Information to users

Interdependence and Information
As stated above, interdependence has most often been
27 Joseph S. Nye, Jr. 'Soft Power." Foreign Policy 80 (Fall
1990) :155.
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understood as economic. Placing it in the context of
information and communications issues is beneficial for both the issues and the concept. Information interdependence is an extension of our original definition: events and
situations in one area that depend on or are influenced by those in another, and, most importantly, the reverse is also true. When information of any type flows beyond political or geographic borders, there is an impact. Information is
constantly being adjusted to reflect changes coming from areas outside those borders. The same is true of the
technologies associated with information flows. Vernon
believes that all types of increasing interdependence are 'intimately linked to improvements in . . .
communication."28 Interdependent actions based in
information and communications flows and technology are reflective of the concepts of sensitivity and vulnerability that Keohane and Nye discussed. Information flows affect sensitivity, or how responsive an actor can be within a policy framework, as well as vulnerability, the availability and costliness of policy alternatives.
One reason for this connection between information and
interdependence is the interdependent nature of information
28 Vernon, 'Global Interdependence in Historical
Perspective," p. 28.
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itself. Communications scholar Joseph Klapper29 summarized this interconnecting nature of information. He proposed that: (1) Mass communication does not usually serve as a necessary and sufficient cause of something, but rather functions with other factors and influences. (2) These other factors and influences use mass communication in the process of change. (3) On the occasions that mass communication is used in the service of change, one of two conditions are likely to occur: (a) the other factors and influences are likely to be inoperative and the media effect will be direct or (b) the other factors and influences, which normally reinforce the status quo, will be found to favor change. (4) There are always situations in which mass communication will produce direct effects or serve psycho-physical functions. That is, there are some things which mass communication can do that other factors cannot do, such as the continued
presence of printed material in an individual's home. (5) The effects of mass communication on change are affected by the nature of the media and communications themselves (i.e. aspects of textual organization, the source and medium, public opinion).
The important idea running through all of these
29 Joseph T. Klapper. 'The Effectiveness of Mass
Communication"in Doris A. Graber, ed., Media Power in Politics, 2nd edition (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly Press, 1990), p. 12.
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generalizations is that communications systems rarely serve as a single force in politics, economics and society. Thomas McPhail spoke of a 'paradox" in the expansion of information and communications processes. The integrating versions of information flows also have a fragmenting effect.
One the one hand, current technological innovations are creating a global infrastructure much more
sophisticated in scope and technical quality than
previously imagined . . . On the other hand, however,
technological innovation has also functioned to
fracture or fragment the mass audience. The advent of
diverse, individualized telecommunications and media
systems . . . threaten to render the concept of mass
national or international systems obsolete.30
It is less important to focus solely on the underlying
causal nature of information flows and more important to focus on the characteristics which apply to specific,
currently relevant, situations. This focus on actors and situations in which information could have an impact is the contribution of complex interdependence.
Complex interdependence stipulates a multiple number of
actors, placing an emphasis on non-state actors. The
30 Thomas L. McPhail. 'Inquiry in International
Communication" in Molefi Kete Asante and William B. Gudykunst, eds., International and Intercultural Communication. (Newbury Park, Calif.: Sage Publications, 1989), pp. 49-50.
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information age has emphasized the multiplicity of actors at a number of levels - global, regional domestic, local and individual - as well as in various societal groupings - such as international and regional organizations, ethnic groups, states, the media, age groups and gender groups. More than at any other time in history, groups are utilizing
information channels to be heard. Revolutionary groups, like the indigenous people's rebellion in the Mexican state of Chiapas, as well as the Irish Republican Army and Hamas have 'taken their struggles to the Internet . . . as a cheap and effective way to promote their cause and disseminate
information, usually without the interference of state
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