished in legal and realistic ways, and the factual methods such as collecting human information, technical information, and public source information are problematic. Conclusion: In particular, legal grounds and reliability, such as undercovering the identity or operating an in-formant, are problematic in the intelligence officer s performance of specific espionage tasks. In order to dispel this, it was confirmed that there is a need for evidence that the staff of the spy agency can impersonate their identity in specific tasks, and a legal basis that the spy agency can operate a cooperative.

Information seeking behavior of newspaper journalists in Bengaluru City, Karnataka State, India

The study attempts to understand the information needs of newspaper journalists. Journalists working in newspaper publishing firms located in Bengaluru Cityhave been selected for the study. Majority of the journalists are between the age group of 25–45 years and only 23.78% of them possess educational qualification in journalism. Their information needs vary from basic information on a given topic to information for cross verification of facts, supporting evidence in the form of photos, and public opinion. News apps, e-newspapers, digital archives of newspapers, television news channels and social networking sites are the most frequently consulted e-sources of information. Subject experts, local political leaders/government representatives, and friends and relatives are the major human sources of information consulted for gathering information. Nonavailability of the required information, lack of time, lack of information search skills and lack of information in the required language are the major problems faced while accessing information in their libraries. Lack of qualified library staff, disorganized information resources and lack of ICT facilities in the library are also the major hurdles faced while accessing the required information.

State of the art of historical archaeology in Argentina

SUMMARY: Historical archaeology can be defined as the specialty that deals with the recent human past, in America’s case, since the arrival of the Europeans to the continent, through the material evidence of human activities and other sources of information. Works carried out within this scope deal with multiple topics and from different theoretical perspectives. Many epistemological debates have taken place on the definition of historical archaeology and the use of different sources of information. Conceptualizations should not be imposed uncritically, as local processes vary greatly. The topics developed in Argentina during the last 25 years reflect its maturity in the country and the diversity of problems that can be studied by this field of knowledge.

Relationships Between Human Attributes and Sources of Information for Seeking Halal Food Information: A Pilot Research on Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

This paper aims at investigating the impacts between information sources used and human attributes, namely: Attitude, Habit and Awareness of Individual in seeking for information about halal food products effectively among Malaysian Muslim consumers in Kuala Lumpur. This study was conducted to address the following research questions: 1) Are there any relationships between the use of different information sources and Attitude that might positively relate to the perception of wholesomeness, leading to effective seeking for halal food information?; 2) Are there any relationships between the use of different information sources and Habit that might positively relate to the perception of wholesomeness, leading to effective searching for halal food information?; and 3) Are there any relationships between the use of different information sources and Awareness of individuals that might positively relate to the perception of wholesomeness, leading to effective searching for halal food information? A pilot study was conducted in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with a sample size of 50 respondents. Most of the respondents were young Malaysian Muslims between the ages of 18 and 24 years old. The data was gathered through a fivepoint Likert scale and was analysed quantitatively using SPSS. The findings of this study suggest that linking between information sources used by consumers, and the abovementioned human attributes will ensure the perception of wholesomeness of halal food. In other words, when the consumer’s attitude, habit and awareness towards halal food are high, the consumer will use credible and trusted information sources, and hence reach an effective searching process for halal food information. Accordingly, this study provides insights into how Malaysian Muslim consumers seek information for halal food.

A Review of Audio-Visual Fusion with Machine Learning

For the study of single-modal recognition, for example, the research on speech signals, ECG signals, facial expressions, body postures and other physiological signals have made some progress. However, the diversity of human brain information sources and the uncertainty of single-modal recognition determine that the accuracy of single-modal recognition is not high. Therefore, building a multimodal recognition framework in combination with multiple modalities has become an effective means of improving performance. With the rise of multi-modal machine learning, multi-modal information fusion has become a research hotspot, and audio-visual fusion is the most widely used direction. The audio-visual fusion method has been successfully applied to various problems, such as emotion recognition and multimedia event detection, biometric and speech recognition applications. This paper firstly introduces multimodal machine learning briefly, and then summarizes the development and current situation of audio-visual fusion technology in some major areas, and finally puts forward the prospect for the future.

Everyday life information‐seeking behaviors of nomadic pastoralists in their oral culture

ABSTRACTNomadic pastoralists, due to their lifestyle and the dominance of oral culture, have not received much attention from information service providers and little is known about their information behavior. This qualitative ethnographic study entailed twenty semi‐structured interviews with Iranian Bakhtiari nomadic pastoralists using everyday life information seeking (ELIS) framework. Nomadic pastoralists' ELIS is dominated by reliance on human information sources including elders, chiefs (Khans) and family members. Most of their information needs relate to practical issues of daily life (e.g., animal husbandry, handicraft, and parenting) and therefore they prefer information sources that tap into their local and indigenous knowledge (e.g., elders) and value experience and skill over formal education when obtaining information from people. However, they purify their local knowledge through exposure to modern education. Relevance to daily life matters or practicality, previous successful utilization of information, and accessibility are among the factors they consider when choosing information sources.

Human Papillomavirus Vaccine Sources of Information and Adolescents' Knowledge and Perceptions.

Understanding where adolescents obtain information about human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines may be helpful in designing public health interventions promoting HPV vaccination. This study assessed the following: (1) exposure to specific sources of information about HPV vaccines, (2) self-reported helpfulness of these sources of information, and (3) whether the specific source of information was associated with knowledge and perceptions about HPV vaccines among adolescent girls. There were 339 adolescent girls (mean age = 16.8 years) recruited into the study. Television advertisements, the Internet, doctors/nurses, and mothers were the most frequently reported sources of vaccine information; more than 90% of participants who received information from these sources reported they were helpful. Adolescents who received information about HPV vaccines from television advertisements, the Internet, clinicians, and mothers had higher knowledge about HPV vaccines and more positive perceptions. Assuring the accuracy of messages from these sources will be essential, given their importance in influencing adolescents’ knowledge and perceptions about HPV vaccines.

Identifying Critical Factors Contributing to Successful Innovations: A Pilot Study from Service Sector of Pakistan

The study is a pilot investigation of the critical factors that are contributing to successful innovations in the service sector in Pakistan. The study dependent variable is innovation performance which has been divided into four main dimensions that are service innovations, process innovations, organization innovations, and marketing innovations while the independent variables are human capital, acquisition of knowledge, information sources for innovations and cooperation for innovation, and the moderating variables are size of firm in term of number of employees and budget for innovation. The data was collected using the modified CIS (community innovation survey) questionnaire which is mostly used by most European countries to access the innovation performance of firm. A sample of 127 firms was taken from different service firms from banking, software development, health, telecommunication firms. The study has firstly used descriptive analysis to explain the characteristics of sample then different inferential statistics are used to check the hypothesis developed for the study. The reliability, validity, internal consistency and internal correlation of items in the CIS was checked by using values of Cronbch’s Alpha values and KMO values for factor analysis. The study has used the Tobit regression model and the results have shown the P value of human capital and information sources are significant for service innovations and the value for cooperation for innovation is significant for process innovations while human capital and cooperation for innovation had significant p values at 5 percent significance level for organizational innovations and acquisition of knowledge and information sources have significant p value for marketing innovations. And the value for budget for innovation is significant for firm’s organizational innovations.

GP trainees’ in-consultation information-seeking: associations with human, paper and electronic sources

Answering clinical questions arising from patient care can improve that care and offers an opportunity for adult learning. It is also a vital component in practising evidence-based medicine. GPs' sources of in-consultation information can be human or non-human (either hard copy or electronic). To establish the prevalence and associations of GP trainees' in-consultation information-seeking, and to establish the prevalence of use of different sources of information (human, hard copy and electronic) and the associations of choosing particular sources. A cross-sectional analysis of data (2010-13) from an ongoing cohort study of Australian GP trainees' consultations. Once each 6-month training term, trainees record detailed data of 60 consecutive consultations. The primary outcome was whether the trainee sought in-consultation information for a problem/diagnosis. Secondary outcomes were whether information-seeking was from a human (GP, other specialist or other health professional) or from a non-human source (electronic or hard copy), and whether a non-human source was electronic or hard copy. Six hundred forty-five trainees (response rate 94.3%) contributed data for 84,723 consultations including 131,583 problems/diagnoses. In-consultation information was sought for 15.4% (95% confidence interval=15.3-15.6) of problems/diagnoses. Sources were: GP in 6.9% of problems/diagnoses, other specialists 0.9%, other health professionals 0.6%, electronic sources 6.5% and hard-copy sources 1.5%. Associations of information-seeking included younger patient age, trainee full-time status and earlier training stage, longer consultation duration, referring the patient, organizing follow-up and generating learning goals. Associations of choosing human information sources (over non-human sources) were similar, but also included the trainee's training organization. Associations of electronic rather than hard-copy information-seeking included the trainee being younger, the training organization and information-seeking for management rather than diagnosis. Trainee information-seeking is mainly from GP colleagues and electronic sources. Human information-sources are preferentially sought for more complex problems, even by these early-career GPs who have trained in the 'internet era'.

The quality versus accessibility debate revisited: A contingency perspective on human information source selection

Previous studies have not fully investigated the role of source accessibility versus source quality in the selection of information sources. It remains unclear what their (relative) importance is. Three different models have been identified: (a) an exclusively accessibility‐driven model, (b) a cost‐benefit model in which both accessibility and quality are significant influences, and (c) an exclusively quality‐driven model. Moreover, the conditions under which accessibility and quality are important are not well understood. The goal of our study is to shed more light on both issues by assessing the role of different dimensions of accessibility and quality and how their importance is affected by time pressure. We conducted a policy‐capturing study in which 89 financial specialists participated. Each judged 20 scenarios in which the accessibility and quality of human information sources, as well as time pressure, were manipulated. Results showed that both accessibility and quality affect the likelihood of asking a human information source for information. Moreover, although the weights attached to physical accessibility and the source's perceived technical quality were indeed moderated by time pressure, in both conditions we find support for a cost‐benefit model of information seeking, in which both accessibility and quality are significant influences.

Nurses’ and midwives’ information behaviour: a review of literature from 1998 to 2014

Purpose – This paper aims to provide an overview of recent literature on nurses’ and midwives’ information behaviour, with a particular focus on sources used and barriers encountered. Design/methodology/approach – Comprehensive searching was undertaken and an analysis of the appropriate literature carried out. Findings – Practitioners within the nursing profession have a marked preference for interactive and human sources of information. They habitually associate information seeking with professional development rather than with clinical practice. Lack of time is the most frequently reported problem; also, they frequently lack confidence in searching and appraising the professional literature and in applying research in practice. Cultural factors may inhibit information seeking in the workplace, and access to appropriate information technology may be limited. Practical implications – As a group, nurses and midwives present significant challenges to health library and information professionals seeking to design services to meet their needs. A perceived lack of access to information resources may be associated with pervasive information literacy skill deficits, with the inability to undertake critical appraisal of material that is retrieved, or with the lack of a workplace culture that is supportive of information seeking. To reach nurses and midwives, more than diligent marketing is required; library and information professionals need to work closely with the holders of nursing and midwifery research, practice development and educational roles within their institutions on “embedded”, specific information initiatives. Originality/value – An overview of recent work is presented on the information behaviour of nurses and midwives within developed economies, focusing particularly on the UK. It may be of interest and value to health librarians and to nursing and midwifery educators in facilitating evidence-based practice.