Communication - Information Matters

Written communication promotes understanding, conveys authority, and inspires action. In organizations, emails often serve as a proxy for leadership presence by setting a tone, articulating expectations, and reinforcing organizational culture. Increasingly, however, this communication is no longer written solely by the sender. With a simple prompt, generative AI can instantly produce a confident response before we even have time to think or take a breath. These tools are now being suggested, and in some cases required, for drafting organizational communication. For the sender, AI-assisted writing can be helpful and even a source of relief when balancing tasks. For the recipient, AI-assisted writing may appear professional and well written. Over time, however, recipients may learn to recognize the patterns and tone of AI-generated communication. This recognition may change how people interpret the intent and authenticity of written communication.

Original

April 18, 2025 Elisa Tattersall Wallin

All Talk and Few Facts: Reflecting on the Role of Podcasts in Climate Obstruction

What role do podcasts play in spreading information about climate change? For a research project on environmental communication, I explored how these issues are discussed in podcasts. I found that serious channels with the ambition to inform about climate change issues share the space with channels with a dubious agenda and a loose relationship to facts.

Translation

May 2, 2024 Angelica Lo Duca

Can Infotainment and Data Storytelling Be Combined?

In recent years we have been witnessing more and more a spectacularisation of information, in the sense that we are no longer interested in the information itself but rather in the emotional reaction it produces in the audience that uses it. Hence, the term infotainment, which is the combination of two words: information and entertainment.

Education

March 30, 2023 Dr. Shalini R. Lihitkar

The Open Access Movement: Opportunities and Hurdles

The Open Access movement is the movement to make available or publish scholarly literature on the internet to readers free of charge and free of unnecessary licensing restrictions.

Translation

March 11, 2023 Najeem Olawale Adelakun

Impact Of Information and Communication Technology on Students’ Academic Performance

We studied the benefits, challenges and prospects of Electronic Learning System using two research processes administered to students and lecturers, and the findings of their study show that information technology will improve performance and lead to greater productivity when standard IT infrastructure is installed.

Professional Development

January 23, 2023 Aylin Imeri

Professional Development—Ways To Go

Highlights from the ASIS&T Annual Meeting panel, titled “Professional Development in Crisis,” that discussed empowering students and professionals in their early career stages and making them more resilient in a hyper-competitive society and uncertain world.

Op/Ed

January 18, 2023 Naresh Agarwal

The world loses a treasure: My interactions with Brenda Dervin

Brenda Dervin, one of the foremost thinkers of our time, died in Seattle, Washington as the year ended on December 31, 2022. She was 85. Along with her Sense-Making Methodology, cats and birds, and interest in reading, writing, poetry, art, and music, among others, she was passionate about “humans who commit their lives to justice and the improvement of the human condition”. She wrote in her university bio, “On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, I consider myself a postmodern modernist. On Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, a modern postmodernist. On Saturdays, I rest.” She died on a Saturday.

Editorial

December 8, 2022 Chirag Shah

The Rise of AI Chat Agents and the Discourse with Dilettantes

ChatGPT is a simple-to-use conversation agent developed by OpenAI. Of course, this is not the first time we have seen an AI agent that generates information. Google’s LaMDA and Meta’s Galactica are some recent examples for text generation.