Mediations and information and communication devices in the appropriation of knowledge: conceptual and empirical elements from intercrossed looks

Abstract

In France and Brazil, the research on and practices of information sciences and communication include the concepts of media and device. These concepts are coupled with perceptions from the cultural, human, technical and institutional elements that comprise information organization and gathering in science, culture and society. Using an initial framework comprising concepts and questions, this article considers two information and communication devices for socially gathering information and media that shape such information. Such devices include professional journals, which provide a link between theoretical and practical information, and health care almanacs, which comprise dialogue and debates over multiple forms of information to produce and collect information through a collaborative process. The health care field and its multiple dimensions (epistemological, political, biological and social) presumably require complex contextual, theoretical and practical questions to understand the information-communication devices and media used in health care. Thus, we conclude that understanding health care information and communication devices is important given the current abundance of technology and available information and the relationships between the technical devices and social practices used to share information, which require adopting a cultural attitude toward technical innovations.