Information and Culture

Abstract

Fattorello’s seventh chapter deals with information and culture. He discusses the economic effects of information and he differentiates, for the reader, between information and instruction. Culture, he offers, lies between the contingent and non-contingent forms of information. Individuals are multivalent, since they take on different roles, belong to different groups and are simultaneously Promoters and Receivers. Culture is part of the society. Information content can both enhance the stability of opinions and help to change them. Those who are seen as Promoters are seen as leaders and develop forms of prestige. He considers public information and the state’s role in society and the culture of that society. He offers what he sees as the differences between what the sociologist believes culture to be, and what the community at large considers it to be. He finally discusses what he calls ‘crystallised opinion’ in regard to culture, society and contingent information.