The human need for information at different stages of the development of society had a different specificity. If in an agrarian and industrial society, awareness meant only awareness, in modern society information becomes a product capable of generating material income
The society has gone through several stages of development. The modern information society was preceded by an agrarian and industrial society. A person always had a need for information, but the category of necessary information and the sources of its formation were different.
Sources of information of the agrarian and information society
Information need implies the need for knowledge about a specific phenomenon or subject - this definition is valid for the characteristics of an agrarian society. In this case, it was enough to use informative printed materials as information sources.
Even earlier, before the invention of the press, the main informants were the heralds, who conveyed to the main masses the decrees of royalty. This kind of information did not play a fundamental role in the lifestyle of the people.
With the transition of society to the industrial stage, the structure of information needs began to change. There was a need to obtain generalized knowledge accumulated by society.
At this stage, radio, television, books and other printed materials began to perform the functions of disseminating information.
The specificity of information sources of this period is the author's processing of information. The user receives a certain amount of information, which he can use at his discretion.
However, the volume of knowledge accumulated by society began to exceed the capabilities of their author's analytical and synthetic information processing.
