6 Informational Mediations
Mediation, as seen by researchers in information resource management, first regards a person as different and unrelated to a place or a subject. Therefore, mediation involves the creation of spaces in which the public feels respected and recognized in its diversity, first of all for the attention that they receive and the attempt of the institution that welcomes them to be hospitable and to explain, inform and translate. It is within a negotiation process, based on what every person is, on his or her cognitive abilities, his or her own culture, aspirations, social status and personal history, where mediation can work (Rasse 2000).
Today, it is impossible to mention all of those who have worked on the idea of mediation in relation to the learning act per se, which is a testament to its topicality. Does being there in the middle, between, as an intermediary, mean being a mediator?
6.1. Information professionals
Despite being widely used by researchers in Information and Communication Sciences (ICS), documentary mediation is still hard to grasp. Although the definition of the term is commonly acknowledged in its general theoretical approach – a professional’s role as intermediary between information and the public – in the practitioners’ concrete world it remains vague and does not explain what happens in practice accurately enough, as it remains linked to the theoretical debate. Documentary information professionals regard it as a component of their ...