Informationology: A New Framework for Understanding the Roles of Digital Information

Abstract

This article proposes a new analytic framework for understanding how digital information influences society. This framework is called “informationology” - using a contraction of the words “information” and “epistemology” - and involves the articulation and analysis of “information roles” (i.e. different roles that information can play). Information roles are defined based upon the nature of the information medium rather than the specific content of information - drawing on the approach of Marshall McLuhan in Understanding Media that “the medium is the message”. The article sets out an initial list of possible information roles, including memory, communication, intellectual property, market enabler and context.