Information surrounds us everywhere. It is presented in different forms, obtained from many 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.
The relationship of the basic properties of information
Thanks to the information exchange, the successful functioning of public relations is carried out: knowledge is accumulated, stored and distributed between members of society, and management is also carried out in various social structures. However, the effective use of information is impossible without an understanding of its properties and the ability to use them.
Correct assessment of incoming data is especially important in the field of management and in situations related to decision-making. Mistakes in management can lead to man-made disasters 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.
| Objectivity | Subjectivity |
| Completeness | Incompleteness |
| Credibility | Inaccuracy (falsity) |
| Relevance | Irrelevance (outdated information) |
| Adequacy (compliance with goals) | Inadequacy |
| Availability | Unavailability |
Various properties of information can in some cases overlap and complement each other, but this does not mean complete correspondence between them. You need to be able to distinguish between seemingly similar properties when you have examples of objective information and adequate, reliable and objective information, etc.
Since many properties are interconnected, it is sometimes possible to compensate for the insufficiency of one with the redundancy of another.
Information and Reality
In this context, distinguish between objective and biased information. The objectivity of information reflects how much this information relates to reality.
Reality is everything 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 was flat. However, neither the desire of the uneducated masses, nor the will of the almighty Church could not 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 only be called one that reflects the real picture of reality, regardless of one's personal opinion or assessment.
Why do people really need it? The fact is that at this stage of the development of mankind, nothing gives such an accurate picture of the world around us as the most objective data. This is necessary both in the field of education and in the field of management. If there is no objectivity, then knowledge cannot be considered scientific, and management cannot be effective.
How to get objective information? For this purpose, serviceable and most accurate instruments, sensors and other measuring devices are used. When it comes to scientific information, it is important that it be reproducible. Reproducibility in science means the ability to obtain the same data in any other place and with other devices. If the results of scientific research are reproducible, then such data is considered objective. Based on this criterion, physics, psychology and astronomy are objective sciences, but esoterics, parapsychology and astrology are not.
Examples of objective information
Such examples may include scientific research data, testimony of serviceable devices. A particularly vivid picture is given by examples of objective and biased information put together for comparison. “It is warm in the street” - biased information, which is the value judgment of an individual. At the same time, the information “on the street +20 o C” can be considered objective, since a measuring device, a thermometer, was used to obtain it. Similar examples are presented in the table below.
| Biased information | Objective information |
| The mountain is low. | The height of the mountain is 1300 m. |
| The bread is cheap. | One loaf of bread costs 20 rubles. |
| The shooter is well-aimed. | Shooter hits: 8 out of 10. |
| This actress is the most beautiful. |
This actress was recognized by the most beautiful readers of the magazine N. |
Thus, subjective information carries an element of assessment, while objective information simply communicates facts that exist in the real world. You can control the degree of objectivity, as illustrated by the above examples of information. Any set of data can be objective and biased. It all depends on how accurately they convey the surrounding reality and how little they depend on someone else's personal judgments or desires.
What prevents objectivity
Despite the importance of this property of information, the objective component is practically not 100% achievable. 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 in themselves is material and objective. But on the other hand, when transmitting information, various information methods are used, which are subjective in nature, since they are directly related to the 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 predominance of one of two components: methods and data.
How to increase the objectivity of information?
The main way is to increase the completeness of information. It is for this purpose that juries of creative and sports competitions, examination commissions and jury trials are created. The more independent arbitrators who are not connected with each other by information links, the higher the objectivity of information - in this case, assessment 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 those results that have been confirmed by several scientists. If this is a media report, it is first of all necessary to find the original source of information, as well as be sure to compare how the same fact is presented in different publications. Psychologists emphasize the advantage of text over videos: when reading, the ability to think critically is preserved, which is the most important tool for obtaining objective data.
When objectivity is not needed
The given examples of objective information may suggest that a person always seeks to obtain this kind of 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 one degree or another 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 cannot be put on a par with scientific research.
Creative works in the genre of cubism, symbolism, impressionism, primitivism, etc., are even less like examples of objective information, since they reflect not the surrounding reality itself, but various approaches and methods of its depiction. Authors of such works sacrifice objectivity in favor of expressiveness. Or, speaking the language of computer science, data is put in second place, and in the first place is the method of transmitting information.
Objectivity and credibility
Information may be distorted for various reasons. The degree of its distortion is called reliability. This property must be distinguished from objectivity. Of course, biased information cannot be considered reliable. However, false information may be objective, provided that the degree of uncertainty is known exactly. In modeling objects and phenomena, objective but inaccurate information is used. Examples: mathematical and physical constants (pi, acceleration of gravity), objects on maps, the exact number of particles, distances in space, etc. Scientists operate with all the data listed taking into account errors. Due to this, information can be considered objective.
