Brenda Dervin

Brenda Dervin (born November 20, 1938 in Beverly ) is an American organizational researcher and professor of communication at Ohio State University . Dervin conducts research in the areas of communication and library science . Her research on the topic of information search and use led to the development of the sensemaking approach.

Career

Dervin received her BA in Journalism and Home Economics from Cornell University with a minor in Philosophy of Religion . Her Master of Science and her Ph.D. in Communication Studies from Michigan State University .

In 1986, Dervin became the first female president of the International Communication Association . She edits articles and is represented in the editorial offices of various scientific journals on communication and library studies.

Work

General

Dervin said she was disaffected by her first years of work. Contrary to her expectations, her early employers - the press, industry, and foundations - were never interested in communication. Instead, the goal of their employers was a one-way indoctrination, often with the best of intentions but also manipulative. This realization led Dervin to return to teaching and to break the paradigm there.

Dervin's approach to research has opened up a fresh perspective on library science. Her writings focus on the way people make sense of their environment, known as sensemaking . The method approach of sensemaking developed by her has been applied in numerous disciplines, for example by B. Teekman in communication in health care, by A. Linderman in studies on the culture of the deaf, or in Clark's studies on feminism.

Dervin's pictorial representation of the sense-making metaphor

Information ₁₂₃

The Information ₁₂₃ concept goes back to Dervin , in which she deals with information based on Richard Carter and Karl Popper's three worlds theory. Dervin regards Information-1 as the external reality, while Information-2 denotes the internal reality of the viewer. The distinction draws attention to the fact that internal reality is guided by subjective motives and that all that is "informative" is what appears informative to the individual. At the same time, however, it becomes clear that objective information is not possible and leads to the examination of the cognitive maps or images of the viewer. The next question is how the viewer makes sense of external reality. Here Dervin takes the point of view that both the selection of information received from the outside and its internal representation are based on activities of the viewer. These activities themselves are therefore legitimate information inputs, i.e. information-3.

Information-3 are all the ways people interpret meaning in the world, the techniques with which the outer and inner world are made coherent. Dervin then shows examples of various techniques with which this result is sought, including "decisioning", "I-I-I-don't-like-procedures" or "relying on others", for example by Seeking advice.

Accordingly, Information-1 is the external reality, Information-2 is the internal and Information-3 is the techniques with which the two realities are brought into agreement.

Honors

In 2000 Dervin was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Helsinki .

bibliography

• 1976. Journal of Broadcasting. Strategies for Dealing with Human Information Needs: Information or communication? Volume 20. Pages: 323–333. Issue 3.
• 2003; Audience as listener and learner, teacher and confidante: The sense-making approach . In B. Dervin, L. Foreman-Wernet, & E. Launterbach (Eds.), Sense-making methodology reader: Selected writings of Brenda Dervin (pp. 215-231). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, Inc.
• 2003; Information design. Chaos, Order, and Sense-Making: A Proposed Theory for Information Design . Volume 4. Pages: 325-340. Issue: 3/4.
• 2003; Information as nonsense; information as sense: The communication technology connection . In B. Dervin, L. Foreman-Wernet, & E. Launterbach (Eds.), Sense-making methodology reader: Selected writings of Brenda Dervin (pp. 293-308). Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, Inc.

literature

• SD Neill (1992). The dilemma of the subjective in information organization and retrieval. Dilemmas in the study of information . Westport: Greenwood Press.

Web links

• Sense-making
• Sense Making references / bibliography  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h} Brenda Dervin on DIS 245 "Info Access" Encyclopedia; accessed on October 30, 2017.
2. ↑ OSU School of Communication: Dr. Brenda Dervin . Comm.ohio-state.edu. Archived from the original on December 12, 2010. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 7, 2010. 
3. ↑ CS Ross, K. Nilsen, and P. Dewdney (2002). Conducting the reference interview . New York: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc.
4. ↑ letter Narrative Summarizing Dervin Cv . Communication.sbs.ohio-state.edu. October 2, 2007. Archived from the original on June 23, 2010. Retrieved June 9, 2010.
5. ↑ ^{a b c d} Brenda Dervin, Lois Foreman-Wernet and Eric Lauterbach (2003) Sense-Making Methodology Reader ; Hampton Press, Inc. Cresskill, New Jersey.
6. ↑ B. Teekman (2000) Exploring reflective thinking in nursing practice . Journal of Advanced Nursing, 31 (5), 1125-1135.
7. ^ A. Linderman (1996) The influence of deaf culture on the sense-making of deaf americans . Paper presented at a non-divisional workshop held at the meeting of the International Communication Association, Chicago.
8. ↑ KD Clark (1999) A communication-as-procedure perspective on a women's spirituality group: A Sense-Making and ethnographic exploration of a communicative proceduring in feminist small group process ; The Electronic Journal of Communication / La Revue Electronique de Communication, 9 (4).
9. ↑ ^{a b c d e f g h i} Marcia J. Bates (2010). Information ; In Encyclopedia of Library and Information Sciences, 3rd Ed .; Bates, Marcia J .; Maack, Mary Niles, Eds. New York: CRC Press, vol. 3, pp. 2347-2360.