ABSTRACT

The ability of citizens to establish the credibility of information and information sources through critical assessment is often emphasized as essential for the upholding of a democratic society and for people’s health and safety. Drawing on material-discursive conceptualizations, the article asks, how does critical assessment of information and information sources play out as it is folded into a networked information infrastructure in which different types of information are mediated and shaped by the same algorithms and flattened into the same interfaces? The empirical material comprises dyadic interviews with 61 adolescents. The interviews were analysed using an interpretative approach focusing on the construction of action and meaning. The analysis foregrounds trust and agency as two dimensions. This way normative assumptions become visible as stereotypes, sometimes positioned as ideals towards which to strive, other times as deterrent examples: the non-evaluator, the naïve evaluator, the skeptical evaluator and the confident evaluator. The created stereotypes help to comprehend different understandings of critical assessment of information and how these can bring about different actions. The article argues that critical assessment of information as an element in media and information literacy must be understood not just in relation to how it is used to assess the credibility of information, but also regarding how it is performatively enrolled in the shaping of knowledge and in the creation of ignorance and doubt.

摘要

公民通过批判性评估建立信息和信息来源的可信度的能力通常被强调为维护民主社会以及人们的健康和安全所必需的。本文利用材料话语的概念化，提出了对信息和信息源的批判性评估如何发挥作用，因为它被折叠成一个网络化的信息基础设施，在这个网络信息基础设施中，不同类型的信息由相同的算法进行调解和塑造，并被扁平化为相同的接口？实证材料包括对 61 名青少年的二元访谈。访谈采用解释性方法进行分析，侧重于行动和意义的构建。该分析将信任和代理视为两个维度。通过这种方式，规范性假设成为刻板印象，有时被定位为努力追求的理想，有时被定位为威慑例子：非评估者、天真的评估者、怀疑的评估者和自信的评估者。创建的刻板印象有助于理解对信息批判性评估的不同理解，以及这些如何带来不同的行动。文章认为，对信息作为媒体和信息素养的一个要素的批判性评估不仅要理解它如何用于评估信息的可信度，还要理解它是如何被有效地纳入知识的塑造和参与的。无知和怀疑的创造。天真的评价者、怀疑的评价者和自信的评价者。创建的刻板印象有助于理解对信息批判性评估的不同理解，以及这些如何带来不同的行动。文章认为，对信息作为媒体和信息素养的一个要素的批判性评估不仅要理解它如何用于评估信息的可信度，还要理解它是如何被有效地纳入知识的塑造和参与的。无知和怀疑的创造。天真的评价者、怀疑的评价者和自信的评价者。创建的刻板印象有助于理解对信息批判性评估的不同理解，以及这些如何带来不同的行动。文章认为，对信息作为媒体和信息素养的一个要素的批判性评估不仅要理解它如何用于评估信息的可信度，还要理解它是如何被有效地纳入知识的塑造和参与的。无知和怀疑的创造。