When is information not information ?
Fondamental :
Finally, Buckland argues when information is not information and proposes that it is situational.
Buckland argues that it is hard to find things that are not informative but if everything is considered information then something being informative is not unique.
He explains that information-as-process is situational and therefore, any evidence involved to represent it is considered situational as well. Therefore, something being denoted as informative is subjective.
However, he also remarks that something can be considered informative if several individuals agree that it is (information by consensus).
Exemple :
Example taken from Information as Thing[1] (p. 357) :
At one point in history, it was important to know if a woman was a witch or not. A way of "proving" if a woman was a witch was by having her immersed in water and if she floated then she was a witch. The results of this experiment was, by consensus, the information-as-thing required to identify a witch.
Today, this would be denied and it would not be considered information, as consensus.