Trying to Learn (Politics) in a Data-Drenched Society: Can Information Literacy Save Us?

Abstract

We live in an era described as ‘fast-paced, fragmented, and data-drenched’. This article will state the case that a superabundance of information, particularly through the internet, is influencing the manner in which individuals learn, and this is creating problems. In particular, there is evidence that many people are accepting information without critical examination, with Donald Leu's study into students’ willingness to accept the existence of the Pacific Northwest ‘tree octopus’ as a celebrated example. Original research at Cardiff University suggests that Politics students are not immune. The concept most associated with attempts to address these problems is information literacy, but this article raises, again, the question whether this concept has become too ‘stretched’ to fulfil the task.

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