Information, Communication and Information Policy Questions and Answers

Answer: D

The technique approach is the one that is not given by Wersig and Neveling. Their well known classification of the meanings of information lists the structural approach, the knowledge approach, the message approach, the meaning approach, the effect approach and the process approach.

Structural, knowledge and meaning approaches are all in this list, so they are given by the authors. A technique approach does not appear in it, so that is the answer to a question that asks which is not given.

Answer: A

The models of communication in the list are the Shannon Weaver model (iii) and the Schramm model (iv), so the answer is (iii) and (iv). The Shannon-Weaver model describes a source, transmitter, channel, receiver and noise, and Schramm's model adds the shared field of experience.

The economic theory model (i) and the stock adjustment model (ii) belong to economics and do not describe the transfer of messages, so the options that contain them are wrong.

Answer: A

The permission of the copyright owner is not needed for criticism or review (i) and for research purpose (iii), so the answer is (i) and (iii). These uses come under fair dealing, which the copyright law allows without the owner's consent.

Translation (ii) needs the permission of the owner because a translation is a derived work, and photocopying for sale (iv) is a commercial use that also needs permission. So the options that contain (ii) or (iv) are wrong.

Answer: B

The key takes (A) as true and (R) as partially true. Knowledge management deals with a number of assets, such as people, documents and know-how, and adds value to them, so (A) is true.

Knowledge management is about creating, sharing and using knowledge, and information transfer is only one part of it, so calling transfer its core activity is only partly right. Hence (R) is partially true, and the options that call both fully true or (R) false are wrong.

Answer: A

(A) is true, but (R) is false. Horton and Merchant treated information as a commodity like other resources, which can be managed and used, so (A) is true.

Information is an intangible commodity, since it has no physical form, so the statement that it is tangible is false. The options that accept (R) as true, or call (A) false, are wrong.

Answer: D

Both (A) and (R) are true. Information is a commodity, because it has value and can be produced, bought and sold. A commodity is a marketable item produced to satisfy human wants or needs, and the reason defines the term correctly.

The options that call either statement false are wrong, since information is treated as a resource and economic good in information science.

Answer: C

Using more words or symbols than are necessary to convey a meaning results in redundancy. In information theory, redundancy is the part of a message that could be left out without loss of meaning, though it can help in guarding against errors.

Efficiency would mean using fewer words, and accuracy and precision are about correctness and exactness, not about extra words. So they are the distractors.

Answer: B

The statement is Mooers' Law: an information retrieval system will tend not to be used whenever it is more painful and troublesome for a customer to have information than for him not to have it. Calvin Mooers stated it.

Bradford's law concerns the scatter of articles in journals, Zipf's law concerns the frequency of words, and Lotka's law concerns the productivity of authors. They are not about the user's effort.

Answer: C

The measure of certainty or predictability is redundancy, as the key gives. A message that is highly predictable carries much redundancy, and one that is unpredictable carries more information.

Entropy is the measure of uncertainty, so it is the opposite of the measure in the question. Feedback is the return of output to the input, and distortion is a change in the signal. They are not the measure of predictability.

Answer: B

The characteristic in which information tends to leak, and the more it leaks the more we have, is the diffusive characteristic. Information spreads from one person to many, and its spread does not reduce it.

Synergetic characteristics mean that information gives more value when combined, compressible characteristics mean that it can be condensed, and shareable characteristics mean that it can be held by several people. The leaking quality is the diffusive one.