Editing Information explosion (section)

{{Short description|Rapid increase in the amount of published information or data}}
The '''information explosion''' is the rapid increase in the amount of [[publication|published]] [[information]] or [[data]] and the effects of this abundance.<ref>Hilbert, M. (2015). Global information Explosion:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8-AqzPe_gNs&list=PLtjBSCvWCU3rNm46D3R85efM0hrzjuAIg. Digital Technology and Social Change [Open Online Course at the University of California] freely available at: https://canvas.instructure.com/courses/949415</ref> As the amount of available data grows, the problem of [[information management|managing the information]] becomes more difficult, which can lead to [[information overload]]. The Online Oxford English Dictionary indicates use of the phrase in a March 1964 ''[[New Statesman]]'' article.<ref>“Information.” http://dictionary.oed.com. accessed January 4, 2008</ref> ''The New York Times'' first used the phrase in its editorial content in an article by Walter Sullivan on June 7, 1964, in which he described the phrase as "much discussed". (p11.) <ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1964/06/07/u-s-will-remove-reactor-in-arctic.html?_r=0|title=U. S. WILL REMOVE REACTOR IN ARCTIC; Compacting Snow Squeezes Device Under Ice Sheet|newspaper=The New York Times|date=7 June 1964}}</ref> The earliest known use of the phrase was in a speech about television by NBC president [[Pat Weaver]] at the Institute of Practitioners of Advertising in London on September 27, 1955. The speech was rebroadcast on radio station [[WSUI]] in [[Iowa City, Iowa|Iowa City]] and excerpted in the ''[[The Daily Iowan|Daily Iowan]]'' newspaper two months later.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Weaver|first=Sylvester|date=22 Nov 1955|title=The Impact of TV in the U.S.|page=2|work=Daily Iowan|url=https://newspaperarchive.com/iowa-city-daily-iowan-nov-22-1955-p-2/|access-date=18 Aug 2021|quote=I believe that in the last few years we have set in motion an information explosion. To each man there is flooding more information than he can presently handle, but he is learning how to handle it and, as he learns, it will do him good.}}</ref>

Many sectors are seeing this rapid increase in the amount of information available such as healthcare, supermarkets, and governments.<ref name="Sweeney, Latanya 2001">Sweeney, Latanya. "Information explosion." Confidentiality, disclosure, and data access: Theory and practical applications for statistical agencies (2001): 43-74.</ref> Another sector that is being affected by this phenomenon is journalism. Such a profession, which in the past was responsible for the dissemination of information, may be suppressed by the overabundance of information today.<ref>Fuller, Jack. What is happening to news: The information explosion and the crisis in journalism. University of Chicago Press, 2010.</ref>

Techniques to gather knowledge from an overabundance of electronic information (e.g., [[data fusion]] may help in [[data mining]]) have existed since the 1970s. Another common technique to deal with such amount of information is [[qualitative research]].<ref>Major, Claire Howell, and Maggi Savin-Baden. An introduction to qualitative research synthesis: Managing the information explosion in social science research. Routledge, 2010.</ref> Such approaches aim to organize the information, synthesizing, categorizing and systematizing in order to be more usable and easier to search.