Investigating information literacy

Fool’s errand or new message?

Abstract

This short think-piece describes my journey of discovery through the information landscape (from 2004 to present) and the development of a theory of information discernment which unpacks one aspect of information literacy (IL)—that of the cognitive, metacognitive, affective and physiological states that shape how people make judgements about the information they encounter. Tracing my own path through developments in the field in recent decades sheds light both on wider changes and on shifts in my personal understanding of IL, from an initial perception of it as a relatively simple and obvious phenomenon to my current understanding of IL as something much more complex and contested.